Updated on 2018.10.03 | First Published on January 16, 2018
Nowadays, most of us are buying smartphones in order to entertain ourselves. Watching videos, playing games, surfing the internet as well as listening to music are just some of the possible things that we can do.
But, keeping intact with our topic today – not all music players are created equal, nor hardware which is used to playback your precious MP3, iTunes or Lossless music files. We’ll focus with the software aspect though, so we’ll keep the hardware as well as technical terms away, for now.
I tried tons of music players at the Play Store, as well as tons of music players from the most Android firmware that comes with most smartphones, including the ones from Samsung, Lenovo, Oppo, Vivo, Huawei, Xiaomi, LG and even Nokia.
But they all have one in common: Limited File, Theme and Feature support
Why do we want to replace our stock music player? I’ll break them down into a list so that you can easily get the point.
- First, we wanted to try further audio customization, such as EQ, Reverb and Surround effects
- Next, you want to get more out of your audio file, and your smartphone has a good quality DAC inside it that supports Hi-Res audio.
- In example, you have a 24-bit, 96KHz Hi-Res audio file on your smartphone, but your stock music player only supports up to CD quality (16-bit, 48KHz), we’ll replace it with a music player that can unlock that capability and customize it to the fullest.
- Skins and themes can be downloaded or bought to change the look of your music player
- Plug-ins such as Last.fm, MusixMatch and other lyric/metadata integration, giving you the capability to complete your music’s metadata such as Artist’s Name and Album Title and Art even without your intervention.
- Cool visualizers and software volume knobs
- Expanded possibilities that only software restrictions can limit
- Much better-looking user interface and widgets
Below are my top 6 suggestions for music players that you should try (in no particular order)
PowerAmp Alpha
Musicolet
Retro Music Player
HibyMusic
Stelio Music Player
JetAudio
Final thoughts
While PowerAmp Alpha is my daily driver, I’d nominate Retro Music Player for its wonderful modern UI. Just add Hi-Res audio support processing and visualizer as an add-on and I’ll be definitely switching. The others will remain, although, as an alternative for those who don’t like the aforementioned apps.
Now, that’s the end of my list. What’s your favorite music player? Let me know in the comments section so that I can see which player you’re using.
DISCLAIMER: This post is not sponsored by any of the publishers of these applications.
