When would we have multi-plugin for iTunes 8

No iTunes version on any platform can compete with the sound quality of foobar. So basically it's "stop using iTunes".

Did I ever said that iTunes is better sounding than Foobar?? Huh??

Probably you misread what I wrote or simply decided to ignore it....

I suggest you find alternative media player (such as Foobar, Winamp)...

Although skinning was the most popular aspect of it, MultiPlugin was useful for more than skinning.

The two main reasons I used Multi-Plugin was.. 1) It helped reduce memory footprint while in minimized mode 2) Foobar pass-through.

FYI: I use foobar on my desktop for music primarily. iTunes is used primarily on my iBook, just to sync my iPod and to stream music from.

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#517203

Hey heril - take it easy.

No matter how much you disagree with others on this board, it is simply unacceptable to call them liars. Prove yourself to be a man and offer an apology to jx12345. Now.

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#517212

Apologize for what now? I did not call jx12345 a liar. If you believe something to be true, you are not a liar, but what you say can still be lies when held compared to truth. I'm sure they believed it at the time of posting, and are thus not a liar. Though I will admit the language used was a tad crude, its mainly my aversion to fanboyism speaking right there.

Does that clear it up?

Relax mate, don't get your pee in a froth.

Fanboys, opinionated specialists... maybe, but we are ALL human (thank god) and thus susceptible to mistakes.

Lets not get bogged down in insults and dictatorial rants and rather concentrate on educating and helping each other..

After all, this forum is here for everyone's enjoyment so lets enjoy ourselves.....

#517221

Just some information about decoding quality:

We cannot talk about better or worser quality when talking about decoding lossy file formats (such as .mp3 files).

Yes there are some objective parameters such as integer versus single precision versus double precision, de-quantization accuracy, etc... But then is to the decoder itself to give more or less "perceived quality". This last one is just subjective and will vary from people to people.

It is very probable foobar2000 and iTunes decode mp3 files (and other lossy formats) in different ways, giving different perceived quality. But we cannot say one sounds better than other.

A better example of this is the Enhancer DSP plugin for Winamp: between it's features it can try to restore harmonics possibly lost during mp3 compression. It sounds better, but this doesn't mean the quality is higher, it just means you perceive a better "quality".

#517224

I can't get into technical breakdown like matonga here, but it's not exactly about mp3 decoding of iTunes or Foobar.

What Heril said does stand true, but let me explain why foobar is better than iTunes. It's not the decoding itself.. foobar let you use either ASIO or Kernel Streaming, bypassing windows audio mixer, thus removing one processing step from audio transfer path. Each step added to audio transfer affects the output. So when you're using Kernel Streaming or ASIO, your audio is preserved from the player's decoder to audio hardware.

Besides that, the end quality ultimately depends on the source audio.. and that's where heril is correct. If you're going to play a lossless wav file on crappy hardware (speakers, amp or sound cards.. etc.) the final output isn't sound that good. Similarly, playing lossy audio like mp3 on good hardware will bring forth the lossy areas of source audio.

The whole point of using Foobar output in iTunes was to use Kernel Streaming or ASIO. If you're using Foobar without kernel streaming then it doesn't make much difference. Both Heril and jx12345 are right to certain degree. But then again, that doesn't anyone a right to throw insults or use harsh language.

Ultimately, the sound quality is again... subjective for person to person. Like matonga said very correctly, some like using DSPs and enhancers while some prefer to listen to purest form of source file. For example, I prefer higher bitrate MP3s or Lossless files while listening on desktop, but I burn cds for my car in nothing more than 128kbps mp3s. Because while driving I just want to listen to songs, quality doesn't matter as there are other audio interefences in surroudings. It's not like I'm going to pick up a subtle note very clearly in car.

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