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Featured Freeware: Quintessential Player

Other players may receive more attention, but it's hard to beat Quintessential Player's efficiency, stability, and flexibility. Easily customizable and built to support almost any plug-in, this freeware tool also has a fine video player. CD-ripping and MP3-converting features increase the program's value without bloat.

The stylish interface includes a lot of sensibly set hot keys, making playback and music management a no-click affair. It also is completely skinnable, with plenty of designs created by a large community of developers and fans. The extremely helpful Quintessential Player Web site provides a library of optional tools and full … Read more

Which digital music software sounds the best?

Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with the developers of MXPlay, beta jukebox software that lets you mash up your music with streaming movies, letting you create your own virtual music videos.

More interesting than the mashup features, however, is MXPlay's unique playback interface. A graphical interface lets you control the location of the listening audience and the position and direction of your speakers. Letting you tweak your own "room" does create better-sounding tunes. The MXPlay folks were very happy to compare its playback sound to that of iTunes, and I must admit I … Read more