Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

Sven123456789 reviewed v5.6.6.6.3516 on Oct 12, 2016

Still the best music player

FatBastard reviewed v5.63 Build 3235 on Jul 3, 2012

I love winamp. I've been using it for more than a decade now.

roj reviewed v5.63 Build 3234 on Jun 21, 2012

Old, outdated, way past its "Best Before " date.

If you really don't care about what your music sounds like (which is the vast majority of users - I get that) then this is for you.

If you do care, there's Foobar2000, XMPlay and AIMP - all are well designed and coded, more full-featured regarding audio quality and MUCH lighter.

Also they don't feature crapware.

@Music4Ever:

Now i understand your nym, given your setup. On Linux give DeadbeeF a try. I did Audacious and it was OK until I tried DeadbeeF. IMNSHO, that's Foobar on Linux.

TWO stars for mediocrity at its finest.

Music4Ever reviewed v5.63 Build 3234 on Jun 21, 2012

There is a fairly large difference between players based on sound quality alone: I use an good separate outboard DAC with a decent amplifier & speakers with reasonable quality interconnects & AIMP beats Winamp into the weeds no contest.

I use .flac encoded music some of the time now & AIMP plays that great ~ If you are using a built in sound chip & or cheap sound card & or plastic speakers you probably wont notice the difference but also wont know what's on the audio you play either ~

AIMP does not have any associated junk-Ware supplied with it as does Winamp so you don't need to go to the effort of slimming it down. The are other audio players that are better than Winamp on sound quality perhaps most of them actually ~

You can do far, far better than this ~

In Linux Audacious does a pretty good job ~

(true media program neophytes ~ Someone who is willing to pay a small amount to at least have some idea what the original recording sounded like, not really an obsession is it?)

EDIT: @ roj - I'll give DeadbeeF a try tomorrow in Linux, thanks for the tip :-)

EDIT 2 @ roj - Major increase in detail etc. with DeadbeeF, I was always a little dissatisfied with music on Linux, that's now sorted - Thanks :-)

war593122 reviewed v5.601 on Dec 7, 2010

Note lite enough.

psycros reviewed v5.59 Build 3033 Beta on Nov 14, 2010

Winamp has been and continues to be the finest audio player for Windows. With the addition of a codec pack such as K-lite it also becomes a very good video player (though Media Player Classic is at least as good and lighter). Its innumerable skins and plugins along with broad support for mobile devices keep Winamp current and capable. Freshly installed it handles more audio formats than anything I know of and enough video types to handle most people's needs. Smart tags, Replaygain support and other advanced features are in good supply and for most folks Winamp is all the media manager you could want.

Winamp is a pretty solid app, although in recent years its become more freeze-prone than it really should be and there are a few annoying bugs that have been present since 5.x first hit the scene. The revolving door of bloatware AOL keeps trying to foist upon users is also annoying but Winamp still manages to be one of smallest installs among full-featured media players. Fortunately the junkware is optional, but for those who long for pure speed and simplicity the classic 2.91 version still works just fine (and there's always the "lite" version of the latest release, too). If Winamp has an Achilles heel its probably overall user-friendliness. It doesn't hold your hand quite as much as other programs, esp. with certain advanced features, but only people who are true media program neophytes should have any real problems. If you can figure out WMP, you can probably handle Winamp.

Winamp is simply the standard by which others are judged. Nothing else combines this many features with such broad media support. I'm not a true mediaphile so I can't really speak to Winamp's sound and video reproduction, but its more than sufficient for anyone I know. I can't tell the difference between a CD and an AAC ripped from it. The bottom line is that I could not replace Winamp, and anything that could probably wouldn't be available for free. I believe the registered version unlocks some higher level ripping and encoding options but there ARE very good (and friendlier) programs for that kind of thing. Ironically I'm a registered Winamp user since 1997, but am still waiting on my registration code. A strike against customer service, perhaps.

sehnbadt reviewed v5.572 on Jan 15, 2010

This player is the best for mp3's. I prefer the Modern skin over the new Bento one. I've been using this player for the last 10 years and it has always been stable and reliable. I love to listen to my music with the visualization running using the MilkDrop plugin. When I install a new version I always uncheck all the stuff that's running in the background like Winamp Remote, Winamp Agent, Winamp Toolbar and the Winamp Search Engine. I don't use this player for playing videos.

Darkman00 reviewed v5.571 Build 2810 on Dec 23, 2009

OK.. unlike the previous version / build this new one (Winamp 5 Lite 5.571 Build 2810) .. - installed OK.. - no problem!

Darkman00 reviewed v5.57 on Dec 17, 2009

I guess this one is "non beta" .. and previous version was beta...

tried to install this one .. but at the end of installation it didn't want to start for some reason...
so for now, i went back to the previous version - winamp557_2765_beta_lite_en-us .. - and no problem.. - after the install it started OK :)

Virtual_ManPL reviewed v5.57 Build 2765 Beta on Dec 14, 2009

Too bloatware...
They simply choose wrong direction... video player ?

but still 3/5 for many plugins and of course for many awesome skins...

webgames reviewed v5.56 Build 2512 on Nov 6, 2009

I actually don't like Winamp 5, the previous versions vas mach better and simpler to use.

ekek reviewed v5.552 Build 2460 on May 31, 2009

For me it is the best audio player so far.It is stable.

jimbob reviewed v5.552 Build 2460 on May 8, 2009

WinAmp is a festering steaming pile of doggie doo, we used to use it @ home to sync our iPods, purely for the fact that it wasn't iTunes, but I can't think that we ever actually got it to play any content, it just crackles with static like it sounds when you get buffer underruns. I was never that intersted in actually getting it to play anything, it was just a means to an end for us, I am not that anal about media players I usualy use media player classic. But 1 day I thought right I am going to get this thing to play, I searched on-line fiddled with output plugins buffer ETC, but it was still the same, and oh yes it crashes all the time, it does look nice though. And I am talking about the full 5.5 not the beta.

jcunews reviewed v5.552 on Apr 23, 2009

It's true that Winamp is bloated even for its Lite version. It was a very good AUDIO player. Now it's more like a media suite with usseless visualization, video support, media manager, CD ripper, and all the remaining craps.

But one thing I consider it irreplaceable is that its capability as an audio player and with all of thoe various audio format plugins.

Two tips for those who want to make Winamp loads faster and uses much less memory:

- Use the Lite version of Winamp.

- Use only classic skin.

- Move all unused & rarely plugin DLL files OUT of the plugins folder and into a separate folder. e.g. "Disabled Plugins".

IMO, there should have been an "Audio Edition" of Winamp Lite where it serves as an audio-only player like the old Winamp. Of course, without the CD ripper and visualization crap.

lang999 reviewed v5.55 Build 2345 Beta on Jan 24, 2009

Winamp was good 100 years ago, Now its bloated with crap and is not always stable. If u want a great mp3player check out AIMP.

azuraptcat reviewed v5.50 Build 1600 Beta Preview 3 on Oct 9, 2007

well, its a beta software and of course that was to have some bugs but so far Im liking it. I use winamp at almost two years now and always updated. I sure hope that the final release of this one comes out soon

CharlieGimbert reviewed v5.50 Build 1600 Beta Preview 3 on Oct 2, 2007

Foobar ain't bad but i like Winamp. Wanna get fast player? Get 1by1, it's even faster than foobar (i use both)

Nikkie reviewed v5.50 Build 1568 Beta Preview 2 on Sep 29, 2007

actually, i used foobar back in 98' and now winamp.if i were to switch to something like foobar, i would go with musikcube..

http://www.musikcube.com/page/main

eek-1 reviewed v5.50 Build 1568 Beta Preview 2 on Sep 22, 2007

Superior in sense of looking very pretty out of the installer, and massive plugins already available for it.

bodean reviewed v5.50 Build 1568 Beta Preview 2 on Sep 20, 2007

Winamp is superior to foobar in what sense?
Winamp was nice back in '98. Now I prefer foobar. Basic, yet super tweakable and nice sound.

Thanks for the many years, winamp.

tarrith reviewed v5.50 Build 1550 Beta Preview 1 on Sep 18, 2007

Winamp still rules the audio players.

If your wishing for the 'ol days of 2.x to return, you can still run it in classic mode, skins and all, btw the Sonicated skin is still available.

Winamp is diverse with how skins are made so if you don't like the look its easy to change it, and not just the color, the WHOLE THING is customisable...unlike the classic winamp.

As for Jetaudio ROFL. Yep I'll grant you it's more basic and it does burn music better at a better quality than winamp, but that's all I can say about it.

If winamp keeps crashing on your machine...I think you need a clean install of XP. You got issues.

Ok that my rant finished.

I'm giving it five stars because its just simply rocks.

Tarrith

P.S. Why didn't anyone mention the awesome amount of plugins and visuals? Not to mention that the majority of them are created by users.

phpren reviewed v5.50 Build 1550 Beta Preview 1 on Sep 14, 2007

111111111111111111111111

tinkerdill reviewed v5.36 Build 1504 Beta on Aug 28, 2007

not so bad as someones say in here. i use winamp and 1by1 if i want faster player.

gehtnix reviewed v5.36 Build 1500 Beta on Aug 23, 2007

It was perfect until it became v. 3.x.
I'd suggest to try the free version of Jetaudio, you
don't have to pay for the burning feature and it is a decent player for the average user: It rips, burns, converts, is skinnable and has many useful features even in the free version.
To me the only reason to stick with winamp, is that i still am in love with milkdrop ;-)

bunghole reviewed v5.35 on May 21, 2007

"why is it that no one can just make a plain old MP3 player without all the rubbish?"

Look here, man:

http://fileforum.betanew...ail/XMPlay/1011077179/1

Winamp now is pretty much like Sonique (if anyone remembers that one.)

adrian47uk reviewed v5.34 Build 1178 Beta on Mar 16, 2007

Nullsoft lost the plot about the time AOl took over, I liked Winamp in the 2.0 days, then when they took it up to version 3, they concentrated more on how it looks, not how it works, to be honest noting have changed, the last version of Winamp I tried just kept crashing.

This version is better, but it is still bloated and to be honest does nthing different than what Windows media player does.

I did like QCD as weel, but that seems to be bloated now.
why is it that no one can just may a plain old MP3 player without all the rubbish?

stopbuggingme reviewed v5.32 on Nov 21, 2006

It's generally agreed upon that WinAMP development has stalled since a couple of years. Their product is pretty good at what it does and they're polishing it instead of bloating it with tons of useless features. They're not WOWing use at every release but they're delivering a stable product that is constantly improving. CPU usage has decreased, annoying bugs were fixed, ...

WinAMP Lite 5.32 is not perfect but it does what I expect from an audio player and for that, I feel it deserves a 5.

omega5475 reviewed v5.31 on Oct 28, 2006

The lite version is indeed LIGHT but it has no media library and only limited audio format support, not even midi is ridiculous.

Foobar2K (developed by ex-Winamp coder) in the other hand supports media library and much more audio format but still uses little cpu & memory usage (Winamp Lite uses even less though). You can fully customize the interface unlike Winamp which only support skins and change keyboard shortcuts while Winamp is unable to do that. With the proper plugin, you can get Foobar2K to sound exactly or maybe better than Winamp. Best of all, it's free and open-source.

Still, Winamp v5.3 now has unicode support and i can see the current team is doing their best to improve after the original Winamp team left. Just hope it won't become more bloated in the future.

osric reviewed v5.3 on Sep 29, 2006

What I like best about this player is that it is really light on resources. Files can be added very quickly.
I use it exclusively for playing mp3s and use media player classic for playing videos. That way can ensure that my song list is not affected whenever I play any random file.
Well it is possible to create a playlist instead, but my playlist keeps changing too often so that its much easier to just rescan my music folder.

roj reviewed v5.3 on Sep 27, 2006

There are those of us who appreciate tight code, great audio quality, minimalist but meaningful features, very few bugs and an intelligent quality community of users. For us, this is clearly not the player to use.

ONE star for an antiquated player well past its prime which continues to be propped up now that the original dev team is gone.

Vimes reviewed v5.25 Build 857 Beta on Aug 31, 2006

An awesome player that continues to get better. Just try it out :)

Zankur reviewed v5.24 on Jun 22, 2006

Its so hillarious to see previous few reviews about thosed third-rated programs...what?????...xmplay...ohhhh!!!
I think people are still living with pc's using win-95 and 32mb ram...which is why they need light suc**** players...
Winamp is light on pc,has all the necessary features,good sound quality,great skins and plug-ins...
IF you want those useless piece of s*** than you may,but this the player recommended!!

OrbitOne reviewed v5.13 on Jan 31, 2006

Great review of XM Player ;)

roj reviewed v5.2 Build 365 Beta on Jan 26, 2006

This is a player that has seen its time. The best thing that can be said for this thing is that it has a good interface and that can also be had by many another player, either native or with skins. The myriad patches and glitch fixes and what have you get tedious. So does the concept of needing to pay for additional functionality with what was for years a free player. One reviewer here lists several features solved with plugins. XMPLay has the following items on that list built-in:

- Want 24bit decoding? Use the MAD plugin
- CUE Playing
- Gapless playback
- normalizer

Also, what the reviewer doesn't mention is that some of those plugins cancel out others, such as seamless / gapless and MAD.

XMPlay doesn't dump a crapload of stuff into the Registry either (Winamp does) because it uses a portable .INI file. Also, you'll be hard pressed to find another player out there that has as small the memory or CPU footprint as it does for the level of functionality it offers. Winamp can't touch it. And that's just one other player.

XMPlay adds the following features (taken from the same list below) via plugins:

- Any major audio format
- transcoder (although why anyonw would do lossy transcoding is beyond me - that's just not intelligent)
- an assortment of dsp's (it plays Winap DSPs for those that like that sort of thing)

It even has music library functionality and all of this is built into a single executable that's a mere 254K in size. Best of all it was, is and will remain truly free (and not under the auspices of A-O-HELL).

Users of this player need to be exposed to other options. I used this thing once and thought it the catz azz - then I got beyond the fervor and the fanboi stage and moved on to more streamlined and better designed options. Once one gets out of the rut and visits those, this thing rapidly becomes recognizable as an old wh*** constantly trying to revitalize herself with new paint.

ONE star.

tremens reviewed v5.12 on Dec 17, 2005

Best interface ever. Been using it since the days of quake. Winamp Lite runs as well as it ever has, no bloat whatsoever. It's under a meg with an installer, what do you people want? The lite version doesn't play video, you can extend it with any feature another player has by using plugins, but upon installation you have: MP3, WMA, AAC, AACplus, WAV, SHOUTCAST!(been around much longer than "podcasting"), and AUDIO CD playback; a simple interface with playlist; easy to access equalizer; and complete scalabilty to a users needs through skins and plugins. Natively it doesn't support alot of extended features, but that would negate the "lite." Lastly it's been stable for a long a** time, very strong foundation.

The Winamp Agent is the only thing I don't install and my only complaint, it's optional during installation. The hooks you speak of? file name associations?

These features all available with plugins

Want 24bit decoding? Use the MAD plugin
CUE Playing
Gapless playback
Any major audio format
wide array of visual effects
an assortment of dsp's
normalizer
ir support
transcoder

and many many more

to below:
your rant was an ignorant waste of your time, try using the program before reviewing it. winamp indeed set a standard back in the day.

roj reviewed v5.112 on Nov 16, 2005

This player is sadly out of date. It's deawbacks are quite straightforward:

1) No native gapless / seamless playback
2) no native soundshaping / dithering / support for 24-bit audio
3) buggy - interminably buggy (just look at the point release numbers)
4) a community of 12-year old on steroids with too much testosterone and not enough maturity for their own good (yes, I agree with another poster who says this matters)
5) a dev team that is sadly a shadow of its former heyday which was about five years ago
6) bloat - even in the light version with pointless media libraries, video playback, et. al. The full version is a mess and the whole concept of charging for half-assed features which can be better performed by freeware is an insult to users everywhere.

XMPlay, Foobar and VUPlayer all trump it BADLY for audio quality. All have seamless gapless playback and support for higher resolution audio, compelte with dithering and soundshaping. All are considerably leaner and meaner and haven't lost their way as audio players, unlike this Gold Standard for bloat and useless features. None have the bugs that contiinually plague Winamp and all have dev teams that are fast, efficient and release far more stable code. None have the "l33t" 12 year olds of all ages that plague the Winamp forum and I'm sure will pipe up here with their webonics and other greasy kidz stuff nonsense. None of those players have the bulky memory footprint Winamp has nor do they have the myriad messy hooks this thing inflicts on a system. Vries of modularilty are fey - get an install tracker and look at what this thing does.

The only thing this player has going for it are the vast numbers of lemmings who cling to it (mostly because of reputation - they don't know of anything better) and an interface that is arguably easy to use (certainly easier than foobar's).

One star for a player that purports to be the standard, and is - for mediocrity. At this point, even WMP is a better choice.

flashhh reviewed v5.1 on Oct 8, 2005

This player SUCKS!!!
It is really crashable and useless. It does not support any formats, that other players can't support (maybe only nsv streams). The ihterface is choppy..... SUCKS!

panic82 reviewed v5.1 on Sep 1, 2005

I used to think winamp was the greatest media player around, but the more recent 5.x versions have been nothing but crap (and the old ones insecure or missing features). The application itself is very slugish and if you try to run it on a machine that has 256 megs of ram or less and try to run other programs simultaneously, you will most likely notice youre machine slowing down. I hate to admit it, but Windows Media Player is 100 times better. WMP is a lot more optimized (GUI, Codecs, everything) and runs great. Also, WMP might not be the most secure app around, but it beats winamp (and ties into windows update so any issues are usually resolved pretty shortly afterwards).

mansa reviewed v5.094 on Aug 25, 2005

I don't think you'll find better soft for your daily listening music (but only music, no video)

lordgibbness reviewed v5.092 on May 28, 2005

if winamp = lite and version

zorty reviewed v5.09 on May 6, 2005

funny thing. I just installed the FULL (free) package and winamp caused 50% CPU load although I wasn't even playing a song. I uninstalled it and installed the lite version et voilà.. 0%. Probably some bloatware plugin(s) went nuts.

lordgibbness reviewed v5.08c on Jan 12, 2005

Even though it sounds like people complaining about the loading speeds are probably talking about the full edition (lite doesn't support video playback or modern skins etc) you can tweak the full edition to be a little faster at loading. First off, make sure you use a classic skin and secondly, under the media library option in preferences, click modify setting on the first tab and check 'do not load media library database at winamp startup', as this can take a second or so to load if you have a lot in there. Also, as an aside, when you install the full edition you can actually choose what to install! Just uncheck modern skins, video, burning/ripping... all the stuff that wasn't in winamp 2.81 and earlier... Oh and everyone complaing about video support and saying v2.91 is better - it has video support! the last "classic" version is actually 2.81 - no library and no video support. see here: http://www.winampheaven.net/whatsnew.txt. You can always install v2.81, pp's input/output plugins update, and an album list plugin.

tremens reviewed v5.08 on Dec 29, 2004

I think you meant to review winamp full, this is lite. No doubt 5 stars

coolticker reviewed v5.08 on Dec 23, 2004

Winamp 5.x takes to much time to load comparing 2.91, and the trick I use is to get all plug-in DLL's I need from 5.x (like up-to-date MP3, MOD, MID and DirectSound plug-ins) and put them into the 2.91 plug-in directory and let's go :-)

Personnaly I don't care about new video plyaing or high level skins features of 5.x, when I listen music I don't about visual interface of the player, I just want it small in size, fast to load.

zyklon reviewed v5.06 on Nov 18, 2004

the screenshot on this page must be for Winamp 5.06 Lite and not for the Full edition. Lite edition doesn't support 'modern skins'.

G.D. cool off man - lite version doesn't have any of the stuff you say it has ! no video, no ripping, no burning support, no tv, it's just a plain music player - and supports all version 2 plugins. It loads as fast as it gets and is just as it's name says.
So take MAD plugin for superior mp3 sound and Enhancer plugin to tweak bass n' stuff to your likings and go have a beer or sth.
One can always use Quintessential if one likes - it has some clean sound too and supports freeskins.

Grand Dizzy reviewed v5.05 on Oct 6, 2004

Why is everyone calling Winamp 5 an "improvement" on previous versions?

This "improved" version takes 8-9 seconds to load whereas Winamp 2.91 took just 1 second to load. That's not an improvement.

Okay, loading speed isn't such a big deal if you're getting a better music player, or better sound quality — but you aren't. You get exactly the same ol' Winamp playback, only you have to wait longer for your songs to start playing. Gee, thanks, Nullsoft.

And why does it take so much longer to load? Because NullSoft, under the influence of Satan (a.k.a. AOL) is trying to make Winamp into something more than a music player — and failing miserably. If people want a movie player they'll use a dedicated (and decent) one such as Media Player Classic. If people want to encode mp3s (and they care about sound quality) they'll use LAME. As for watching TV in Winamp: I was intrigued by the idea, but the only channels I could find were very low quality porn and a couple of music channels. That's not exactly TV! And I know there are much better dedicated TV streaming apps out there. So why use Winamp?

The only definite improvements I could find in Winamp 5 is the new-look interface and the transparency feature. They're just about the only new features (aside from non-music related ones). But, for me, that is nowhere near worth upgrading.

I'll be happily sticking with Winamp 2.91 until NullSoft stops being a jack of all trades (and master of none) and provides a serious upgrade to its MUSIC PLAYER.

bsr500 reviewed v5.03a on Apr 1, 2004

Winamp5 is finally equal to the quality of winamp2 . A+++ (as long as you get lite)

thehunger reviewed v5.03a on Mar 31, 2004

Tiny incremental improvements and bugfixes.
I keep missing better support for different aspect ratios when viewing videos, and I still want real TV support (like ATI All-in-Wonder). With that WinAmp would be almost PERFECT.

shantanu reviewed v5.02 on Feb 25, 2004

Wowee !!!...except the part about "Modern Skin support".

Please mention the Lite/Full features properly.

JEdwardP reviewed vFinal on Dec 18, 2003

It's definitely NOT bloated this time around, and is actually a player I could recommend, just not ahead of either QCD or Foobar2000.

That's based on sound quality, which obviously is subjective. So, while I'd rank it third among audio players, I could understand someone else ranking it higher.

It's good, so if you're a Winamp user, you'll probably love it. If you're a user of one of the other two aforementioned players, I see nothing that would cause you to switch.

arossetti reviewed vFinal on Dec 16, 2003

Very nice, and very small, but modern skins DO NOT work in the Lite version, only in the Full version. The info is a bit misleading in that respect. Other than that, quite nice indeed.

Apollos reviewed vFinal on Dec 15, 2003

654 KB, bloatware? LOL! You people are thick as s*** :D

L337JasE reviewed vRC 666 on Dec 13, 2003

Yeah lads, you've all been waiting for my review, and now I can give WA5 my personal recommendation and seal of approval - so download it now!

SpaceGhost reviewed vRC 666 on Dec 12, 2003

This build oesn't work with dual monitors. If I drag winamp to the second monitor, the main window and equalizer go back to the first (The playlist stays) and all of the windows start to flash

djdanska reviewed vRC 666 on Dec 11, 2003

Fixed the crashing issue while streaming. Had to delete gen_listento.dll for it to work. Now im happy. :-)

uNdisputed reviewed vRC 666 on Dec 11, 2003

hi`s to all.. winamp 3 made me go back to 2,77..lol..but the great comeback ..5`s good.. thank`s nullsoft..... keep the good work going. copied the dfx dll and pasted it in the plugin folder and it work`s too..try it out buddies regard`s
lite and full both are good...:)

Apollos reviewed vRC 8 on Dec 7, 2003

How such an excellent program can have a lite version so small is beyond me.

Good job Nullsoft :)

Musashi_Sama reviewed vRC 8 on Nov 22, 2003

Works fine, don't crash, nice sound output, BUT winamp3 skins don't show here, only Winamp2 skins!
It's in a great stage now with low resources use! :)

VikingStorm reviewed vRC 8 on Nov 20, 2003

Works great

will fisher reviewed vRC 8 on Nov 19, 2003

awesome :)