These tips will make your Winamp play music louder and with higher fidelity without buying a new sound card, like Creative SoundBlaster.
Install
MAD MP3 decoder. MAD represents the decoded audio signal with high precision. It supports MPEG-1 and the MPEG-2 extension to lower sampling frequencies.
Enhancer 017 is the best DSP plug-in for Winamp and it's free. Try "General improvements" preset. Other great presets: "Treble boost", "Party with ambience", "Inside the music".
Although it's outdated, some hardware work better with waveOut output. Go to Options / Preferences / Plug-ins / Output and select waveOut. You can read more about
DirectSound vs waveOut.
Related:
Listen to Pandora in WinampIf Google made a media playerLabels: Music, Tips
dairylee said on June 26, 2006 3:54 AM PDT:
Thanks for this. The Enhancer is amazing, never knew it would make such a big difference. :)
said on June 26, 2006 11:39 AM PDT:
If you listen to streaming mp3, forget MAD.
A couple of things.
The default Winamp plugin is as good as (or better than) MAD
since Winamp 2.7 onwards. David Robinson's
decoder test results prove it.
Also the Winamp plugin plays AAC and HE-AAC v1 & v2. This let's you listen to excellent quality streaming radio from sites like
Tuner2 with less bandwidth usage.
I can't take Enhancer, it makes the volume go up and down all the time. It realy creaps my out.
said on June 26, 2006 1:16 PM PDT:
another great (completely free) tool for mp3 playback is mp3gain. if you've got files downloaded from all over the place a lot of them will play at different maximum volumes. annoying if you want a mixed playlist or to burn a mixed cd etc. A lot of programs try to fix this but the best one is mp3gain, it is undo-able and doesn't affect the sound quality like most fixes out there. mp3gain.sourceforge.net
said on June 26, 2006 6:12 PM PDT:
you want fidelity clear good sound.
Use foobar2k
- kernal streaming
thambi said on June 26, 2006 9:32 PM PDT:
I use Winamp with the CRUDless output plugin and Izotope Ozone for free. ITs awesome
said on September 24, 2006 7:26 PM PDT:
Volume Logic is the best for on the fly volume leveling. You can't tell the volume is going up and down at all. I use the Rock preset in VL and the Rock equalizer preset (with a little extra treble) in my Creative sound setting.
Enhancer hasn't been updated in years and has a lot of bugs, but it is one of the best free DSP plugins available for Winamp.
said on February 6, 2007 4:58 PM PDT:
Stereo Tool also does a very good volume levelling job - it's also free.
9 said on April 2, 2007 2:27 PM PDT:
If you are really serious about the way your music sounds, remaster all your low bit music, or better yet, replace them with high bit. Don't get any music lower than 320kbs and listen to it with the best quality speakers and subwoofer you can afford. Any use of volume levelers or enhancers you're just short changing yourself. Just use an equalizer to set your levers to the way you like the sound and that's it.
said on August 20, 2007 3:04 AM PDT:
It seems to me that enhancer 017 is dialing out... if you use the free comodo personal firewall it looks like the dsp_enh.dll enhancer library is trying to communicate with the internet. why would enhancer need to contact the internet? and i'm not referring to the "home page link" that comes up, this is just when you're playing a song and not even messing with enhancer (but its installed)
LNX23 said on February 16, 2008 10:06 AM PDT:
Nah... that one's sucks... please use Jammix Enhacer the best sound enhancer with bass expantion try it!
said on June 17, 2008 10:45 PM PDT:
it's dam silly not workung well....
said on July 15, 2008 7:41 AM PDT:
well its wotking for flac but mp3... i mean the enhancer... it's kinda cool with those flac's i wantit on my mp3's, how?
foxmajik said on July 31, 2008 10:39 AM PDT:
Most sound "enhancers" are placebos. They don't "enhance" the sound, they just change it. Since you want the sound to be better, you imagine that it is, when in fact it's not better quality it's just different.
The MAD decoder does have one advantage over other Winamp 2.x decoders: it offers native 24 and 32 bit resolutions.
said on September 13, 2008 9:51 AM PDT:
MAD MP3 decoder & Enhancer 017: together, they make a perfect sound.
said on October 30, 2008 2:13 AM PDT:
its amazing.... its working. i feel good sound output.... thanks ....
said on November 11, 2008 9:02 PM PDT:
I don't think they are just placebos
Enhancer works just fine, I get a much louder and clearer sound when using it.
said on November 30, 2008 9:19 AM PDT:
Wow, I just noticed I also get a louder sound when i turn this one big know on my stereo!
said on November 30, 2008 9:19 AM PDT:
Knob i meant.
name said on March 7, 2009 8:27 PM PDT:
may i use plugin izotope for winamp
thats its better for me.
you can download for free at
http://free4donlot.blogspot.com/
said on May 6, 2009 6:12 AM PDT:
GRACIAS ! MEJORA MUCHO EL SONIDO DE LOS MP3 DE BAJA CALIDAD.
said on May 12, 2009 9:55 PM PDT:
MAD works fine. Less Distortion and really clear sound.
