AIMP2 - A free audio player with very small resource usage. Supports the following formats; MP1, MP2, MP3, MPC, MP+, AAC, AC3, OGG, FLAC, APE, WavPack, Speex, WAV, CDA, WMA, S3M, XM, MOD, IT, MO3, MTM, UMX. Lots of features including; 18 slide equalizer, internet radio (listen & capture), audio converter (all supported formats to WAV, MP3, WMA & OGG), sound recorder and advanced tag editor. Skin-able, Plug-ins, the whole nine yards. (Win7/Vista/XP)
Foobar2000 - A simple and effective audio player with supports all common audio formats. (Win7/Vista/XP)
GOM Media Player – Very good multimedia player, most codecs built in so will play just about any format, including FLV and DVD. Features include; adjust video image (brightness, hue, and saturation), built-in screen-capture feature that includes zooming and panning, customizable themes, hot keys, and a host of preset and adjustable audio controls. (Win7/Vista/XP)
JRiver Media Jukebox - An advanced music manager which provides most of the tools needed to play and manage an audio library, all accessible from within a terrific, intuitive interface. Main features include; Superior file organization. Connect iPod or PlaysForSure device. Play all popular music files and audio podcasts. Rip, burn and encode to multiple formats. Create custom playlists and smartlists. Extensive tagging capabilities. Automatic CD, album art and track look-up. Built-in music services. Full speed ripping and burning. Powerful EQ, DSP and audio effects. Print custom CD labels and covers. (Win7/Vista/XP)
Media Monkey – It’s difficult to categorize this multi functional program because it handles just about every audio task. I guess ‘Jukebox/Music Manager’ would be a fitting description. Media Monkey; catalogues CDs, AAC, OGG, WMA, FLAC, MP3 and other audio files. It offers multiple tools for looking up and editing tags, and an automated library organizer to organize files on the hard drive. It includes a CD ripper, CD/DVD Burner, and audio converter for saving music, and advanced playlisting for creating music mixes. Its player includes; automatic volume level adjustment and a ‘Party mode’ that locks down the library while still allowing requests. Auto DJ plays selections from the library, even when no requests are queued. It syncs tracks, playlists, and podcasts to portable audio devices such as iPhones, iPods, MP3 Phones, and other devices. Third-party plug-ins are available from the site for additional playback and/or sound-processing effects. The GUI is clean and easy to navigate with colorful icons throughout. Definitely one for serious music collectors and iPod users. (Win7/Vista/XP)
QT Alternative - Quicktime is a popular format for video and audio. Usually it's used on websites, but it is also used for stand alone files. The problem with QuickTime is it's an Apple proprietary format and Apple continues to add "features" to the program. Apple's Quicktime always runs in the background using your system resources. It also includes the iTunes program. This is a free alternative that cuts out all of the bloat and allows you to play quicktime video and audio. A must have! (Win7/Vista/XP 32/64bit)
Real Alternative - Basically the same idea as above, but for RealPlayer format video and audio. (Win7/Vista/XP 32/64 bit)
VLC Media Player - A great low resource video and audio player. Supports most video formats, including DVD's, without downloading any additional codecs. VLC is multi-platform software, meaning there are versions available for Windows, OSX, and Linux. It is also ‘open source’ so development is ongoing as are improvements/added features. (Win7/Vista/XP 32/64bit)
Winamp – Free audio player from Nullsoft supporting numerous audio formats. It has an extremely customizable media library and thousands of skins and plug-ins that allow you to change the look-and-feel of the player. The player also has access to thousands of free songs and online radio stations from SHOUTcast Radio and AOL Radio with XM. The latest version features improved auto-detection of newer iPod models. (Win7/Vista/XP 32/64bit)