I used many Android music players as a music lover and tested them as a member of the team that made a music player app. So I decided to write detailed reviews about pros and cons of some music players in a serial form for one who is looking for a great app. This is the first part for introduction and I will handle the sound review in the next one. I tried to be as objective as I can, but a review is a subjective one after all and my thought could not be same with your opinion.
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| Poweramp |
Poweramp is the most popular music player app. I bought it because it's highly recommended online. It provides lots of useful features and skins. You can hear the characteristic sound based on rich bass and use the sound effects like 10 band equalizer, tone, and limit. Reverb effect was also added in the recently released alpha version of Poweramp v3. I prefer its new UI of to the previous one. Although it doesn't leave nothing to be desired in the sound quality but is still a nice player for common music listeners.
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| Neutron |
Neutron is an audiophiles' favorite among the Android music players. It supports most audio formats and offers a huge number of sound features. It allows users to adjust the sound in great detail but it's too complicated to use though its UI is much better that in the past. If you refer others' settings on the internet and adjust well you can enjoy good sound but it's so tough for me to make Neutron my main player. Anyway, it's ideal for one who need various sound options and 32, 64 audio processing.
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| JetAudio |
I often used its PC version so I also tried JetAudio app with anticipation. It provides a free basic version without a time limit while Poweramp and Neutron only provide time-limited trial versions. If you buy its pro version you can use 20 band equalizer instead 10 band and unlock the sound effects like AM3D and Bongiovi via in-app purchases. I heard its sound effects would enhance the sound quality and I bought the pro version and in-app products, but sadly, the result didn't satisfy me. I think its sound is worse than other players in this writing.
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| Rocket Player |
Rocket Player is another popular Android music player and provides a free version without a time limit like JetAudio. Paid version provides preamp, 10 band equalizer, replay gain, and etc. Its volume level is quite loud and sound is decent. But it has less extremely low frequency and too much mid. Another issue is that use of 5 band equalizer causes lower volume and worse sound quality. I'm not sure whether 10 band in paid version has the same problem or not because I hesitated to buy it. If you use paid app, please let me know how it is. Rocket Player is a good choice for one who wants a free and decent player yet.
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| PlankTone Music Player |
PlankTone Music Player is a newborn app made by our team. It's not as famous as other players but I think it's worth trying, especially in the sound quality. It provides a trial version and in-app purchase is needed after a trial period. You can hear the high-quality and balanced sound without complicated settings. It also let you individually customize sound effects for each song. But it is at an early stage so it does not have features like tag editing or downloading album art and doesn’t support themes and skins, and doesn’t offer various widgets now.
It’s a general review of music players and I will write a more detailed sound review next time. I will handle the sound characteristic, sound effects setting, test result with DAC, etc.
