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I compared 27 portable audio players against each other for launch speed and RAM usage. The data is generalized because I consider this to be more of an unofficial and preliminary comparison test.

Launch speed based on the average for initial and subsequent launches. Listed by speed within each group.

• Less than 1 Second:
  Boom 1.0.21
  CoolPlayer 219
  Evil Player 1.31
  Hokrain 1.0.5
  M3 1.0
  Mcool 16.0.0.3336
  Pump 1.0.4.220
  Soprano 1.72
  
  1-2.5 Seconds:
  Billy 1.03
  Trout 1.0.6 bld 76
  Winyl 3.2.1
  WVPlayer 1.2.1.5
  1by1 1.88
  XMplay 3.8.2.3
  OooPlayer 2.1.2
  
  2.5-5 Seconds:
  Aimp2 2.61 bld 583
  Nemp 4.6.2.553
  Foobar2000 1.3.10
  Spider 2.5.3
  Easy MP3 Player 1.0.0.0
  Xion 1.5 bld 160
  
  5-9 Seconds:
  Resonic 0.7b
  Aimp4 4.02 bld 1711
  Audacious 3.7.2
  BZR Player 1.04
  
  10 Seconds or more:
  Aimp3 3.60 bld 1502
  Clementine 1.3.1

Peak RAM usage (with no files). Listed by usage within each group:

• 6-11 MB:
  M3 1.0
  CoolPlayer 219
  Billy 1.03
  Evil Player 1.31
  Hokrain 1.0.5
  Soprano 1.72
  Pump 1.0.4.220
  Boom 1.0.21
  WVPlayer 1.2.1.5
  XMplay 3.8.2.3
  
  12-17 MB:
  Mcool 16.0.0.3336
  Easy MP3 Player 1.0.0.0
  1by1 1.88
  Xion 1.5 bld 160
  Aimp2 2.61 bld 583
  
  20-30 MB:
  Winyl 3.2.1
  Audacious 3.7.2
  Foobar2000 1.3.10
  BZR Player 1.04
  Spider 2.5.3
  
  30-60 MB:
  OooPlayer 2.1.2
  Trout 1.0.6 bld 76
  Resonic 0.7b
  
  60-93 MB:
  Nemp 4.6.2.553
  Aimp4 4.02 bld 1711
  Aimp3 3.60 bld 1502
  Clementine 1.3.1

Thanks for putting this together, TP109.

Here are three more players to test:

Evil Player - http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=974

When I used this years ago, this barebones player was always the lightest RAM-wise.

puMP3 - http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... f=4&t=4387

While searching for Evil Player on TPFC, I came across this older submission entry of mine. Just tested this one and it is quite light. Peak memory was 7MB. Currently running at 3.7MB RAM. Could use your benchmarks though

Soprano - http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1143

Another barebones player.

All are BASS players, so memory usage should be light. Are no longer maintained however.

freakazoid wrote: Here are three more players to test:

I updated my OP with those three players and changed the formatting a bit.

Added another 11 players for a total of 27. Changes are in the OP.

Finished testing with AppTimer but I need to confirm the results with manual testing. AppTimer is designed to work best for apps with launch times of 2 seconds or less. Some of the times measured with AppTimer don't correlate with the longer times I observed previously. Going to try to post some data within 24 hours once I get this straightened out.

Completed the audio player tests and uploaded to the link below:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 7485017405

Many players have high launch time variations so manual testing was required to obtain more accurate results. A launch variation chart is included on the chart sheet. To obtain an estimate of max launch time, multiply the percentage by the avg launch time. For example, if a player has a variation of 500 and a launch time of 1 sec, the max would be about 5 secs.

Launch time isn't really the most important parameter for an audio player as much as stability and resource usage. Most of the players operated well except for Clementine, Resonic, BZR Player, and to a lesser extent OooPlayer which had high launch times, high RAM usage, slow operation and freezing issues. Although Aimp3 and Aimp4 also have higher than average launch times and RAM usage, they operate quickly and smoothly and didn't appear to cause any problems.

The results need some more verification and tweaking, but are pretty close.

Edited May 1, 2016. Added "RAM - File Playing" chart to indicate RAM usage while playing an mp3 file. Also updated the spreadsheet. The "RAM -File Playing" chart is the most significant measurement since it shows how much RAM a player uses when playing a file. Also, the last four players on that chart are the audio players that were the most unstable on my system.

Updated the charts in test results spreadsheet and uploaded to link below:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 4183980221

Updated charts:

Excellent, thanks. I get that Clementine is going to run a little heavier as it's cross-platform and has a ton of features, but many of the others really surprised me, especially Coolplayer given it's age. Foobar always seemed to me extremely lightweight and snappy but here it looks somewhere in the middle. AIMP is also disappointing.

Anyway, very nice to see a solid breakdown on all these tools. This gives some weight to some of my recommendations over time.

---

Edit: if you get a chance, you should run a test on iTunes or Windows Media Player as a baseline

Webfork wrote: Edit: if you get a chance, you should run a test on iTunes or Windows Media Player as a baseline

I don't have either of those installed and don't use them. If someone has those installed on an XP system and can test and provide the data, I can incorporate that into the test results.

How many files were loaded when the players were launched? I notice the memory usage was calculated with 'no files', does that mean none were loaded at all?

For me the real speed test is be how each program handles displaying/loading hundreds of files at launch and in use, as some are filename based (I used the excellent little Billy for a long time), while others load metadata, cover art and such.

Specular wrote:How many files were loaded when the players were launched? I notice the memory usage was calculated with 'no files', does that mean none were loaded at all?

Yes, no files loaded. Only a single mp3 file of 60MB was used for the file playing measurements.

Specular wrote:For me the real speed test is be how each program handles displaying/loading hundreds of files at launch and in use, as some are filename based (I used the excellent little Billy for a long time), while others load metadata, cover art and such.

I agree. Perhaps someone else will do that.

TP109 wrote:

Webfork wrote: Edit: if you get a chance, you should run a test on iTunes or Windows Media Player as a baseline

I don't have either of those installed and don't use them. If someone has those installed on an XP system and can test and provide the data, I can incorporate that into the test results.

*shrug* That's for the best -- they're both terrible. Part of what pushed me to portable freeware was widely-used garbage like IE and iTunes.

webfork wrote:they're both terrible.

lol. Yes, That is why I don't use them. Uninstalled WMP long ago and tried iTunes only once.