Hacker News: surganov

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:51:11 +0000

Thanks!

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:49:37 +0000

There are some similarities for sure! I also like IINA and have used it extensively in the past. The main additions are the flexible layout, waveform view, shader background, better performance and smaller app size, pitch and effects and bunch of other small things. So even though they can look similar (both have album cover and playlist), the experience is hopefully quite different.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:45:17 +0000

Thank you for the kind words!

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:49:14 +0000

Thank you. I like the way you phrased this, especially the "just launch & listen with minimal involvement" part. That’s very close to how we think about it too.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:39:24 +0000

Not at the moment, but this is actually a good idea. Thanks

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:37:19 +0000

Nice, thanks for the link. It actually works, but lacks basic features as opening the whole folder with subfolders, pressing spacebar to play or loading large amounts of files, the app hangs immediately.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:19:31 +0000

Jokes aside, 180db also ships with a demo track — a nod to llama.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:16:00 +0000

I remember using that "green head" Windows Media Player. It's fun for like five minutes, then you get back to the default, but maybe that's just me. But we definitely need more "weird shaped" apps, that's for sure.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:12:43 +0000

I used iTunes for a long time with a library of around 1,000 albums. If you weren’t too lazy to add proper covers and ID3 tags, it was actually pretty enjoyable to use – especially together with an iPod. But the problem is that iTunes imposes a very “flat” structure on your library, while for some collections a hierarchical folder/subfolder/file structure just works much better. Not to mention that you can keep all kinds of related files alongside the music itself – booklet scans, lyrics, interviews, links, PDFs, and so on.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:06:26 +0000

For me personally, the main reason to use foobar2000 back then was FLAC support, which Winamp didn’t have at the time. Out of nostalgia, I downloaded foobar again not too long ago, but I just couldn’t get into it – it doesn’t really jive with me anymore. I wouldn’t have tried to build a new audio player if I felt there were better alternatives already out there, but personally I couldn’t find one. Cheers.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:03:05 +0000

What for? It's just streaming audio chunks with Core Audio that you cannot bypass. Even if there's resampling of 44.1khz to 48khz (Mac's default nowadays), it's not audible. Bit by bit perfection matters when you do a lot of processing, like in the context of a DAW or sound plugins, but not so much in the listening context. DA (digital-to-analog) end-chain matters much more – the actual audio interface and speakers, where all file-to-sound-wave reconstruction magic happens.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:47:12 +0000

I miss these times too. And I’d like to remind you that Winamp used to be a $10 shareware app (that’s roughly $30 in today’s dollars). The first version of Winamp didn't have any windows, it was pure utility application. Do you still think there's value in "max customization"?

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:35:25 +0000

We tried to keep it as lean as possible. MacOS itself adds quite a bit, and then there are libraries for format decoding, audio streaming, VST support, etc. Could it be smaller? Probably – but not by an order of magnitude.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:31:12 +0000

It's called "inspiration". And if you actually used Winamp in the ’90s or 2000s, you probably remember that it used to be a $10 shareware app.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:28:26 +0000

It doesn't, and I don't think there's value in literal carbon copy of Winamp. You can adjust shader backgrounds to the taste though.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:26:34 +0000

I personally own a bunch of vinyl records and love to change pitch while listening to get a different feel for the familiar music. DJs used to mix with turntables that have only pitch and phase adjustments, it was very minimal.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:23:20 +0000

You didn't like shader backgrounds?

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:22:18 +0000

Not really, why?

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:21:01 +0000

MPlayerX and IINA are the best free video players for macOS, hands down. Music mode needs more love though.

New comment by surganov in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"

surganov — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:19:31 +0000

Have you actually used it? I didn't like it that much, and the subscription model turned me off.