Best MP3 Decoder

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Since what the MP3 standard really defines is a decoder, there should be no such thing as a better or a worse MP3 decoder. As long as a decoder is accurate, it'll output the expected quality.

All the most popular decoders these days output accurate enough streams. These include:

Using any of the above should be enough for all purposes. Quality differences among them are insignificant.

Older decoders could provide bad quality, due mostly to encoder implementation errors. Such bad encoders include Winamp before version 2.666 (using Playmedia's bad quality AMP engine) and Digideck. Also, some older decoders did not work well with VBR streams.