Reference Player

It Just Sounds Better. From Steely Dan to Jack White, from Thundercat to Angine De Pointine,
from Red Garland to Rachmaninoff; press play and it already sounds better.
A Mastering-Grade Desktop Audio Player Built by Working Audio Engineers For The Rest Of Us.

$29 Windows - Microsoft Store
5 Themes, Limitless Colors
Get it from the Microsoft Store
Reference Player Full View - dual VU meters, compressor/limiter, 31-band EQ, and playlist in the 70s Hi-Fi theme

Reference Player

$29 on the Microsoft Store. One-time purchase, yours forever - no subscription.

Get it from the Microsoft Store $29 Get It On Microsoft Store

Secure checkout via Microsoft · Instant install

Reference Player in the Howdy Player Pink theme, full width with compressor, limiter, and 31-band EQ visible

The best sounding media player you've ever heard.

Most media players are basically a spreadsheet for your MP3s - drag a file in, press play, that's the whole feature set.

Welcome to the Reference Player by M Media Audio.

It Just Sounds Better: Your media files, CDs, and even a line input - all together in one beautiful player for Windows.

Underneath it is a mastering-grade 31-band EQ and a mastering-grade VCA compressor and limiter, built to get more from the speakers and headphones you already own.

From Miles Davis to Radiohead, from Aretha Franklin to Daft Punk, from Bach to Kendrick Lamar; press play and it already sounds better.

Now it's yours. It just sounds better.

VU meter

Real VU Meters. Not a Flat Digital Bar.

RMS-based, warm backlit, and calibrated by someone who reads them for a living. They're the emotional center of Reference Player - large enough to actually watch while you listen, accurate enough to trust.

Get Reference Player

No account required. Nothing sent over the network. Your music and your listening habits stay on your machine.

Three Views

Full Player, Strip Player, or Mini Player. However You Want to Listen.

Full Player is the complete control surface - VU metering, transport, the compressor/limiter, the 31-band EQ, and your library and queue, all in one window. It's the flagship experience and the one built to look like a real piece of hi-fi equipment sitting on your desktop.

Strip Player carries the same processing chain and the same real controls into a slim window you can dock to the side of a second monitor and leave running all day. Scale it from 75% up to 200% whenever you want more room to work. Mini Player lives quietly near your system tray for the moments you just want to glance at what's playing or skip a track.

  • Full Player - Every control, every meter, your whole library, in one window.
  • Strip Player - The same engine, docked out of the way, scales 75-200%.
  • Mini Player - Glance, skip, done. Lives by the tray.
Reference Player Strip View - docked sidecar with VU meters, compressor, and EQ panels open
Reference Player compressor/limiter and 31-band graphic EQ in the Metal theme

Under the Hood

VCA Compression. A Real 31-Band EQ. A Brickwall Limiter.

At the center of the chain is VCA-style bus compression, the kind of fast, controlled compression that's helped finished mixes feel more cohesive for decades, tuned here to respond musically instead of just making everything louder. From there the signal passes through a full 31-band (1/3 octave) graphic EQ, far beyond the handful of tone controls in most players, capable of broad shaping or narrow, surgical correction for a specific room, speaker, or pair of headphones. A brickwall limiter keeps peaks in check after the compressor stage.

Real-time spectrum and phase displays run alongside playback with live Peak, RMS, and integrated LUFS metering, so you can see what you're hearing, not just adjust it blind.

  • Compressor - Threshold, Attack, Release, Ratio, dual GR meters.
  • Limiter - Ceiling, Threshold, Release, Output, true-peak detection.
  • 31-Band EQ - Full ISO 1/3-octave resolution, +/-12 dB per band, Loudness contour.

Live Theming Engine

Five Themes. Switch Instantly. No Restart.

Reference Player runs on a live theming engine that changes its colors, artwork, and character in real time. Every theme runs the identical playback engine underneath - the personality changes, the sound does not. Pick the flagship 70s Hi-Fi look, go cool with Metal or Emerald, or go all the way with Bad Kitty or Jeff's own Howdy Player Pink. Import additional theme packs directly from Preferences, no separate installer required.

Reference Player Preferences dialog - theme gallery for switching between five official themes

Library & Sources

File, CD, or Line In. One Transport, Three Sources.

Reference Player is a folder-based library - no iTunes-style import, no lock-in. Point it at your music and it watches those folders automatically. Drag and drop playback, tag-based browsing, search, and play count tracking are all built in. Load a physical CD and rip straight to MP3, added to your library automatically. Switch to Line In for live monitoring with the full compressor, limiter, and EQ chain still active on the input.

  • File - Folder-watched library, playlists, queue, drag-to-reorder.
  • CD - Rip straight to MP3, full transport, disc metadata.
  • Line In - Live monitoring through the same DSP chain, transport disabled.
Reference Player library, playlist, and source selector in the Bad Kitty theme
🔒

No Telemetry

Nothing sent over the network. Your music and your listening habits stay on your machine, always.

One-Time Purchase

$29 on the Microsoft Store. No subscription, no renewal, yours forever.

🎵

Built by an Engineer

Designed and tuned by a working mastering engineer, not a generic software team.

Direct Support

You email us, we answer. No ticket queues, no bots, no knowledge base rabbit holes.

System Requirements

Format

MSIX via Microsoft Store

Platform

Windows 10 / 11

Formats Supported

MP3, FLAC, AAC, OGG, WAV, AIFF, WMA, OPUS

Output: WASAPI Shared and Exclusive, with 2x/4x/8x oversampling in Exclusive mode

Metering

RMS VU with peak hold, gain-reduction, spectrum, phase, and BS.1770 LUFS

License

One-time purchase, managed by the Microsoft Store

Reference Player

$29 on the Microsoft Store. One-time purchase, yours forever - no subscription.

Get it from the Microsoft Store $29 Get It On Microsoft Store

Secure checkout via Microsoft · Instant install

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