CS Media Player

Offline playback still relies on a dedicated application for your songs, and there are tons of options at your disposal. You might not need a great deal of features to enjoy a couple of songs after a long day’s work, so in case you’re looking for a simple, clean alternative, CS Media Player can prove to be just that.

One of the main advantages here is portability, allowing you to always have a lightweight audio player regardless of the computer you’re using, and even several songs to go. You do, however, need to be sure that the target PC is equipped with .NET Framework for everything to properly function.

Unfortunately, the visual design might drive you off from the first attempt if aesthetics are of any concern to you. All visual elements are plain, with no particular style to make them stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, this isn’t really an inconvenience, since functions and playback controls are incredibly easy to identify.

Files of several different formats can be loaded here such as MP3, WAV, OGG, and FLAC. However, drag and drop is not supported as an input method, and all browse dialogs, from the main window and playlist editor only allow you to add one file at a time, which becomes a little frustrating.

Playlists can be saved to file, and you can also load existing ones. Moreover, song shuffling can be enabled for playback, as well as sound boost to increase the level of decibels, but at the cost of quality. Additional song info is shown in a dedicated window, including the album art if it’s embedded in the audio file.

In conclusion, CS Media Player might feel a little rough around the edges at first, both in terms of visuals and functionality. In spite of this, it’s fitted with decent file support for popular audio types, playlist editor, and tray minimize option during playback so it doesn’t take up any precious space.