I've been using WMP instead of WinAMP since I got Windows XP and I especially like version 9. I like how it seemlessly handles my music library and how you can set folders to be automatically monitored and updated when new media information is available from the internet.
As for sound quality, I rip all of my songs to lossless WMA and it sounds just like the CD does even though it's still using a VBR format to save space.