I prefer mplayer over everything....
audacious is much more lightweight then amarok... but also lacks some features
it also have problems with fvwm window manager, but i guess not many user here, except me, are using it.
Last i used Amarok it was huge, slow and buggy.
and because of Amarko i had to install A lot of KDE stuff, which i prefer to avoid, since i prefer lightweight things
to make mplayer easier to use on daily basis, i have developed playd script (FreeBSD specific, but can be ported to other os as well)
http://www.failiem.lv/down.php?i=ygnbqp&n=playd-1.1.3.tar.gz
perhaps you'd be interested.... It's pretty easy to use (i'm hoping to port it to perl, when I have enough time, then i could implement many more useful features)
EDIT:
updated link...
my homepage won't be available in few days until have enough cash to pay for hosting