diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 15b88ff64..1001c1857 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ ver 0.18 (2012/??/??)
 * configuration:
   - allow tilde paths for socket
   - default filesystem charset is UTF-8 instead of ISO-8859-1
+  - increase default buffer size to 4 MB
 * protocol:
   - new command "readcomments" lists arbitrary file tags
   - new command "toggleoutput"
diff --git a/doc/mpd.conf.5 b/doc/mpd.conf.5
index b3a46e157..855f2dd23 100644
--- a/doc/mpd.conf.5
+++ b/doc/mpd.conf.5
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ This is the gain (in dB) applied to songs with ReplayGain tags.
 If yes, mpd will normalize the volume of songs as they play.  The default is no.
 .TP
 .B audio_buffer_size <size in KiB>
-This specifies the size of the audio buffer in kibibytes.  The default is 2048,
+This specifies the size of the audio buffer in kibibytes.  The default is 4096,
 large enough for nearly 12 seconds of CD-quality audio.
 .TP
 .B buffer_before_play <0-100%>
diff --git a/doc/mpdconf.example b/doc/mpdconf.example
index 390d26beb..b6c6f7bb1 100644
--- a/doc/mpdconf.example
+++ b/doc/mpdconf.example
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ input {
 # this may have undesired effects. Don't change this if you don't know what you
 # are doing.
 #
-#audio_buffer_size		"2048"
+#audio_buffer_size		"4096"
 #
 # This setting controls the percentage of the buffer which is filled before 
 # beginning to play. Increasing this reduces the chance of audio file skipping, 
diff --git a/src/Main.cxx b/src/Main.cxx
index f27de84ec..5d47c0a1c 100644
--- a/src/Main.cxx
+++ b/src/Main.cxx
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@
 #include <ws2tcpip.h>
 #endif
 
-static constexpr unsigned DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE = 2048;
+static constexpr unsigned DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE = 4096;
 static constexpr unsigned DEFAULT_BUFFER_BEFORE_PLAY = 10;
 
 static constexpr Domain main_domain("main");