iTunes playback 'clicks & pops' - quicktime with the same file doesn't

Oddly enough, tonight I was listening to iTunes when I suddenly noticed EVERY song had this really annoying click noise any time semi-heavy bass was playing. I thought maybe I'd blown out my speakers, so I tried the songs in Quicktime. Same clicking sounds (again, mostly noticeable with bass-heavy tracks). I began worrying that, indeed, it was my speakers. Or, perhaps the receiver I pump my audio through from my G5's audio output.

As a final test, I opened a very click-heavy MP3 in the free VLC and ... no clicks were heard. So, I open iTunes again and suddenly - no clicks. I have no idea what good VLC did, but it's almost like it reset some audio settings on my system.

I don't know if this will help/fix the issue for anyone else, but.. ****, it's worth a try. Quit out of iTunes, Open ANY MP3 in VLC and then open iTunes again and see if it's fixed.

I installed the new updates to itunes (8.0.2) and quicktime this morning, and now my itunes playback seems to pop and click. it seems to mostly happen at the start of a song (mp3 and m4a formats at various quality sampling rates). i turned off the EQ and enhancer and it persisted. i turned off sharing, and it seemed slightly less audible, but it was still there. the audion player seems to play the same tracks with no pops whatsoever.
i just recently migrated to the mac from the pc. on the pc i was using winamp very very happily. i used itunes on the pc for a bit, but didn't like it - they way it reorganized my music collection by default and downloaded the wrong album covers. and it was a resource hog. but now that i'm all mac (which i'm happy with otherwise), i've only got itunes. it's been ok so far, and i've tolerated it, but this ridiculous popping is unacceptable - and that from an "upgrade"? and it seems it's been going on since forever when i google the problem. with no clear solutions? wow... and i thought a mac "just works". mac fanboys need their heads checked. anyway, if someone (apple? steve jobs?) can fix this, i would be most appreciative.

lol... have to say that macs don't "just work" as they want everyone to believe. plus, if there is any kind of problem you can't try to fix it yourself unlike a PC... but anyway I digress 🙂

I have the same problem:

I just updated to 8.0.2.20 and now everything I plays skips and sounds like an old scratched LP record (remember those???).

This is not related to equalizer settings or hardware settings or anything else... you have people who have been using iTunes just fine until version 8 then all of a sudden massive problems... there are dozens and dozens of posts about this problem now. It has nothing to do with any settings, as people have been fine with prior versions, the common thread is that they've all upgraded to version 8.

And you shouldn't have to stop using equalization or change anything you had before either.

This is a BUG in VERSION 8. It seems that this version is full of bugs from what I have read across the internet-- has Apple started finally releasing crappy software? (It is inevitable). Maybe this is from outsourcing all the coding to countries where English is not the native language-- who knows.

In any event, before I updated (from an earlier version of 8) I noticed Itunes stopped playing any sound at all. After I updated it gave me the error message telling me I had to delete/re-install quicktime. I did and now the clicking and popping. I re-installed/repaired directly from the website. Still nothing.

My music plays perfectly from any other application. This is an iTunes BUG in VERSION 8.

Also, as others have noticed new oddities in the way itunes behaves in version 8. Some have tremendous CPU usage or problems with internet. My hard drive rattles and buzzes whenever I start iTunes!!!! That scares the h*ll out of me! No other app does this and I can load all my music with any other app just fine-- no buzzing of the hard drive.

I'm running a new machine with max'd RAM, 2 TB of drives hooked into a Windows Home Server with 9TB of music and video. I'll try rebuilding the library... but darn it how come no other problems with any other app? Media Monkey plays everything fine, for exmaple. GOTTA be iTunes.

Argh!

I was really hoping this would have a solution. I have been having what I assume is he same issue with audio quality in iTunes - it is distorted with random "crash clipping" which flattens the audio waveform out, even though it has plenty of headroom. I recorded samples onto my Minidisc deck via the optical output and via analogue jacks with the same problem. I did back to back sample recordings on the MD deck from quicktime and from iTunes with the same files and there is a very audible difference between them.

I have done exactly the same as others here - deleted pref files, tried with a clean library, tried a new user, checked to make sure all the iTunes "sound enhancers" and EQs are off, tried different types of files - mp3, aac, aac protected, CDs etc. Files played in Quicktime are perfect, but iTunes with the same files is horrible.

I am tearing my hair out, because I listen to music all the time and i just cannot listen to it at the moment. The problem started with iTunes 8 (whichever was the first one with the Genius feature) - I never had a problem before then.

I'm having this same problem with Airtunes. ( Extreme base station with two Express- digital out only - to iPod HiFi and my CD player). Sound drop out consistantly after 10 minutes (or so) of play. All of this is following the latest Safari and iTunes updates (can't tie down to which)

Any ideas?

It's driving us crazy, as we love our music, and we shudder at the though of having to go back to feeding discs into our CD player...

Thanks in advance.

Hopefully you can stop tearing your hair out! I've had this same problem using I-tunes and Acid Pro 6 loaded with a backing song only. Check out your start up programs and see how many programs are running in the background!! I had network and anti-virus programs running that were causing the clicks and pops in the music programs - especially with Acid Pro 6. Exit all of those programs and goodby pops and clicks. Watch turning off any anti-virus programs if your on the web though. Good Luck! RockinRob58

Problems w/random clicking popping noises when using iTunes for play back has posts that go back 2 years and more. I have spent days of time playing music back in my itunes library from every conceivable source and the ONLY time it is unacceptable, indeed sounding like the old LP days is with iTunes.

In order to listen to an acceptable, not good mind you, version of a song, my iPhone is the minimum playback device usable.

I am an audiophile of 30 years and go back to the birth of the digital age and the migration from LP. My Linn Sondek turntable still sounds better in the analog domain, but I must live with the ticks, clicks and pops. I accepted the digital technology, and can tolerate the lossy compression, but then iTunes adds back the ticks and pops!

To reiterate, there are two year old posts that describe this problem with iTunes. It doesn't happen with QT or on any other device or software. The problem is clearly and unambiguosly in iTunes and I have tried everything and I mean everything.

Apple, fix this and fix it NOW. I don't have to use iTunes or buy the music from you. The number of posts and questions about this topic is legion. It is clearly an issue.

The iPhone and Itunes are not the end of the world, but they are set to leave mine. Itunes (on windows at least) is poorly implemented and the interface lacks any intuitivenes. In fact, the fear of living with softwar like this keps me in the Windows world.

And think about this...after the Super Bowl intro of the Mac, I took off work and drove around the state of Florida to procure the "New Era" of computing. Since then, in the 90's I regained my sanity and rejoined the Windows world.

Itunes is a poorly written front end to a retail initiative, and either make it work to play back the constrained content, that I must repurchase to make a ring tone or step up and provide somethng to play back the music without having to dump it to another environment.

FIX IT and DO the RIGHT THING.

NOT a request.

R.C. Klostermeyer