iPod Photo: Poor Sound Quality - Updates

Phil, this is very helpful, thank you.

It seems I am probably just not noticing the problem, but that's mainly because of the music I listen to and that it's usually in noisy environments. I listen to the Pod through a dock when at home so I imagine I avoid the problem again this way.

Mine's a European one and I have noticed it's hard to hear the music when there's a lot of background noise (say on an aeroplane) so I tend to boost the volume of music that I import into iTunes. Inconvenient, but I'm glad to now know the reason.

I'm UK-based and bought (end of July 05) the 60GB iPod Photo via the Apple online store. There are one or two suggestions in this string (and others) that people have heard about the distortion problems and are then jumping on the bandwagon. This is not the case as far as I'm concerned: I noticed the 'blown speaker' effect as soon as played tracks on my iPod for the first time. It was only when I started looking at the forums did I see how widespread this problem seems to be for iPod photo owners.

The sound quality is pretty abysmal, it has to be said. My main complaint is the considerable & unmistakable bass-distortion at low-to-moderate volumes through the factory-shipped phones. Before I'd had a chance to read up on the impact made by higher-impedance phones, I naively bought some Sony h.phones to try and correct the problem, the logic being: "Sony = good". They were only 16ohm and obviously made no difference. However they are no worse than the 32 ohm Apple phones either, which sound just as bad. There are a lot of forum suggestions which talk of getting the highest impedance phones you can afford, but my question is, "why should I have to?" The Apple phones - while widely acknowledged as not the greatest ever produced - should at least be the correct impedance in the first place, to be adequate & compatible with the iPod they're shipped with surely? Otherwise why bother producing them?

Like others I have also tried AAC encoding right through to 320, tried Apple Lossless, listened to the encoded tracks in iTunes. There's no problem there. But through my iPod (even with some higher impedance phones I managed to borrow) the distortion persists.

I'm guessing that I'm not the only person out there who has bought an iPod, but wasn't that technically savvy when they handed over the money. I assumed that Apple's reputation for plug-and-play-ease meant that spending £300/$500+ would negate the need for playing around with bit-rates and endlessly road-testing headphones. I've had to come up the curve quickly to try and figure out a way of looking at the problem, but again I'll make the point: why should I have to when I've paid this kind of money? These problems should have been ironed out by Apple during beta-testing, not left up to users to waste hour-after-hour scratching their heads, testing this & that and still not getting the sound quality they deserve for the price they've paid for the unit.

My £50/$90 Sony CD-Walkman plays MP3 CDs and wipes the floor with the iPod in terms of sound quality, even with cheap n nasty headphones. It seems that the unrivalled styling, storage capacity and functionality of the new iPod are masking the fact that Apple have essentially released a dismal-sounding audio product. Maybe their financial success & dominance in the MP3 market in recent years has gone to their head and they've forgotten that the iPod is supposed to be all about sexy sound as well as sexy looks. Apple seem to have really dropped the ball with this model.

Hi everybody, I have a 30 gb photo ipod and i noticed about a cracking sound in the left earbud while setting volume at the same time a song is played. Is anyone having this issue¿? Thanks !

P.D. I sent my previous ipod photo ( which had the same trouble) to the technical support and then they gave me a new one with the same symptoms.

What's sad about this is there is no official word from Apple. It seems they are just trying to sweep it under the rug and hope not enough people hear about it to halt sales of the iPod. The frustrating part of this how clear things like iPod shuffle sound so we know they can do it right.

I can tell you I ate it on this one, I bought an iPod 60gb but if I don't see any resolution from the problems on this iPod, it will be the last Apple product I ever buy. I'll definately be spreading the word to anybody who asks and even those who don't my experiences with their products and service.

Well Im spanish so i paid for my ipod photo 30 gigas nearly 400 us dollars an i have to say that the sound quality is very low ( also y have to point the left earbud problem) and im going to phone customer service and try to get my money back because this is unbelievable. I hope this issue get solved as soon as possible, thanks .

hah good luck trying to get your money back on the strength of that!

try investing in some decent headphones. also you have to adjust the equalizer. it will sound great because at first i thought the sound wasn't great either

Just got a 60GB and I have exactly the same audio distortion.

The same piano track thru the same headphones is fine on the computer but distorted on the iPod.

I am sorry if I upset someone like the reply to other posts of this kind,and maybe my ears are not as good or as trained as some other people,but-I have just recently purchaced a refurbished 40 gig color and was worried as I read most of these posts after ordering.I have not heard any hissing or other distortion on this ipod with any of the headphones or earbuds that I own,except when I turn the volume all the way up.Of course at this level the volume hurts my ears anyway.Maybe I just got lucky.I don't know.

Johnny, I'm having other problems with my ipod, but thats a whole other story, re sound quality, I have just downloaded my first few tunes direct from iTunes and I have to say I know exactly what you mean, the sound quality is poor, albeit less so with tracks not downloaded from itunes, best of luck with that, lastly, can you tell me how to email Apple direct, I thought that was impossible, I'd like to have a word with them as well

I have been noticing this damaged speaker sound for some time now on my 60gb ipod photo. It was on a number of tracks by chris Botti when his cornet peaks. Its like the tweeters on my B&W speakers are "done in". Well I submitted a service request to apple and resotored my ipod to place the culprit tracks alone on the ipod for the technicians. Put it on my dock again for a final test and believe it or not NO Distortion! So what could that suggest to all you folks who have written off your ipods! I wrote to the apple service people and told them what has happened and they told me to keep testing and retain the returns box that they sent me and if within 30 days the problem returns, send it in.
The original problem was definately there as I tested the same song in itunes and also my sons u2 ipod colour and it was fine. Even tried changing the dock and cables! So there you go it may have been a software glitch resolved by the restoration of the ipod. The only thing I still have to do is put all my music back on. Will that cause the problem to re-appear - I will let you know.

I just got a 20gig iphoto and i could not agree any more. its ridiculous! the sound quality is not as good as the previous generation. i think itz sumthing with the size of the magnets in the ear phones. they are smaller and are less magnetically charged. when i had an normal 20 gig black and white screen, the repulsion felt when having the phones face each other was a lot more than the new ones that come with the iphoto range.

That's interesting, Nigel. Your theory would at least explain why this problem affects only some people. Maybe some of those who have the problem could try this out and see if it works for them.

MacGee.

So are we agreed that its impedence ? Or is it the Ipod Software ?

How is the volume with the ER-4p to ER-4S convertor ? I don't want to spend all that money and not be able to hear anything!

I've just put my 30GB iPod Photo up for sale on eBay due to this problem... Hoping the new iPod announcement tommorow will have new iPod's that I will give one last try.

The sound distortion drove me nuts; I've only had the unit for 3 weeks. Wish I never sold my 3rd Gen 15GB, but I really wanted the color screen...

Does anyone know if the Nano has this problem? Because I'd like to purchase one for the gym.

Thanks in advance.
-E