Just Upgraded to iTunes 10 and Noticed WORSE SOUND QUALITY!! Please Help!

Question

Just Upgraded to iTunes 10 and Noticed WORSE SOUND QUALITY!! Please Help!

I have been using iTunes as my preferred media player ever since I can remember. I have never noticed a decline in sound quality. I recently upgraded to iTunes 10 and for the very first time found the sound to be simply inferior.

Initially I thought it was in my imagination, then i started testing to see if the speakers were at fault and they were not. I ignored it, but it kept on bugging me.. Eventually i loaded up old Windows Media Player and played THE SAME FILE and it sounded WAY BETTER!!

I tried fiddling with the sound enhancer and the sound check but it just isnt great.. I played songs off iTunes 9 on my sister's computer and the sound quality is higher..

Am I the only one having this problem? I have upgraded iTunes many times and this is the first time I'm experiencing this lack in audio playback quality.. I would hate to back up my library and re-install iTunes 9... Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

PC, Windows 7

Posted on Sep 7, 2010 9:02 AM

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Answer 1

Ziggar

Level 1

10 points

Sep 7, 2010 11:36 AM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

ive also got this so your not alone

usually my sound quality is A OK

but not since installing iTunes 10
surely there are others who have the same problem

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Answer 2

Sep 7, 2010 1:06 PM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

ye I find it ridiculous so few people have complained.. This is a massive issue!! The same files sound 100 times better on Windows Media Player/VLC than they do on iTunes. Never noticed the discrepancy before the upgrade!

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Answer 3

Sep 7, 2010 1:14 PM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

I have a problem with sound quality too in the latest iTunes version.

A 24 bit AIFF track that sounds fine in both Finder with Quick Look and in Quicktime plays with a lot of jitter in iTunes. I even tried to convert it in iTunes to Apple Lossless but the result still got the jitter when played.

I've never ever had any issues with my 24 bit AIFF tracks before installing iTunes 10.

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Answer 4

Sep 7, 2010 1:15 PM in response to KidCactus

You couldn't have summed it up better! That's exactly whats I'm experiencing!

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Answer 5

Ziggar

Level 1

10 points

Sep 7, 2010 1:21 PM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

not jittering but distortion
bass is where i notice it most
but other ranges are also distorted

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Answer 6

Sep 7, 2010 1:32 PM in response to Ziggar

Ye I listen to hours of music a day so I have developed sort of a standard quality. Now I can't understand why iTunes is screwing up the playback when there's nothing wrong with the file itself!

The quality difference isn't screaming in your face noticeable, but there definitely is distortion etc. that just lower the quality to an irritating level. Casual listeners won't notice it. But wow I am so upset!

Message was edited by: ParanoidAndroid2010

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Answer 7

Sep 7, 2010 3:13 PM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

I've not noticed any problems in 10.

How about backing up, then completely removing iTunes and installing again?

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Answer 8

Phil...

Level 1

0 points

Sep 7, 2010 3:27 PM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

Same here! Noticed it directly after upgrading. There's lack of transparency and it sounds very muffled now. Apple please - this needs to be fixed urgent!!!

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Answer 9

Sep 7, 2010 3:55 PM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

I'm so relieved others are experiencing this too. I just noticed it today...it's kind of like playing an old record with warbled sound at times. Very frustrating!! Please help!!!

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Answer 10

Sep 7, 2010 10:22 PM in response to cherryblossomart

I'm so glad to hear there are more people having this problem! I was shocked when I googled 'iTunes 10 sound quality' and found no matches. The proof is there that the same file sounds clearer and crisper with less distortion on other media players. This is the first time in 7 years I am considering changing my media player.. This is sad! Come on Apple please respond!!

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Answer 11

Sep 8, 2010 12:49 AM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

I do have my grumbles with iTunes, the biggest being the installer.

It's not good at removing problems from previous versions and can bring up new problems on newer versions too, they just get carried across or are made worse. Basically they should have an option to do a clean install, (remove all trace of iTunes on the computer, not including the library, just runtime files.) I think you'll find it can mess up registry keys on new installs.

Make sure you backup your iTunes library first.

So you're probably better off finding a way to COMPLETELY remove the iTunes runtime files, and re-installing it again and see what happens.

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Answer 12

Sep 8, 2010 2:43 AM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

Today I tried the same 24 bit AIFF file in iTunes 10 on my MacBook Pro, and what do you know — it plays fine with no jitter at all.

So I don't know if this is a sound card issue, or the fact that I'm running Leopard on my Mac Pro (where I get the jitter) and Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro.

On my Mac Pro, I use an external firewire sound card. I'll switch over to the internal one tonight to see if I still get the jitter.

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Answer 13

Sep 8, 2010 3:30 AM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

I'm starting to think I had a faulty upgrade.. Will installing it again help?

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Answer 14

Sep 8, 2010 4:05 AM in response to ParanoidAndroid2010

It should, but you'd need to try and flush the iTunes software from your system, there is software to do this.

Make sure you backup first though.

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Answer 15

Sep 8, 2010 5:04 AM in response to Pageygeeza

I just uninstalled itunes and quicktime and re-installed it and all my music was there.. I obviously didn't uninstall it propelly, I went to the control panel and went 'add/remove programs'. The quality is still muffled.

I've also discovered this is not an iTunes 10 problem specifically, I've seen in past threads that users upgrading from 6 to 7, 7 to 8, & 8 to 9 all experienced muffled audio quality. There's something fundamentally wrong here..

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