iTunes 10 poor audio quality

Oh well, disregard the temporary "solutions" I posted above, I fired up this morning and the problem has reverted to being exactly as it was. The worst thing is the quite random nature of the ****** thing, sometimes it appears to be okay, other times, it is completely unlistenable.

And yes (to post above), when this happens in iTunes it also occurs in Logic Studio. I'm currently engaged with an album project and this is now completely on hold. All I can see for certain is that in iTunes, purchased AIC files are the worst, they sound like total s * whereas CD tracks or Lossless tracks appear to be ok. But frankly, I don't know *** is going on now...

Does anyone know if there is a way to revert iTunes to where it was before the latest 10.1.1 update? Don't tell me I'm going to have to reinstall the entire OS X or something... @£$%^!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell me if you are using an external audio interface?
Does the problem happen when you use the "line out/built-in" audio?
What happens when you do the process I outlined in one of my previous posts?

<Can you tell me if you are using an external audio interface?
Does the problem happen when you use the "line out/built-in" audio?
What happens when you do the process I outlined in one of my previous posts?>

Thanks - its affecting all audio playback, even youtube videos from a web browser. I just take the sound out from the Headphone socket at the back of the Mac and into my stereo amp. So the output in Sound preferences is "Headphones. In Audio/Midi Setup the output is also "Headphones". Everything sounds terrible.

I've noticed that the built in input, the microphone built into the computer, no longer responds to the volume control, I've got it turned right down to zero but it still registers sound in the room. I don't know if that's anything to do with it but that's clearly not right either.

Normally I use an M-Audio firewire interface for when I want to record intruments and voices in Logic, but that's not even plugged in at the moment. I haven't changed anything in my audio system for months, apart from the iTunes 10.1.1 update a few days ago, which was when my playback was trashed.

Very strange behaviour....


Quit iTunes
Select a different output
Launch iTunes and start playing some music
While it's playing, select your usual output again

What happens?

Have you read the whole,of the Gearslutz thread about this topic? I'm not sure it's exactly the same problem your having but it's probably a useful read?

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/549883-itunes-10-1-ruined-playbac k-sound-totally.html

There are a few things you can check/try, contained in this thread...

@Edgemusic: Thanks again! Well you know what? I think that did it this time... (I.e. switching output then back again.)

I did read through the Gearslutz thread too, very strange thing, so difficult to pin down. Seems like there are various things that can work for some people, others not so fortunate. I certainly hope Apple will give it some attention.

Back to the mix 🙂

Glad that sorted it out!

I understand that Apple are onto it - one user was in some sort of conversation about the problem - it's pretty fundamental so I am expecting the next update to sort this!

Cheers!

on my laptop, anything non-mp3 in itunes sounds horribly overcooked/hot. i'm not experiencing the panning/shift, just terrible distortion on on wav tracks, etc. mp3's are fine. on my desktop, everything seems ok so far.

since there are no other external outputs in the audio preferences of my laptop, i can't do the switch trick described above.

what happened?????

EDIT:
SCRATCH THAT - definitely hearing the heavy bass distortion in some mp3's

on wavs- varying degrees of compression-sounding clipping, or on other tracks, the bass distortion. this is a crazy bug and needs to be fixed asap...but it's a troubling quality control indicator in general

Message was edited by: oleus

Oh my, what a bummer! For a while when I had this problem I was also fooled into thinking that mp3 files were playing ok. But it's probably that the distortion is just more immediately apparent on AIF or WAV files, since mp3's are so compressed. Also the distortion did not seem to be consistent, behaving differently on different music tracks.

Is it possible for you to shut down the system, then reboot and take the "out" from your headphone socket on your laptop and plug into a different amp or stereo system from whatever you usually use? Test it, and then switch back to your regular listening device.

tried rebooting, plugging in some external speakers and re-setting the output, but it's still showing up as "headphone output" and i'm getting the same weird distortion in the bass. tried switching to internal speakers and back, still getting wild distortion on a lot of tracks (but not all). this is the most frustrated i've ever been as an apple customer....

Have you checked the output settings in Audio/Midi setup (in Applications > Utilities folder)?

Can I assume you've tried everything that's mentioned in the Gearslutz thread I posted a few posts back?

i haven't tried the MIDI settings but i will tonight - i did some MIDI work in garageband recently, and i do some USB recording with garageband so maybe I should plug that in so i can get something other than "headphone output" or "internal speakers" to show up in the audio output menu, so that I can change it back after re-opening Itunes.

i tried quitting Itunes and re-opening it with different external speakers but since those run out fromthe headphone jack, i wasn't able to change anything in the output menu which is probably why i didn't hear any improvements. I will try plugging in my FX recording rack via USB, this shoudl show up in my audio output menu as it has in the past...

well, this just keeps getting weirder.

i plugged in a usb sound device and was able to try the quitting/changing output/restating and changing back method, twice - and did the same with the midi output settings, and i'm still getting weird distortion on many tracks.

the sound issue I'm hearing seems different than the usual description i've seen here. I'm getting a really pumped up, overcooked bass distortion sound that almost sounds level-boosted, but no right panning effect. it's not happening on my desktop, just my laptop. same songs on my iphone sound amazing.

This 'fix' worked for me and the stereo image was back, but who knows for how long. I never noticed this till I just finished composing a piece in Logic, then starting listening to it in iTunes while doing something else and I was shocked how it narrowed the stereo field. I hope they get this straightened out soon.
Chris

Message was edited by: Chris Caouette