iTunes 10 poor audio quality

I'm having the same issue. I haven't tried rolling back to 9.x though; is that even possible?

Yes. It's possible to go back to iTunes 9 (I have done it. Version 9.2.from june 2010) but you will encounter an important issue-problem: your iTunes Library files won't be recognized by iTunes 9. A pop-up message will apppear telling you that those files were created-updated with a newest iTunes version and it's unable to open them. So, you have all your media files in iTunes but you will have to create (again) all your playlists (unlesss you did a back up of your library files before upgrading to this latest iTunes version).

Hi Everyone,

I've noticed this two - iTunes 10 sounds terrible when compared with iTunes 9. What have Apple done?! I hope that this can be fixed with a software update.

It sounds a bit like one of the awful settings that Sound Blaster sound cards used to have which claimed to be able to "recover" the lost information in MP3 files.

When playing back my lossless files in to my stereo system, everything now sounds bright, harsh, too loud and it is very unpleasant and fatiguing to listen to.

Apple please fix this issue!

Best Wishes,

Richard

Hi Adrian,

Try changing the equalizer settings in iTunes. Click Window in iTunes, then click Equalizer and choose one of the preset options.

If the issue is not caused by the Equalizer, try updating or removing any 3rd-party iTunes plug-ins as suggested here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3430.

-Jason

Just found the solution! At least for my case. I also had muffled sound and restricted frequency range as it seemed to my ears. And yes, it was the frequency range indeed...

I usually listen through my Sound Sticks but this could also be the solution for other audio interfaces.

Open Apples AudioMidi-Application and check frequency and bit rate for your interfaces' output!
In my case the frequency range was set to 8000kHz for the sound sticks, put it back to 44.1kHz and Tatatataaaa: crisp sound again! (you may have to restart iTunes to have it respect this setting).

I don't know what caused this setting, never messed around in AudioMidi. Something probably went wrong during the installation of iTunes10.

But now have back again the sound quality of iTunes 9.x

Hope this helps you all, it saved me from having to downgrade my iTunes installation.

That's a good idea, but did not help in my case.

Since I upgraded to iTunes 10, Sound quality got very muffled and poor. I did not change any settings at all. EQ always off. Audio Midi Setup on 44,1 KHz/24 Bit. Very strange.

well since i download the itunes 10 my itunes won't play. It take the song but i t won't play. A message tells me that my audio/video playback don't work or something like that.

Jason...

Thanks much dude! Upon checking the equalizer settings in iTunes, I found the PreAmp slider maxed out... Upon setting it to approx halfway, the playback distortion vanished...

John

Hi,

here Itunes 10.1 is really different sounding than Quick time, even with CD audio…

On my mac pro X.6.5/quicktime 10.1 with Rme Multiface II, a CD played with Itunes got a narrower image than the same CD played with Space on the finder or Quicktime (same with any MP3, MP4, AIFF…).

Of course, sound enhancer and EQ are off…
Changing the RME frequency to 44.1 and/or changing frequency in audio midi setup doesn't change anything


But… On my macbook Pro with an Apogee Duet same OS and Itunes version, I haven't got any issue with Itunes

any idea?

Hey,

I have also a very strange problem with iTunes 10.1 (54).
I noticed that the seperation between the left and right audio channels is not correct.
So I listen to a song with i.e. one guitar only on the left and one only on the right side, playing different stuff.
In iTunes the right channel is also a little bit on the left side, so the stereo image is not correct.
If I click "Show in finder" and I listen to the SAME file with Quicktime or the finder preview, everything is good and both channels are seperated as they should be.

It seems like sort of a phasing problem, like a 3D-Simulation or stuff like that.

Sound enhancer and EQ are off...

I work as a music producer and noticed this problem lately, it totally *****!

PLEASE UPDATE!!!

I'm back to Itunes 9.2.1…everything sound as intended!

I'll stay out of Itunes 10 until this issue will be resolved…

Exactly the same here.
iTunes 10.1 narrows the stereo image and sounds canny.
All hints followed but no improvement. Easily identifiable on a pro meter.

Dragging an mp3 out of iTunes into the Finder and playing thru QT reveals that the Mp3 itself is fine. But the iTunes playback quality of the same file is definitely not. Both AIFs and Mp3s suffer from this detoriation.

This is a ridiculous error.
A music player that destroys the sound of your music !

Good thing is: You'll be glad to discover how good your Mp3's REALLY sound when played outside iTunes 🙂

This is not a ridiculous error, even playing an audio CD with Itunes 10.1 kills the sound on my computer.

I'm not alone having this issue, you will find numerous posts about this on pro-audio forum supports

The same problem.. Stereo image is so so poor( Can't listen to the music - it's really impossible.. Apple, do something!

Same here... playing the same file in Quicktime and iTunes sounds different. There's no noticeable distortion or anything, but there's something weird going on with the stereo image.