Updated to iTunes 10.5 today and now my Audio Playback IS TERRIBLE!!! HELP!!!!

Darnit! I've never had this problem before when upgrading iTunes. I noticed that all mp3's sound crazy and distorted but the m4a files play normally. What the heck are we supposed to do? I hope this thing doesn't screw up my ipod.

I've tried running iTunes in Compatibility Mode with Win2k, and attempted to run the process in "Realtime" and all steps down to "Below Normal" - still, no improvement. There is definitely an error in this version. We should not have to convert all of our songs to another format, it wouldn't matter - you can't convert all of your podcasts. Also - keep in mind, converting all of these files won't help listening to the Radio either - all of those stations sound horrible too.

I have an open case with Apple for this exact issue, and they are looking into it. I've even pointed the engineer who took the call to a couple threads on the community boards so that they could gather some additional information.

AMD Athlon XP 1600+ processor here, running on a Asus A7N8X-X motherboard.

Pseudohacker, we realize it's not a hardware bug, but if we can establish a common element in the affected systems, it will help Apple get to the root of the problem faster.

I'm guessing we'll see a new version some time this week. We all just need to be a little more patient, and provide as much technical information as we can.

Ok, I also have an old Athlon xp processor on a motherboard MSI K7N2 delta with an AC97 audio system (not sure it's VIA) running on windows 7. MP3 files do NOT seem corrupted. I just verified that they play just fine on my iPad (synced from the affected machine) and under different media players INCLUDING Apple own QuickTime. I guess this is a bug of iTunes proper under a probably untested hardware configuration.

Regards,

Good point. I've should have done that earlier.

System 1:

Compaq Presario

ASUS A7V8X-LA Motherboard

AMD Athlon XP 3200 @ 2.2 Ghz

VIA KM400A Chipset

Windows XP Home, SP3

System 2:

HP Pavilion

FIC AM37 Motherboard

AMD Athlon 2400 @ 2.0 Ghz

VIA KM266 Chipset

Windows XP Home, SP3

Hey guys guess what!?!? When you sync, the music is crap on your iPod too!! 😠

I have an iPad 2 and an iPhone 3GS. I am not having any problems with music on either one.

I've got the 10.5 robot sounds on all MP3s too. Using AMD XP 3000+. It seems ridiculous that Apple support needs Apple device information when obviously this is a greater issue than that, as iTunes won't play correctly even on our desktops. Will keep monitoring this very sour note in my previously good iTunes experience.

I'm running an MSI board (MS-6330), with a VIA AC97 audio chip (no luck like the rest of you).

Thought it might be ver. 10.5...d/l ver. 9...same results.

Tried installing an older SoundBlaster PCI 128 audio card with most recent drivers for XP,disabled the onboard audio through the BIOS, (still nothing).

Other audio software is working fine.

PC = MSI MS-6330 with an AMD 2400Gz.

OS= XP sp3

Message was edited by: pponzo

i have the same problem with my ipod touch when i play music......

most of us have problems when using an AMD XP Processor with SingleCore x86 technology.

My private System works with

- ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mainboard (nVidia 2 Chipset),

- AMD XP 2600+ and

- 2 GB RAM (G.Skill)

- Windows XP Prof SP3, x86

Here are the bad sound problems

My Notebook (ThinkPad T410i) has an

- Intel Core i5

- Windows 7 Prof x86 and

- 4GB RAM

on this Machine, everything works well

Both testet with iTunes 10.5

Me too. I find that about 3/4 of the songs in the library sound like "The Chipmunks on acid with an alien back-up band"......HORRIBLE ! I see one of the replies mentions that songs purchased through the store work...I thin I have discovered the same thing. After I upgraded (after multiple notices to do so....next time "NOT"), I synced my iPhone and iPad and all songs seem to work fine on those devices. I use iTunes more as a tool, since I am a musician. Fortunately, everything seems to work OK using Winamp, so at least I can work with that and that also tells me that my sound card is not bad or there is something wrong with my computer.

I understand that problems can come up and I am usually forgiving. Today I don't feel quite that way. I wasted much of my weekend, uninstalling, troubleshooting, tried downgrading only to have the problem with the library not to work, etc, etc.......uuuughh!

The most frustrating thing of all.....how do you contact a person, or at least get an e-mail address, so you can report it...and hopefully get the instructions on how to fix this? I have invested a lot into this stuff (iPhone, iPad) to use as support tools.....with the main purpose of using iTunes on my PC.

Anyone know how to contact a "real" person that could provide assistance ??

It would be a good move on Apple's part to send a global e-mail admitting to this problem and that a repair is forthcoming.

This problem is not restricted to AMD processors. My old IBM Thinkpad (Pentium IIIm) 1113 ghz was hit by this problem. It appears to be Apple QuickTime related. All mp3 and iTunes streaming radio playback are distorted beyond recognition. Music downloaded from the iTunes store seemed to play ok, but I did not check everything. The MP3s are good and playback fine in Windows Media Player and WinAmp. QuickTime can no longer play m4v videos that were playing fine before the upgrade QuickTime 7.7. There is video, but no audio.

Until Apple comes out with a fix, I downgraded to iTunes 10.4 32bit (Warning - all libraries and playlists must be rebuilt using this method):

1. Copy My Music/iTunes folder to a safe location
2. Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - Uninstall iTunes
3. Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - Uninstall QuickTime
4. Run CCleaner Registry Cleaner and restart (recommended)
5. Download iTunes 10.4 from FileHippo.com (http://www.filehippo.com/download_itunes_32/10448/)
6. Run iTunes installer
7. Import music file containing mp3s (iTunes - File - Add File to library)
8. Test playback of file.
9. Download Quicktime 7.6 (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL762)
10. Run QuickTime Installer
11. Restore the files you saved in Step 1. Create & Copy folders from back-up file to the following folders.

• Automatically Add to iTunes
• Books
• Downloads
• Mobile Applications
• Music
• Podcasts

Restart iTunes and you should be back in business. If your iPhone is iOS 5, you will need to refrain from syncing until Apple sorts this out.

The above approach is worst case. I would be glad to hear if someone found a real solution to this issue.