160 GB IPod Classic : Sound Distortion?

Recently, I purchased a 160 GB IPod Classic from Wal-Mart. Once I got home and synched my notoriously large music library onto it, I immediately noticed a huge difference in the sound quality. The kicks and snares were ugly, and the bass was even more disgusting! All of my favorite songs were so distorted. At first I assumed it was the headphones, so I tested them out on my ''ex'' 8GB IPod Touch to compare - and everything was perfectly fine (and better).
I searched my issue online and seen many buyers like me having the same exact problem, and most of them purchased their IPods in 2009-2010! How can a problem like this go unsolved for so long? Why wouldn't Apple change/fix the software to be up with the newer generation's standards if they are still for sale today? There has to be someway this could be fixed.
So all I want to know is if I really wasted $249 on a device so worthless? I only bought this product for the 160 GB of memory since I couldn't fit all of my music on my IPod Touch, and now I feel robbed.

Music post 2008 ish is recorded into an MP3 file at higher volumes than prior to that era.
Modern DAC (digital to analogue converter) can deal with this increase in volume (earlier albums, particularly those ripped from 1980's CDs) will sound quieter.
Unfortunately the DAC in the ipod classic hasn't been updated from one of the early versions.
What I've done for some recent purchases, is run them through this volume levelling software:
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php
There is an equivalent version for the Mac. They are identical in operation, and one version is no better than the other.
I reduce the volume by about 10% on a whole album, even if it's only 2 or three tracks that are distorting.
Remember to keep a copy of your original files for safety.
The quality of the music does not degrade, and I'm really fussy and have $300 senheiser IE80s. It's just the volume that is reduced so it doesn't upset the iPod classic DAC.
However, there's no getting away from it, that this is a REAL PAIN, and there should be NO EXCUSE for apple selling such an inadequate product. It shouldn't be too long before the iPod touch or Nano is in the 200Gb region. After all, they can fit 64Gb on a Micro SD card whose outer casing is smaller than my small fingernail, what are Apple waiting for?

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When i connect my 160 G ipod classic to my computer, the computer says ipod should be formatted before use.

when i connect my 160 GB ipod classic to my computer, the computer says ipod should be formatted before use. what could be wrong

Hello mimward,
It sounds like Windows can see your devices, but iTunes is not seeing them. I would use the troubleshooting in the following article named:
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

Case for 160 gb iPod Classic???

Been everywhere (including the Apple Store) looking for a plain, simple silicone case for a 160 gb iPod Classic. This is the OLD style, and dimension iPod. It is thicker than the new (7th gen) 160 gb iPods. I can't even figure out how to word the google search to look for one. Anyone know where I can find them?
MANY thanks in advance-
Blue skies-
Jeff

When you did the Reset, did the Apple Logo comes ON and asked you to select the preferred language?
Charge your iPod for at least 2 hours.
After charging till full charge, preferably 4 hours
Toggle the Hold switch, make sure you dont see the red mark when you do the next step
Reset the iPod -> Press Menu and Center button simultaneously for about 10 secs till the Apple Logo comes ON
Then release the buttons
Select your preferred language.
Here is the Apple support Article on the 5Rs
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/
Good Luck!

My 160 g ipod classic wont synk past 4 gigs and when it gets to 4 gigs it erasis all the content a message unknown error occurd (13011)

my 160 g ipod classic will not sync past 4 gigs and when it gets to 4 gigs it erasis all the content a message unknown error occurd (13011) i have formated it with windows and restored it several times nothing works should i toss it and buy a new one or is it me doing somthing wrong

Thanks everyone, lots of good suggestions here.
I did briefly consider trying the idea of grouping smaller loads of playlists to upload, but I also noticed that each time I ejected then re-synched the iPod a few more gigs of music would upload.
So I just kept at it until most (nearly all) of my music made it onto the thing.
This seems like a really rudimentary thing for Apple to fix - but more fundamentally, this shouldn't happen at ALL. When they market a new product, having such a basic issue plague it seems very Microsoft-like.
Up to this point I've never been disappointed with anything Apple has ever done.
This issue is purely and simply bad design and slipshod programming. I hope they fix it in the extremely near future.
Thanks again for all your help and suggestions guys!
Cheers
Dex

HT1386 160 gb iPod Classic says it must use iTunes 9 or later. 120 gb iPod Classic (wifes) is on 8.0 and doing fine. If I install iTunes 9, will both iPods be o.k.? Will any music be lost? THANKS

160 gb iPod Classic says it must use iTunes 9 or later. 120 gb iPod Classic (wifes) is on 8.0 and doing fine. If I install iTunes 9, will both iPods be o.k.? Will any music be lost? THANKS

You can either burn it to a CD or DVD from within iTunes, or back up the entire iTunes library as you would any other folder.
(84357)

I am confused. Is there currently a way to transfer 160 gig ipod Classic music to another computer of mine after my hard drive crashed? it has old limited library already on it?

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See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

160 GB iPod Classic just started skipping songs. Is there a fix?

My 160 GB iPod Classic worked flawlessy for about two years and now has begun to skip songs. Always after the same playing time from zero to around 48 seconds. About 5% of the songs skip, but the list is growing and it seems to happen at random. I am on iTunes 9.2.1 (5) on my iMac running Tiger OSX 10.4.
(I also have an older 60 GB iPod that is working fine). I have read many strings by this community concerning this problem and cannot seem to find a good solution here. It seems like some sort of corruption issue. My iTunes library seems to be fine. If I delete an album from the iTunes library and then synch the iPod Classic to delete the same album from the iPod Classic then re-burn the album to iTunes and then resynch the iPod Classic, the album plays just fine. Of course, I do not wish to hunt and peck for all the bad songs in order to clean them up, especially if more corruption is going to happen. This is a maddening problem as many of you know. It drives me nuts and ruins my enjoyment of my music with this 160 GB iPod Classic.
My music is all in the AAC audio file format and I have about 8700 songs, some 25 music videos, 25 podcasts and thousands of photos taking up around 63 GB of space on my iPod Classic. I sure wish that everyone who is having this skipping problem can band together and get a voice at Apple for some help.
The iPod Classic was a joy for about two years - and now - has become an aggravation.

Here I am submitting possible causes and solutions for my own problem. Possible root cause of skipping may be the use of a headset cable having a TRRS connector male plug having 4 conductor rings and 3 insulator rings. My problem started when I began to use an AKG Q460 headset which has this connector. Same TRRS plug may be found on iPhone headset or many other headsets having an active switch control in the cable. I think this headset plug may have caused corruption of digital song data when I actuated skip to next or previous song or possibly even when I increased or decreased the volume which is an incrementing pulse control signal. I went back to the headset cable having the same TRS connector as found on the Apple original headset and on my Sennheiser headset and there is even a short TRS cable that comes with the AKG headset. The problem seems to have gone away. No new skipping songs have occurred since using the TRS connector. You can learn more by searching on TRS connector on Wikipedia.
Fixing the corrupted songs was accomplished as follows: 1) MARK the corrupted song as a one star rating on the iPod. 2) Synch the iPod and then when synch is complete, DELETE the marked songs into the trash. 3) Synch the iPod again to remove the corrupted songs from the iPod. 4) Drag the songs out of the trash to the desktop. Then drag the songs back into iTunes. Remove the one star rating. 5) Synch the iPod once again to restore the uncorrupted songs. Fortunately, the iTunes version of the song does not get corrupted when synching the iPod. So far, this has worked fine. I even had one corrupted music video which was repaired with this method. Comments are welcome, especially regarding the TRS vs TRRS connector theory.

160 GB Ipod Classic - data transfer problems

Hi I have a 160 GB Ipod Classic that I have been using to transfer large amounts of data files back and forth between home and work. I had a PC laptop at home and originally had the Ipod formatted for PC, but recently bought a new Mac Book Pro and reformatted it to MAC. Now when I try to hook up to a PC at work it will not recognize the drive and wants to format it to PC.
Is there anyway around this? I could reformat it back to PC and still use it on the MAC, but I like to have it formatted to MAC so that software updates occur when I hook it up. I am trying to make the jump and live in Mac-Utopia...:)
Also, I now have the Itunes library transfered to the MAC
Any help out there would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Mark

Is there anyway around this?
Not without installing software such as HFSExplorer or MacDrive onto the PC.
(37945)

Ipod classic eq distortion

I just bought the Ipod classic 160gb and when I adjusted the equalizer to e.g. rock hiphop r&b , the sound was just distorted. I can tell the bass is really distorted. You know if I turn off the equalizer to fix the problem , the sound is not so good. In addition , compared to Iphone5 when I adjusted the eq , the sound was so good , not distorted at all. So I need to know why apple made such equalizers in the ipod classic. If there's no way to fix this , Apple should do something to take responsibility for their costumers. I really cant' stand the sound. Thank you.

I recently bought a 30gb ipod video. Upgraded to
firmware 1.1.2. Loaded my music and started
listening. Many of the songs sound flat w/o any EQ
settings, so I turned the EQ on, and the bass
distorts like crazy. Sounds like crap.
So I brought it to the apple store, the "genius"
agreed with me and exchanged my ipod for a new one.
Same f'ing thing!!! Songs distort with EQ on.
Anyone else experiencing this problem? My freakin
$30 Panasonic CD/mp3 player sounds better than this
$300 piece of junk.
I've tried it with the stock earbuds, and also with
some Sony headphones, and I get the same results.
And I've tried music I've downloaded, music I've
ripped from CDs, and music I've purchased from
iTunes. Some songs disort (even some I bought from
iTunes), and some don't. What's a guy to do?
I'm in the same boat.
I bought a new ipod and it distorts when the eq it activated.I thought it might have been the inferior ear buds so i bought a set of shure E4s.Still Getting the same results.Then I updated the ipod.It still distorts when the eq is turned on.Even at low levels.So i tested the same musicon my laptop through my Pioneer Djm600 mixer with my e4s....They rocked alot louder with the bass setting on the eq turned up.Next I ran the music on my ipod through
My M-Audio bx8 Studio Monitors ....Still got the same distortion.This only happens with the eq turned on.
I don't know what to do now.....Can anyone tell me if apple is at least admitting to the probem....if its going to get fixed with new firmware....The problems there and I'm glad that its not just me.

Ipod classic sound but no video

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can help me with this, for it is becoming rather frustrating to deal with. I finally got a new universal dock for my new 160 gb ipod, along with a dynex a/v cord to hook up to my tv to watch various videos. I get everything hooked up, switch the video out to yes, and I get the sound, but no video. Does anyone know what is going on or what I am doing wrong (if anything)? To error on the side of simplicity, I will assume it is something on my end, but I want to make sure before I take the dynex a/v cord back. Oh, the a/v cord is composite, by the way, for that is the only connection I can use easily, without dismantling everything, but I would think that would work just fine.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Greg
ps. I have a feeling that since the a/v cable connects via the headphone jack, and since video is disables thru this, that may be the reason. Again, any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Message was edited by: uroborus

I just wrote this in response to another topic about the classic and the video out so I figured it might help here. Maybe if we all say enough about it apple will fix the issue so we can use our items. This is rediculous that it would not work with items that have already been purchased, even items purchased that apple resells in the store seem to have issues. Check out the article that I found and posted below.
I am having the same problem but with my philips dcp750 that I recently purchased. I was able to use it with my old 30gb iPod video but can not get it to work with new classic. The problem is that I can't switch the classics settings to turn the iPod's video out to on. I did some searching on the web and found out that with the new classic it seems apple has hidden from everyone that you can not use the video out anymore unless you use some type of special unlocking mechanisms that will be built in units. It may work with some items but it looks like apple does not want it to by default. Here is an article I found about it while doing some searching why it wouldn't work. Not sure if this is being rectified in a new firmware update or it is actually purposely done by apple. I hope they are going to fix this because I would not of purchased a new classic if I had known that it would not work with the items I have for it.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/apple-locks-tv-out-in-new-ipods-b reaks-video-add-ons/P25/

Multiple 160 GB iPod Classic issues

Last August, I purchased a 160GB iPod Classic. For the first several months, it worked just fine. I hooked it up with the audio cable and it would play in my Hyundai Tucson. One day in the Spring, the volume stopped working in the vehicle. I tried other cables and reset the device several times. It started to work again. About a week later, nothing. It wouldn't even have sound when hooked up to headphones.
I took it the Apple store and we tried it out in a vehicle of one of the associates, it worked. Took it home, down again. Had it replaced. Tried it all different wasy, bought a new audio cable for the car, headphones, etc. NOTHING. Had it replaced last Saturday for the second time. Used it everywhere but the car and it worked. Yesterday, I put headphones on and it crash. (Did not try in car yet).
My questions are these: I have a 30GB Classic that has the same library on it. Could there be something wrong with the library? Corrupt? Could the vehicle need a certain something installed? My dealership knows nothing. I've searched online forums for the issue (thinking maybe it was the car). But this one didn't even go in the car and it crashed after a full charged and library sync.
In case it matters, I have a MacBook Pro 13inch using the most updated iTunes and software.
If anyone can help-Thank you!

Also, I am using my older 30GB iPod classic and it works fine with all outlets, headphones, vehicle, etc.

IPod classic sound quality issues

Hi guys,
I understand probably it's too much early to discuss this topic but anyway I try to ask.
In order to the release of the new model (yesterday's event in USA)of the classic, anybody has any news about the sound quality complaints arised in the previous months?
I mean, anybody knows if the quality sound problems, due to the change of the sound micro-chip, have been solved in the new modelMany thanks in advance for the help.

Excellent question, the answer to which I eagerly await. If the sound quality improves, I might purchase a 120GB, otherwise, there are now alternatives by competitors with 120GB capacity, similar form factors, built in FM radio, subscription music services, and wireless sync of the music library for the same price as Apple's 120GB. They don't have the sound stage issue as the 160GB Classic. There is even a 240GB model being offered by a competitor.
Too bad Apple didn't release a 240GB Ipod classic. Toshiba, Apple's hard drive manufacturer, announced a 240GB 1.8" drive on 9/9, coincident with the Apple Ipod announcements. I have a large and growing library of classical recordings as I explore the classical catalog, as well as many Podcasts. I could really use the space! I've input this request on Apple's Ipod feedback page and suggest that any like minded customers do the same.

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Hello,
Every time I connect my iPod to my computer, it makes these very loud and frightening grinding noises. It has only happened since I got my iMac back from repairs, during which the hard drive was replaced.
It only occurs when I connect, and later, when I eject. After a while it stops.
Nothing appears to be wrong with the iPod, and it syncs fine. This noise is the only issue.
Here is a video showing what happens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlhOIDZVOww
Note: you may need to turn your volume up to hear it.
Message was edited by: rezzzz

Yeah- that sounds very frightening indeed. I also have the 160GB iPod Classic black but it purs like a kitten. I've had problems with the battery meter not being accurate but I can deal with that. I hope you have it insured with an extended warranty like I got when I bought it at Best Buy last year.

Ipod Classic sound quality

i bought a ipod classic but the sound quality sound really ****** and the volume is 2 low APPLE I WANT MY MONEY BACK !!

2 factors:
1. are you importing tracks at 128 bit (or less)?
2. are you using Apple earbuds or some other company?
Tracks at 128 or lower may sound tinny/am radio-ish.
Low-end earbuds may also sound "off"
128 bit is great for space conservation, especially on the smaller ipods (2-4gb), but the tradeoff is sound quality.
Since the classic has sufficient space, I would check iTunes prefs and reset track import quality to 256 or higher. Personally, I import at variable lossless. Typically runs between 950 and 1100 bit, which is close to CD quality.

Ipod classic sound from only one channel

My 80GB Ipod classic has sound from only one headphone. Same problem when docked so it's not a headphone or socket problem. It's as if only one channel is working. Any ideas?

Did you check System Preferences>Sound to make certain that the balance scroll section was in the middle?
Clinton

160 GB IPod Classic : Sound Distortion?

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