Headphone out distorion - only when on OS X

My Macbook Pro has a strange issue that I can't find anything about.
I often have speakers/headphones connected to the headphone out port. However, all sounds are a little distorted... as if they were being played through very very cheap speakers. At first I thought something was terribly wrong with my Shure headphones, however when connected to an iPod (with the same audio files) they sound great.
So then I thought it must be a problem with the headphone out port on the mac, or the audio chips inside. However, when I booted in Windows XP (blasphemy i know) the headphones sounded just like they do on the iPod - great.
Therefore it must be something to do with OS X. I have tried iTunes with sound enhancer on and off, volume adjustment on and off, equalisers all off - nothing improves this poor sound quality issue.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Macbook Pro (core 2 duo, 2.33ghz) Mac OS X (10.4.7)

anyone?
Macbook Pro (core 2 duo, 2.33ghz) Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Headphone out distorion - only when on OS X

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