Ipod sound quality worse than iTunes

I'm not too knowledgable in this area so this may be an obvious answer to some. Though my ipod doesn't seem defective, I've noticed that sound quality seems to decrease (compared to listening to songs on iTunes with the same headphones). Is this decrease in quality, which is not huge but still noticeable, an expected occurence?

perhaps try working through the possibilities from the following document:
iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Songs and other audio don't play correctly

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ITunes 7.0.2 sound quality worse than 7.0.1

Hello, I just downloaded iTunes 7.0.2 and noticed a distinct loss in sound quality with this version of the software. All of my sound files are already in the Apple Losless format. What happened with this version of the software, and what can I do?
Thanks.
Dell Inspiron 8600 Windows XP

perhaps try working through the possibilities from the following document:
iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Songs and other audio don't play correctly

Poor iPhone4 (iPod) sound quality

I have an iPhone4 (iOS-4.3.4 | 32GB) that is only 1 month old and I'm finding that the phone's iPod sound quality basically stinks. It's extremely tin can quality even Vs my iPod. My cheap earbuds that came with the iPod sound 1000% better than my $400 Monster earbuds.
I know that unlike the iPod you can download your music on the iPhone at about any data size, but went with the lower to keep the size of the music library smaller. But, did that kill the sound quality or is there some problem with the iPhone4 and the way it operates, especially on the iPod?
The same music sounds fine on the iPod, but when played on the iPhone4 the quality is so bad that it hurts my ears. It's like I'm listening to music between two tin cans attached by sting.
Is there a way around this or is this just simply a problem with the iPhone4?
It's amazing that my tiny iPodnano can produce better sound than the iPhone4 even with the same headphones or earbuds.
Thanks for any hints...
Mike

I have not tried it with the phone on, it's always been in the airplane mode when I listen to the music. So with airplane mode the 3G and Wi-Fi are off. Not sure what BT is.
Odd thing is that podcasts, tv shows and films all are okay ... I don't hear any real difference. It's only with the music. Know that when I downloaded my music from both the MBP and MBA I used the lower bit rate, but would not think that should make a difference. Since the iPodnano is loaded at the same bit rate as well.
There are previous posts here in Discussions that seem to show there is a problem with the iPod on the iPhone4. But, most of those were posted in the last year with nothing recent. So if it was an iPhone4 firmware issue I thought maybe it had been resolved over time. Now I'm wondering.
I did just to the latest update this week on the iPhone4, maybe that's what did it?

Ipod sound quality dropped

hay,my ipods sound quality has dropped with the earpods and I even use the earpod with other devices and the quality is perfect but still having the problem with my ipod.any suggestions?

Go and see if your EQ acidently got changed. Or the format of your songs.

Sound Quality changes between itunes 8.2.1 and itunes 9.1

I am using itunes and a modified Airport Express as my audio source in my Hifi Stereo system.
It is working so well that I have discarded my high end audiophile CD player.
However I found an issue with itunes consistency from version to version in audio quality.
Here is the experience I conducted:
Using:
- a mac mini with Snow Leopard and itunes 8.2.1 and a macbook pro with Snow Leopard and itunes 9.1.
- Identical Wav (full res 16bit 44.1Khz) files local to each mac.
to be completely accurate the music used was:
Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson: T01 The Touch Of Your Lips
Diana Krall Live in Paris: T11 A Case of You
- in both cases itunes streams to the Airport Express (same one)
-> The result is that the there is a difference in sound between the two itunes, and I would like to understand what changed or why this difference?
If I were to describe the differences I would say that itunes 8.2.1 delivers a softer sound with more medium than itunes 9.1. Itunes 9.1 would have a brighter sound with less medium than itunes 8.2.1.
(On a side note, not relevant for the problem above, but could interest some people: When I access with my mac with itunes 9.1 the itunes 8.2.1 library on the other mac, the sound quality streamed to the AE is poor compared to either itunes version used with local files. I wonder how apple streams the music from one itunes to the next but that music it altered may be compressed in this case.)
Message was edited by: cdfr

Chris thanks for this answer.
I did check the settings on both Macs/itunes and they are identical. Everything is disabled. The remote volume is also disabled on both.
So the sound quality difference cannot be explained by that.

Poor sound quality on some iTunes songs

Downloaded some songs from iTunes and realized a really poor sound quality on some files.
The worst example is "Precious" from "Depeche Mode" (Album version). It seems to me that the AAC file is encoded at a much too high level, so its overdriven and distorted.
If i burn the song to CD and than analyze the track in WaveLab it is obvious that the song was encoded with a level more than 6dB over the usual level and i can see a lot of clippings.
Downloaded another song of another band that i allready have on CD, just to compare... and this song was much better. Even this was 3dB over the original CD level (and the song on CD had a peak level reserve of only 0.1dB), but while listening that song i heared no negative effects...
So from my point of view iTunes is not really an acceptable offer if i can't rely on a minimum sound quality of the songs that i pay for!
So, the question is:
Is this normal or is the "Depeche Mode" album only one rare bad example???

Yes, of cause, tried all.
EQ off, or EQ with all sliders a little below 0dB.
With my tests i saw no effect of the EQ to the CD burning quality.
Only if i change the CD burning options (in german "Lautstärke anpassen", something like "adapt volume" or so), than i get a CD that has the same bad quality, only at a lower volume.
The same distorted and overdriven sound with clippings at a lower level (peak -12dB).
What if it's really a bad file?
Do they fix such files?
Will i have a chance to download it again? (without paying another time?)
PC Windows XP Pro

Poor iPod sound quality

I have a third generation 15GB iPod and have never been impressed with the sound quality. I've tried all variations of the EQ and have replaced the iPod earbuds and rip most of my music at 168kb mp3 formats. I'm sure the quality is subpar after listening to a friend's Samsung mp3 player with my own headphones and hearing a big difference. Is there anything I can do to remedy my iPod's sound? Would restoring the factory settings and reloading the music help? I've got all the latest iPod software, according to iTunes.

I have not tried it with the phone on, it's always been in the airplane mode when I listen to the music. So with airplane mode the 3G and Wi-Fi are off. Not sure what BT is.
Odd thing is that podcasts, tv shows and films all are okay ... I don't hear any real difference. It's only with the music. Know that when I downloaded my music from both the MBP and MBA I used the lower bit rate, but would not think that should make a difference. Since the iPodnano is loaded at the same bit rate as well.
There are previous posts here in Discussions that seem to show there is a problem with the iPod on the iPhone4. But, most of those were posted in the last year with nothing recent. So if it was an iPhone4 firmware issue I thought maybe it had been resolved over time. Now I'm wondering.
I did just to the latest update this week on the iPhone4, maybe that's what did it?

Video output quality worse than AppleTv 1

Anyone else who owns an atv1 found video looks worse?
I'm not talking about actual video playback but the video output on 2
AppleTV1 looked great through my plasma even though it's not full HD
1080p over hdmi on 1 scaled by the plasma consistently looked best, with crisp but smooth edges to text and GUI.
Atv2 720p over hdmi looks consistently worse - it all looks oversharpened and over contrasty, with text in particular looking very jagged as well as the spinning timer wheel looking pixellated now
Watching a slideshow there seemed to be visible artefacts as some images moved or scaled whereas atv1 just looked silky smooth
Maybe the current GUI text and icons are not as smooth, maybe less antialiasing, poorer quality gpu
Maybe my plasma downscales 720p worse than 1080p - I need to check on the full HD set in another room but first impressions are not that good
Video playback seems strangely artificial too, almost as though the frame rate has been sped up slightly
Weird as the set should handle 50/60Hz without issue

So a few days in it's growing on me.
There's definitely something different about menu graphics but actual video quality for playback is excellent though I'm not sure it's not dropping/catching up frames at times.
I've watched some HD movie trailers and they look excellent.
Video navigation is considerably improved over ATV1, with FF / RW actually working reasonably well when they didn't before over the same connection. Changing chapters gives immediate starts and buffering seems considerably quicker - at least some of this must be due to newer hardware.
I don't like the top level menu much and preferred the older system but you can pretty much stay in Computers to watch own content.
Video playlists don't work properly which is poor but it took ages to get them enabled on ATV1.
There are many glitches but hopefully they'll get ironed out over time.

FCE export quality worse than iMovie with same settings

Hi, I'm having real problems exporting video from FCE. If I import an HD clip from my Panasonic sd200 into iMovie and export it as a .mov and do exactly the same in FCE using the same export settings, the quality of the exported movie from FCE is much worse than the same from iMovie. I have been struggling with this problem for months and cannot seem to get any sort of decent quality export from FCE (using H264) and spent hours trying different settings.
Also, the colours in the exported videos from iMovie and FCE are less saturated and look really bland next to the same clip in FCE canvas.
Please can anyone help? Even the guys in the Apple shop could not figure this one out.

Sorry the camera is actually a Panasonic HS200.
The native format is .MTS and films in 1920x1080 50i. Imported via iMovie as a .MOV which gives the same quality footage as if I imported via Log and Transfer.
I will expand on the problem I am experiencing. When I export from FCE4 using "QuickTime conversion" I use the following settings:
Codec: h.264 Key Frames: every 25
Frame rate: 25fps Frame Reordering: on
Data Rate Restricted to: 10mbps
Optimised for: Download
Quality: High Encoding: Best quality (multi-pass)
Dimensions: 1920x1080
Deinterlace Source Video: ticked
When the deinterlacing is ticked, the final exported video appears ghosted, with two of the same images projected side by side rather than one on top of the other, creating a very bad image. However when deinterlacing is not ticked the final exported video ends up with horizontal lines across the entire image. This is seen even more clearly when not in full screen.
When I export from iMovie 09, using Share>Export using QuickTime using the same settings as in FCE4 (deinterlacing ticked) the footage is very clear and there is no noticeable ghosting or horizontal lines.
When I export footage from FCE the video also end up desaturated and washed out, with low contrast. The same happens when I export from iMovie, but to an even greater extent!
My 'Easy Setup' for FCE4 is:
Format: Apple intermediate Codec Rate: 25fps
Use: AVCHD- Apple Intermediate Codec 1920x1080i50
These are the problems I experience; described above.
I do no know whether the problem is something to do with my export settings; settings in FCE; or whether FCE exaggerates the quality of my images (which i highly doubt); or if it is because FCE4 is now around 4 years old, and iMovie is from 2009, and therefore has more advanced settings for AVCHD?
I am by no means a professional when it comes to talking video jargon.
Any help is truly appreciated as i have completed over 150 test exports in FCE and the Final Cut experts at the Apple store spent almost 2 hours trying to work something about, but could not think of anything!
Thanks in advance.

Ipod sound quality in hi-fi

hey.
my friend is thinking to buy a new IPOD, and one of his major considerations is the sound quality while connecting the IPOD to a top-class hi-fi stereo.
can anyone help from his experience?
thanks!

From my experience the quality of my music is improving with the system I'm playing it on.
I have my music on my G4 and played through JBL Creature speakers and the quality and the things I hear is way beyond what I've heard my music when put through hi-fi's and other 'mini' systems.
As the AAC codec gets updated and improved I re-import all my music and as I purchase better speakers the quality keeps going up and up. If I really wanted the music to sound good I would get a top quality amp and speakers and hook them up, but I ain't got the space and to be honest the quality is already good at present, can't wait to get my Soundsticks II as an upgrade to my creatures. I'm sure I'll be noticing more and more detail I never noticed before.
At some point though the quality of the system and the difference the human ear can perceive will be virtually none existent so as long as the user can hear the music in as good a detail as they are happy with then there really isn't a need to purchase amazing pieces of kit.

USB XFI 5.1 sounds much worse than XFI Xtreme Music

why does the XFI 5. Surround USB sound so much worse than the internal XFI cards like the Xtreme Music? The USB version sounds really cheap despite using the same settings. I don?t think its broken, I also tried it on 2 different pcs with the same bad result. it sounds like some cheap onboard sound.

i use windows xp SP3
thnx

IPod sound quality

Does music converted to AAC format sound as good as CDs? because if they do, I'm going to start buying digital albums. Thanks for the help.

That really depends on who you ask. In *theory* compressed files like AAC and MP3 will never sound as good as the original CD. AAC are supposed to sound somewhat better than MP3s at the same bit rate (e.g. a 128-kbps AAC is supposed to sound as good as a 160-kbps MP3 or better). Of course the way to check is simply import one of your favorite CDs as AAC file format and then compare that file to the original.
Patrick

IPod Video Quality better than iPhone?

I have most of The Office episodes (from iTunes) on my iPod and iPhone. My iPod is a lot more crisp. It's almost as the iPod is HD and the iPhone isn't.. 100% blurry and the color isn't as good.
Anyone else see a clear difference?

Definitely no difference on mine when compared against my iPod Video 30GB. Now there is definitely more noticeable compression artifacts and such because you are blowing up a tiny, heavily compressed, video onto a larger screen. Trying hooking it up to a large HD TV and see how much worse it looks.

HT4914 What happens with my higher quality songs than itunes can offer?

I have songs higher than 256 kbps, some in mp3 320 kbps and other in ALAC format, what’s going to happen to these songs? Will I be downgraded to iTunes quality?

Nothing will happen to them. Keep them backed up so that you will still have copies if your hard drive fails.
What has caused a lot of discussion, and may be the basis of your question, is the iTunes Match capability. It is an optional feature, so it will not do anything unless you sign up for it. If you do sign up for it, your MP3/320 and ALAC songs will be backed up as AAC/256 copies, which as you correctly note, is a downgrade to the audio quality.
For that reason, iTunes Match is not recommended for your situation.

Aperture book quality - worse than before?

Hello everyone,
My photo studio has been using Aperture for 8 months now and we are very happy with it. We love the organization, web output, etc. We also LOVE the book design layouts, but the quality of the book printing has been degrading over that past few months.
The first books we printed with Apple (around Nov/Dec 2006) were great, then about 3 months ago, we noticed the labels on the hardcover books went down in qulaity (almost like they were just using a color laser printer), and today we received five books in the mail and the quality is terrible. Also, two of the books have the "Made on a Mac" page in the back (like iPhoto).
It seemed to me (since I have had books printed by both Aperture & iPhoto) that the older Aperture books were of higher quality than the iPhoto books. Now, it seems as though they are one-in-the-same and our studio cannot have this lower quality book - it is not up to our standards.
I would gladly use another manufacturer, but every other design software out there for each respective company is terrible and takes three times as long for us to design a single book. I LOVE the integration of the books in Aperture and it makes our timeline two weeks shorter with our clients and that is what sets us apart from other studios in this town.
Has anyone else had these problems or noticed the change/degridation in the quality of the books?
Thanks!

C'mon Apple,
There is no way you don't know that the quality of your "sticker" covers is horrible. Maybe when you first launched your book service, but it has now been years. I just received three books, and all three have tacky, peeling front stickers.
Please give us an alternative, even if it costs more, that allows us to show our work with pride. After spending thousands and thousands on computers, software, cameras, lenses, etc., the cover of the books drags that first impression into the ground.
Thanks!

Ipod sound quality worse than iTunes

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