Poor audio quality with iTunes 9

Hi.
This is my first posting and I am hoping members of the iTunes development team look in here.
I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard and I noticed a marked improvement in sound quality using iTunes 8 . Please note I am playing AIFF files through the digi out of my Macbook into a high quality Dac, amp and speaker separates system, in fact the sound was as good as any cd transport I have ever used. I then "upgraded" to iTunes 9 and noticed a deterioration in audio quality, the bass has become woolly and indistinct and small details in songs are harder to hear resulting in a un-involving sound.
I know I am not imagining this as I have done repeated tests using the same file played back via iTunes9, Songbird and Cog and iTunes is clearly the inferior of the three and the poor quality of 9 is being discussed on many hifi forums.
So come on iTunes team either sort out the audio output of 9 or give us audiophiles an easy way to get rid of 9 and go back to 8 without losing our libraries.
ps. love all the bells and whistles but sound quality is paramount.
Cheers
Andy.

I had exactly the same problem on my new, beefed-up laptop and couldn't figure out how an "upgrade" could ruin my music (which I take pretty seriously). I am embarrassed to say what actually fixed the problem. I started by turning off the EQ and it improved somewhat. I kept searching the web without luck until I noticed something by accident. My system volume was low and the iTunes volume was peaked at max. I turned the iTunes volume to 40% and turned up the computer volume to compensate and voila! The bass distortion and indistinct vocal range was immediately fixed. I turned the EQ back on and was able to use it however I liked. I guess it is like turning up the volume on a radio to max. You get sound, but it gets distorted in the upper range. Hope that helps!

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