Scratchy sound quality

I have a 30GB iPod and it has terrible sound quality. The music sounds staticky -- or as if it's being played through blown speakers. I've played it through three different sets of headphones and two home stereos, and they all sound the same -- crackly. Here's the rub: The songs that sound scratcy on my iPod also sound scratchy when played through iTunes on my laptop. And it doesn't matter what the original source was. Some soungs I've downloaded sound like this, as do songs I've burned from CDs.
Not sure if this is related, but the sound is also fairly muffled. When I play it through my home stereo (which is fairly high-end) I have to crank up the mid-range on the EQ to hear vocals clearly.
What the ...?
30

Wow! The EQ really *****, doesn't it? Turning it off made a huge difference. The sound was so bad beforehand that it wasn't even listenable.
The crackling sound is now gone. The mid-range is still kind of dull, but at least it's all clean now.
Thanks.

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I've used itunes for years prior to buying an ipod.
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Hi amwils,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. You may want to report this issue to the iTunes Store:
How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBookstore purchase
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1933
Cheers,
- Ari

Poor sound quality on airtunes and airport express

I recently configured a new Airport Extreme base station and two airport expresses. I used the airport expresses to extend my network but the sound quality is very poor when I run itunes no my stero. can anyone tell me why and how to fix it. The sound is very scratchy and there is no volume.
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Dear All,
I'd like to follow up because I think that the answer to why I am getting poor sound quality my be in how I set up my wireless network. I'd like to get some feedback about this and some help about how to correct it.
My wireless network has three components.
1. "Base Station" which is a new Airport Extreme.
2. Unit "Number 1" which is an Airport Express located in my living room and connected to my stereo. it is 30 feet away from the "Base Station."
3. Unit "Number 2", also an Airport Express that is upstairs in a bedroom and connected to a ruby imac. via its ethernet port.
Wireless strength is excellent in all locations and all other services are working well from a laptop, the ruby mac or the imac. My problem only seems readily apparent when playing itunes through the stereo's speakers.
My wireless system is configured as follows:
Base Station: Wireless mode is set to participate in wireless network and to allow this network to be extended. The WDS mode is main and is set to allow wireless clients. The two airport expresses are identified by ID number as remotes.
Unit 1 and 2 are configured as WDS remotes and to allow wireless clients and identify the base station as WDS main.
I recently configured a new Airport Extreme base
station and two airport expresses. I used the
airport expresses to extend my network but the sound
quality is very poor when I run itunes no my stero.
can anyone tell me why and how to fix it. The sound
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Rich

Poor sound quality, Airport Express

Hi,
I have this 2 yrs old airport express but it has all of the sudden a really poor sound quality.
When I connect it to my home stereo and play through airplay and if I connect headphones the sound is very poor and scratchy
I've used 3 diffferent cables to connect it to my home stereo and i've tried 2 different set of headphnoes.
When i connect directly to my home stereo with RCA cable the sound is fine.
Is the only solution to buy a new airport?
Thank you.

Based on your description, it appears that the base station's internal DAC is the issue and may be failing. Unfortunately these are not user replaceable parts and a complete base station replacement may be the only option at this point in time.
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Scratchy sound in iTunes! (No problems in Quicktime) - frustrating!

Hello everybody,
When playing audio in iTunes 10 the sound is scratchy. If a song starts out very quietly, eg. with only an acoustic guitar, there is a very noticeable scratchy sound almost every time a note is played. This is extremely frustrating when listening to any kind of music.
I'm on a brand new MacBook Pro, everything is up to date. I also had these sound scratch issues with my old MacBook, so I was hoping they'd be gone on my brand new MacBook... Guess not.
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-I imported a brand new CD into iTunes
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Here's what I don't understand:
When playing back the very same files using QuickTime, or even using Quick Look in the Finder, there's NO scratchy sound. The output level is a bit lower, that's all - but no scratchy sounds whatsoever. The files sound perfect and awesome in QuickTime and Quick Look.
So, what should I do now?
Using QuickTime to play all my music seems pretty rediculous, to say the least. The whole point of iTunes is to organize and play your music. So this bothers me quite a bit.
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Hi guys,
Just stumbled across this post on Google and I just want to say that I am experiencing the same problem and I have the equalizer turned off! I am running my iMac with a USB sound card to my amp and into B&W floorstanding speakers which all work VERY well.
Similar to the guy above my songs are playing very well with QuickTime - not a problem at all, but with iTunes 10 something isn't quite right. Basically when a song gets slightly bassier it tends to sound scratchy - e.g. A hard strum of a guitar. I know this isn't right and I am certain it is an issue with iTunes - the equalizer is turned off but sound check is on (with sound check off it sounds worse).
What I struggle to understand is that all of my songs have been sync'd to my iPhone 4 and those songs which sounded scratchy on iTunes on my iMac sound fine on he phone - even when I go out of the headphone jack of my phone straight to my amp!!
Please, please can somebody resolve this issue - I love high quality sound and if the iMac insists that I play and organize a bulk of my music with iTunes then it needs to sound right because at he moment the likes of John Mayer are sounding rough!
One of the main songs we could use as an example would be a song by Mumford and Sons called "After the Storm".
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1.
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Thank you for the reply!
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Message was edited by: NHRadar

Why is the sound quality and volume in itunes so different than when I use other media players

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I have spent a lot of time over the last two years trying to get my itunes library organized as well as getting good digitized versions from my vinyl records as well as CDs. I was pleased with my results and then I added the songs to itunes. I could not believe how inconsistent the sound quality was. Invariably the volume is always lower. [Please do not post a reply such as: Check the volume controls in itunes proper as well as in itunes preferences (i.e., Sound Check, Sound Enhancer) & the Volume Adjustment in the Information pane under Options for particular songs.] I tried all of those means of adjusting volume. They do NOT work.
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fbuerg,
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The sound quality of my speaker suddenly got really poor when playing music or videos. Sounds like an old AM radio or Sputnik. Pretty sure it's hardware related but maybe not. Thoughts on what the problem might be and if it can be repaired?

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Has Apple addressed poor sound quality issues with new 160GB iPod classic?

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Scratchy sound quality

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