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severe bass distortion on ipod touch. help!

post #1 of 17
1/27/10 at 9:36pm
Thread Starter 
i bought a song of itunes with some very low bass parts in it, on my macbook pro it sounds fine through my turbines, on my ipod touch it sounds as if the its horribly distorted!?!?!? it sounds like the amp in the ipod cant provide enough power to drive the headphones that low, or maybe its overdriving them since there low impedance (16 ohms). anyone got any idea???? has this happened to anyone else???
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post #2 of 17
1/27/10 at 11:47pm
You must have the EQ on. The iPod touch powers the Turbines fine: I am listening to them now and they distort way less than the AMP3 Pro (touted by some as the best) in bass heavy songs.

Try turning the EQ away from BASS, that should help. Good luck.
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post #3 of 17
1/27/10 at 11:52pm
Thread Starter 
ill try it, thanks, didnt even think of that, it is on bass boost...
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post #4 of 17
1/27/10 at 11:55pm
Thread Starter 
yea thanks, that fixed it. its funny though on my macbook i have a custom eq with double the bass of the apple supplied bass boost eq and it doesn't distort, i think its because i also have the pre amp turned all the way down though.
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post #5 of 17
1/28/10 at 12:07am
It is different on the Laptops - they have some overhead by at least 12 decebels and the iPod is full on at 0 decibels or close to unless you are listening to old records.

The only way you can bypass the distortion whilst still using bass boost is regaining your music down to like 85 decibels using aacgain.

Surprised you want more bass though: the turbine is massively bassy. The Pro is less bassy, but still quite powerful in the low end. Enjoy.
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post #6 of 17
1/28/10 at 2:04pm
Thread Starter 
i love bass!!! lol. thanks for the help!
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post #7 of 17
1/28/10 at 6:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shigzeo View Post
It is different on the Laptops - they have some overhead by at least 12 decebels and the iPod is full on at 0 decibels or close to unless you are listening to old records.

The only way you can bypass the distortion whilst still using bass boost is regaining your music down to like 85 decibels using aacgain.
I find that the default of 89dBs (I think that's the default) is good enough. Unless your music is immensely, immensely bassy.
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post #8 of 17
1/29/10 at 10:01pm
Yea the iPod equalizer for bass booster is horrible. I mainly use Acoustic/Rock for most music and Hip Hop on rap songs depending on which headphones I'm using. I mostly keep it on Rock though.
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post #9 of 17
3/13/10 at 3:49pm
I've been hearing distortion in some of my iPods on tracks that have a lot of sustained music,... and have narrowed it down to lousy EQ. Thought it was my older, higher-compression MP3s (no), or new in-ear headphones (no), or faulty source material (no). It's attenuated with Sound Check on (dunno why).

All the MP3s have had track leveling data appended by Media Monkey. Some of the test tracks I've used are ripped at 256kbps VBR, some even at 320kbps CBR. I'll try re-analyzing the tracks with -85db as the reference (Media Monkey defaults to -89db), but I would guess this won't matter ... you shouldn't have to tell a player to diminish the audio prior to shaping the freqs. (But what do I know.)
_____________

Addendum:

I tested re-analyzing a few tracks to -85db, with no effect. Next step ... re-ripping a CD or two with lowered leveling data. (sigh) I shouldn't have to do this for 5000+ tracks just to accommodate the iPoop.
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post #10 of 17
3/13/10 at 11:51pm
I have no idea why Apple have opted for the obviously broken EQ sine the very first days. It is sad and annoying.
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post #11 of 17
3/16/10 at 11:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shigzeo View Post
I have no idea why Apple have opted for the obviously broken EQ sine the very first days. It is sad and annoying.
Because 70 percent of the people buying iPods don't know anything about equalizers or don't use headphones that will benefit from them. So instead of confusing the public they give you "bass, rock, and classical" guidelines that "must be right because that's what they say they do".
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post #12 of 17
3/18/10 at 12:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChromeJob View Post
I've been hearing distortion in some of my iPods on tracks that have a lot of sustained music,... and have narrowed it down to lousy EQ. Thought it was my older, higher-compression MP3s (no), or new in-ear headphones (no), or faulty source material (no). It's attenuated with Sound Check on (dunno why).

All the MP3s have had track leveling data appended by Media Monkey. Some of the test tracks I've used are ripped at 256kbps VBR, some even at 320kbps CBR. I'll try re-analyzing the tracks with -85db as the reference (Media Monkey defaults to -89db), but I would guess this won't matter ... you shouldn't have to tell a player to diminish the audio prior to shaping the freqs. (But what do I know.)
_____________

Addendum:

I tested re-analyzing a few tracks to -85db, with no effect. Next step ... re-ripping a CD or two with lowered leveling data. (sigh) I shouldn't have to do this for 5000+ tracks just to accommodate the iPoop.
I think I've determined that releveling tracks breaks the "baseline level" for an entire album (in the software I'm using). :P BUT ... reducing the target level for ripping new CDs (from a "normal" of 89dB) to something like 84dB has helped reduce iPod distortion using EQ. (I seem to favor the HipHop selection as it boosts bass, but doesn't boost treble as drastically as Jazz and Classical. I tried Bass Boost, but found with my Bose AEMs and IEMs, it was too much.)

A lot of my previously ripped CDs (and purchased tracks from Amazon) result in a replay gain coefficient of -7dB or more, which just about guarantees I'd get distortion. Too bad, since I don't really want to re-level purchased music....
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post #13 of 17
3/18/10 at 12:39pm
I don't think you want the bass boost on the iPod anyway. It boosts somewhere around 160 to 200Hz rather than 100Hz and less. It's a really poor EQ all-around.
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post #14 of 17
3/18/10 at 3:46pm
Depends on the media. The Orb, kinda like the HipHop eq as it makes the midrange less crowded, but more open stuff like O Yuki Conjugate, Tuu, Micky Hart (Planet Drum), etc,. un-EQ'ed is the only way to fly.
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post #15 of 17
3/18/10 at 8:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChromeJob View Post
Depends on the media. The Orb, kinda like the HipHop eq as it makes the midrange less crowded, but more open stuff like O Yuki Conjugate, Tuu, Micky Hart (Planet Drum), etc,. un-EQ'ed is the only way to fly.
Bass boost setting boosts 36Hz to 500Hz and in every shrinking amounts, so the lowest boosted settings indeed, are low bass registers.
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