Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › Members' Lounge (General Discussion) › iTunes plug-in for better sound quality
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

iTunes plug-in for better sound quality

post #1 of 13
8/27/10 at 1:20pm
Thread Starter 

Hi guys... Just tried the demo and I was quite impressed.. My ears arent trained well enough to fully appreciate how good or bad it is.. so please advise..

 

Its simply a plug in for itunes for Mac (Edit: for better sound quality)

 

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ipod_itunes/dpspluginforitunes.html

 

Thanks.


Edited by secondary - 8/27/10 at 1:28pm
Reply
post #2 of 13
8/27/10 at 7:46pm

Ditch itunes and get something like foobar.

Reply
post #3 of 13
8/27/10 at 11:05pm

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjinh View Post

Ditch itunes and get something like foobar.


a) iTunes for OSX is actually quite good- only the PC version is abysmally bad. b) FB2k is Windows only. 

Reply
post #4 of 13
8/27/10 at 11:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MCC View Post


a) iTunes for OSX is actually quite good- only the PC version is abysmally bad. b) FB2k is Windows only. 



What's the matter with it, (iTunes for PC)? Seems to work just fine.

A gripe against iTunes that goes cross platform is the way an iTunes upgrade can stop an accessory from working correctly.

Reply
post #5 of 13
8/27/10 at 11:43pm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moontan13 View Post

What's the matter with it, (iTunes for PC)? Seems to work just fine.

A gripe against iTunes that goes cross platform is the way an iTunes upgrade can stop an accessory from working correctly.


It slows Windows PCs down worse than, say, AOL or older versions of Norton Antivirus. Simply installing it noticeably reduces the perceived speed of the machine partly due to all of the background junk it installs. It also truncated all of the tags in my music collection for no apparent reason and I failed to notice until after I had overwritten my backup with a new one. Even with Musicbrainz Picard it took a good chunk of time to undo the damage iTunes did.

 

/derail, back to OP

 

I haven't used that particular plugin but it's been my experience that DSP plugins tend to distort the music in an unfavorable way. Good DSP audio plugins can make some music sound more pleasing for a while but I always end up going back to pure unaltered audio. These types of things are usually best used only with lower end speakers and headphones in an attempt to make up for their shortcomings IMO.


Edited by MCC - 8/27/10 at 11:45pm
Reply
post #6 of 13
8/28/10 at 12:34am

Thanks for the link. I will check it out.


Originally Posted by jjinh View Post

Ditch itunes and get something like foobar.


Well, Foobar2000 is MS Windows only.

Reply
post #7 of 13
8/28/10 at 1:44am

I can't say I'm a big fan of plug-ins that distort the sound. They might be ok for crappy computer speakers, but are most definitely not good if you're using higher quality gear.  However, they can be a good learning tool if you want to understand how changes to the tonal balance of music can influence your perception of music.

Reply
post #8 of 13
8/28/10 at 5:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MCC View Post


It slows Windows PCs down worse than, say, AOL or older versions of Norton Antivirus. Simply installing it noticeably reduces the perceived speed of the machine partly due to all of the background junk it installs. It also truncated all of the tags in my music collection for no apparent reason and I failed to notice until after I had overwritten my backup with a new one. Even with Musicbrainz Picard it took a good chunk of time to undo the damage iTunes did.

 

/derail, back to OP

 

 


Something is very wrong with your computer, and I'm pretty sure it's not iTunes.
 

Reply
post #9 of 13
8/28/10 at 7:51am


Quote:

Originally Posted by Moontan13 View Post

Something is very wrong with your computer, and I'm pretty sure it's not iTunes.
 


Not just my computer, every computer I've seen iTunes put on. My Dad bought an iPhone and immediately noticed that his new laptop slowed down after installing iTunes. I myself timed the boot before/after installing iTunes and it was slower. I'm not the only one that feels that iTunes is a resource hog. I've since eliminated all Apple software from my machine with the exception of a licensed OSX 10.6 VM I need for Xcode for a class. iTunes runs faster in the VM than it does natively in Windows.

 

My computer is in 100% operating order. My hard drives passed Spinrite level 4, RAM 12 hours of Memtest86 and CPU 20 iterations of Linpack just 2 weeks ago.

Reply
post #10 of 13
8/28/10 at 9:43am

Back on topic anyone?

This thread is not about iTunes on MS Windows...

Reply
post #11 of 13
8/28/10 at 10:55am

Tried it. No offence, but it actually sounds worse on my setup! The bass is bloated, the mids gets recessed and the highs are too bright and painful. They may be good for apple/stock earphones and cheap speakers but it degrades the sound quality of mid and high end setups IMO.

Reply
post #12 of 13
8/28/10 at 1:53pm

maybe that would work with worse equipment but wow did that make my head hurt

Reply
post #13 of 13
8/28/10 at 2:44pm

 

Quote:
 “Custom Tuning Profiles” that extend the frequency response of your built-in computer speakers or any other audio accessories that you connect to your computer.

 

Think about it

 

How exactly does it do this ?

 

 

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › Members' Lounge (General Discussion) › iTunes plug-in for better sound quality