Good sound, bad sound... same equipment, then, why?

Could there possibly be clipping going on in the digital stage?  You did not mention your computer settings.  What player are you using?  Are you using any DSPs like EQ or some such?  I have nothing against EQ (in fact, I'm all for it) but with wrong settings DSPs can cause digital clipping.  Try lowering the preamp setting a few dBs below zero, if your player has such a setting.  Try zeroing out any EQ sliders that may be above the zero mark.  If all else fails try lowering the volume output at the player and at the system mixer.  Look forward to hearing back from you.

Many acoustic instruments are recorded quite loud  but they don't nessessarly sound that way when played back due to thier softer less electronic naturen Also it may have been recorded at a volume that rode the limitor & even overpowered it causing clipping then the volume was later reduced but after the damage was done  such as the signal was cliiped during recording & clipping can't be removed without special programs that can guess the the final unclipped waveform should look like (expensive programs mind you). Once you have a clipped signal in a recording from overload reducing the volume will not remove the clipping even though the volume has been reduced. It sounds like your recording of "The Graduate" has a fair amount of clipping in it given the distortion in the low to mid frequencies. This is where you will find most clipping occuring, Rarely are high frequencies clipped except when riding the peak of a lower frquency as thier energy is reduced for balance sake as well as most instruments notgenerating that much high frquency energy except synths.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Bloggs 

Could there possibly be clipping going on in the digital stage?  You did not mention your computer settings.  What player are you using?  Are you using any DSPs like EQ or some such?  I have nothing against EQ (in fact, I'm all for it) but with wrong settings DSPs can cause digital clipping.  Try lowering the preamp setting a few dBs below zero, if your player has such a setting.  Try zeroing out any EQ sliders that may be above the zero mark.  If all else fails try lowering the volume output at the player and at the system mixer.  Look forward to hearing back from you.

Yes forgot that. Settings that you make can do this as well. set everything to flat & default & see if it still sounds distorted. If not then it's your settings, if so it is the recording.

Looks like Sound Enhancer is the culprit

http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?4,2611622

No firm confirmation of exactly what this does, but it certainly seems to be a lot.  Could easily be boosting your bass into clipping.  I suppose you have tried turning it off?

Sound Check sounds like a relative of ReplayGain, shouldn't be causing your music to clip... but it doesn't hurt to try turning that off too.

You might want to try other music players too.  Maybe this one?

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/539014/fidelia-os-x-premium-music-player-ot

"System mixer" is just my name for the volume controls on your operating system outside of iTunes.  I don't think it's the culprit, "if all else fails" in this case doesn't mean "this will definitely fix it", just means "I don't know what else to tell you to try"

"DSP" stands for Digital Signal Processor, it's the collective name for anything that modifies the sound in the digital domain, be it equalization, that "Sound Enhancer", or any number of more advanced controls, like crossfeed, room cancellation (replace $thousands in room treatment with a piece of software!), room effects (anybody wants to hear what it's like to listen to music in the toilet?)

edit: just found some info on the iTunes equalizer

http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/ituneseq/

Bring it up using the instructions on that page and see if everything's zeroed out.  Ignore any instruction on that page about boosting frequencies.  Make sure there are no sliders above the 0dB point.  If all else fails, try turning on the equalizer (the "on" checkbox) and lowering the Preamp slider past 0dB ("if all else fails" as in "this should definitely work, unless your recording's bad").

Turn off everything, eq etc, check other sound processing software eq etc are all turned off soundcards etc normally come with a software suite with loads of eq options make sure there all turned off.

^^ Yeah, that should normally work.  What I mean by asking him to turn on the EQ then turning down the preamp is, if there's any DSP he's missed that's boosting the output into clipping, turning down the preamp would fix it--but the only preamp I know of is in the EQ.  If that fixes the clipping, he'd need to go hunting for a hidden DSP in his system again until he doesn't need a preamp to prevent clipping, so he can turn off the EQ if he wishes.

mp3s without ReplayGain can clip the output without any DSP, however.  But this effect is usually not so obvious as to be immediately audible.

Yeah, wireless phone may well cause the buzz.  Like I said you could try pushing the preamp slider below 0 (turn up the volume on the headphone amp to compensate), if you hear any improvement you may need to hunt for more digital gremlins in your chain.  Otherwise you're probably looking at distortion in the recording or your analog equipment.

My player (foobar2000, unfortunately no Mac version) has a peak meter that will warn me whenever the digital output is clipping, maybe you should look for this feature in your next player.

Well, by "better" do you mean less clipping that you can definitely point to or just a indistinct sense of "better" that may be in your head? The other EQ sliders are zeroed out right?

Like I said mp3s without ReplayGain can clip without a negative preamp setting but you were listening to lossless right?  Then I duno what else may be causing clipping.

Haven't touched a mac for years, so yeah, why not start a thread or search around...

You're welcome so far But I'm afraid I've run out of questions I can answer

But you said you'd never touched the EQ before!

Ok... well EQs work by boosting and cutting volume at different frequencies.  So say a bass frequency was already as loud as it could be in the recording, if you boost that frequency it will clip.

Just bring sliders that were above the zero point down to zero, and music should not clip anymore even when you bring the preamp back up to zero. (the preamp lowers the signal of all frequencies before any processing down the chain, so you could boost frequencies by at most the amount the preamp lowers it by without chance of clipping.)  Or even more simply, there should be no clipping if you turn the whole EQ "off".

If you find this to be the case, you have three choices:

1. dial in your settings again, but with all the sliders moved down so that the highest slider just touches 0dB--you should be able to set the preamp at 0 without clipping

2. dial in your previous settings, but with the preamp slider down below 0dB--a starting point would be to have it as low as the highest slider is high, and move down from there if you still hear clipping

3. try listening to music with the EQ off to see how you like it Unless you have a really good idea what you're doing with the EQ, it's always good to listen to the system without it for a while to get a reference sound.