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Does iTunes sound worse than Foobar2000 and VLC player?

Poll Results: Can you tell the difference between Itunes and the other players I mentioned

Poll expires: Aug 20, 2012  
  • 15% (3)
    Yes
  • 21% (4)
    little difference
  • 63% (12)
    No difference
19 Total Votes  
post #1 of 23
8/21/11 at 2:51pm
Thread Starter 

Hi. Everyone. I am newly registered but I had been lurking on this forum for months. I think I found a worthy topic to talk about.

 

I find my music to have noticeable superior dynamic range and clarity when played on Foobar and VLC than on iTunes. VLC and Foobar sounded smoother and the vocals and instruments had so much presence while Itunes sounded dull and had narrower soundstage.

 

I am playing the same lossless format for all three players, and the difference is evident to me. So I browsed other audiophile forums to gain some insight on why this phenomenon occurs.

 

Anyway, here are the things I read that are suppose to make iTunes sound identical to the other two players.

 

-Disable iTunes' Equalizer.

-Disable iTunes Sound Enhancer

-Disable Soundcheck on iTunes.

-Change Quicktime Audio Preference to SafeMode "waveOut" only

 

The sad part is, these four options are all my defaults. So that didn't help me at all, VLC and Foobar both sounded identical to me while iTunes sounded inferior to the former. I still use iTunes because I just love the user interface with Coverflow and nice sorting options. I am seriously disappointed that iTunes is not delivering the maximum sound quality.

 

I would like to hear opinions from the people on headfi, please reply to this thread and let me know if you could tell the difference in sound quality with the programs I mentioned.

 

 

 

My setup - Core 2 Duo processor 2.1 GHz with 4GB ram running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

             

              - Nuforce Icon HD DAC/AMP

             

              - Sennheiser HD650

 

Update------ I read that quicktime player cannot be bit perfect no matter what lossless file you play because the music will always go through filter while playing under it. Found the topic under computeraudiofile forum with the topic"Quicktime Windows Audio Session Option, Am I Bit Perfect"

 

 

 


Edited by ytfmichaelxu - 8/22/11 at 7:49am
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post #2 of 23
8/21/11 at 3:21pm

Duh...

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post #3 of 23
8/21/11 at 3:59pm
Thread Starter 

I don't get it. Do you mean iTunes obviously sound different or they are obviously the same?


Edited by ytfmichaelxu - 8/21/11 at 4:01pm
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post #4 of 23
8/21/11 at 4:18pm

iTunes sucks IMO, foobar can hold FLAC,etc.

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post #5 of 23
8/21/11 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 

I convert flac to apple lossless for use on iTunes. Foobar and VLC can play most audio formats. When I use VLC to play the converted apple lossless and the original flac, they sound the same, but the apple lossless sound different on iTunes than on VLC. It sucks that iTunes cannot play flac. All my music files have both flac and apple lossless. 2X the space!!!

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post #6 of 23
8/21/11 at 10:20pm

I don't hear the difference between the programs.  Plus I can't hear the difference between 320k and FLAC anyway so I don't bother with FLAC except for archive purpose.

Also I don't like foobar's UI and i can't customise it to my liking no matter how hard I try and whatever plugin/skin I install.  I now use J.River Media Center  for listening but I still use iTunes for wireless syncing with my android phone.  I only break out foobar when I need to do some file conversions.  


Edited by nanaholic - 8/21/11 at 10:21pm
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post #7 of 23
8/22/11 at 3:04am

The Songbird plays FLAC and had a browser integrated. beyersmile.png

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post #8 of 23
8/22/11 at 3:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ytfmichaelxu View Post

I convert flac to apple lossless for use on iTunes. Foobar and VLC can play most audio formats. When I use VLC to play the converted apple lossless and the original flac, they sound the same, but the apple lossless sound different on iTunes than on VLC. It sucks that iTunes cannot play flac. All my music files have both flac and apple lossless. 2X the space!!!


this makes no sense. why you are keeping the flac after converting to ALAC?? i'd pick one lossless format and stick with it. if you want to change your mind at a later date, you can always switch back and forth with no quality loss.

you can run foobar2000 + foo_bitcompare just to be absolutely certain the ALAC files are identical to the flacs before getting rid.
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post #9 of 23
8/22/11 at 5:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by marc2003 View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by ytfmichaelxu View Post

I convert flac to apple lossless for use on iTunes. Foobar and VLC can play most audio formats. When I use VLC to play the converted apple lossless and the original flac, they sound the same, but the apple lossless sound different on iTunes than on VLC. It sucks that iTunes cannot play flac. All my music files have both flac and apple lossless. 2X the space!!!


this makes no sense. why you are keeping the flac after converting to ALAC?? i'd pick one lossless format and stick with it. if you want to change your mind at a later date, you can always switch back and forth with no quality loss.

you can run foobar2000 + foo_bitcompare just to be absolutely certain the ALAC files are identical to the flacs before getting rid.

A few places will suggest that you rip your cd's once to flac (or whatever) for archival purposes and then use that copy to convert or export to players for use. Similar to the Computer Audiophile ripping methodology.
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post #10 of 23
8/22/11 at 5:41am
obviously you keep backups in case of hardware failure/unforeseen events. but why use 2 different lossless formats?? it really doesn't make any sense.

whatever lossless format you choose, you can't go wrong. you can certainly pick the wrong ripper but that's another thread.
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post #11 of 23
8/22/11 at 6:35am

iTunes and foobar sound the exact same to me.  Might be possible placebo on your end.

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post #12 of 23
8/22/11 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 

Google "Quicktime with windows Audio Session Option Am I Bit Perfect", This could possibly be the reason why iTunes sound different than other music players.

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post #13 of 23
8/22/11 at 7:56am
Thread Starter 

If I later change my mind, I'd have to convert 200GB of flac from apple lossless, and that is too much work in one setting. I'd rather keep them both since I do have enough space to support it.

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post #14 of 23
8/22/11 at 10:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TMRaven View Post

iTunes and foobar sound the exact same to me.  Might be possible placebo on your end.


Listen to 320kbps on iTunes and than FLAC on Foobar and than you tell me.

 

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post #15 of 23
8/22/11 at 3:30pm

That's not really apples to apples.  The majority of people would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between lossless and 320kbps aac in a blind test anyways.  What you should have said was "listen to 320kbps on each or lossless on each and then you tell me."

 

 

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