[gabedamien]

Hi y'all,

I notice that when using iTunes as a CD playing software device, there are annoying little electronic pops and clicks and such every now and then. This does not happen playing aac's off of the hard drive, and I don't think I remember hearing it happen with windows media player as a CD player. Also, the infernal iTunes volume slider is pathetic too, increasing volume with it pretty much guarantees distortion and clipping seemingly regardless of amp and headphone combo - so it needs to be set perfectly center to sound good. Obviously these issues make me wary of using iTunes at all to play CD's.

What are people's favorite software to use to play CD's, and why?

 

[AdamWill]

I think Windows Media Player does a reasonable job on Windows, sacriligeous as it sounds. It's an interesting question, though, is there a Windows CD player that does digital extraction with error correction on the fly? Hmm.

(I use Goobox on Linux, btw.)

 

[Jahn]

wha? i leave itunes all the way up on the volume slider, and the 0404 patchmix volume levels arent lowered at all. yeah, the spectrum analyzer always smashes against the red, but i dont hear any distortion or clipping, and in fact until recently i thought CD sounded better than HD from itunes (i had soundcheck on, i turned it off and it sounds fine now).

 

[gabedamien]

Hm. I tried the volume slider again, and yep, turning it up definitely downgrades the audio quality. I'm not talking about constant loud clipping or anything like that, but on the loudest passages of some very full chords I'll hear subtle but annoying pops and cracks (not even with CD, but with anything), whereas if I put the iTunes slider in the middle and use the amp volume control, there are no such artifacts. Software volume (not iTunes, but volume controls, you know what I mean) are all turned to max, and I'm running the audio through the total Bithead's USB connection (in other words, it's acting as the soundcard & amp, I don't have it connected analogue).

Now, what are you talking about with "HD?" What does HD stand for, and why would the sound check function interefere with it? Which raises another Q: does the sound check feature worsen audio quality in some way?

 

[flambo]

I haven't notice any degradation of sound quality with the volume slider turned all the way up in iTunes. Matter of fact, I get worse results if I leave the volume in the middle and turn up the volume control on the sound card (I have a physical voulme knob on the soundcard.) That is my observation.

 

[gabedamien]

Very strange. I quite clearly hear issues if I put iTunes's volume to max. It's not even an issue of "sounds like this or that," some kind of subtle judgment call - it's "in this situation there are specific problems, and in this one they're gone."

I think I'll email apple and see what they say.

 

[Halbyrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gabedamien What are people's favorite software to use to play CD's, and why?

foobar2000, because it has the best included collection of DSP plugins, and it will do just about anything you ask of it. Sure, the learning curve's a bit steeper, but the payoff (great sound) is worth the time investment.

#include<std_dislclaimer>

 

[gabedamien]

I downloaded foobar2000 and like it. I don't think the sound is any different EXCEPT that there is none of the snap, crackle, & pop - hooray. Some of the DSP's are a riot - I love abusing the sound touch feature (I'm sure the novelty will wear off quickly though).

 

[individual6891]

What's wrong with WinAmp5?

 

[Halbyrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by individual6891 What's wrong with WinAmp5?

Oh, the ebay and AOL icons it sticks on your desktop when you install it, for starters. Winamp 2.9x was a rather nice, tightly integrated player. Winamp5 is AOL's attempt to retool (read: bloat) an already good player. To quote a bumper sticker: "...If it ain't broke, fix it 'till it is."

Plus you have to pay to get any decent DSP plugins for it (foobar's are provided gratis), and it uses Roxio's CD mastering engine for CD burning (which, btw, is the same craptacular mastering engine that MS chose for WinXP's built-in burning).

The database function is a joke, and broken to boot.

I used to love winamp, but AOL has definitely put a stop to that. Oh well, I guess that's what oldversions.com is for, eh?