[shoooze]

The sound quality I get from my macbook pro using DAC/amp (both usb,toslink) is a bit underwhelming, compared to the same DAC/amp connected to my CD player, and ps3 both via toslink optical. Compared to the latter two the macbook's sound is less robust, hollow, and thin. I ran music off both CD's, and apple lossless with the same results from my macbook, as opposed to CD's from my Cd player, and PS3. 
 
 
I used iTunes with the equalizer off, and sound enhancer off as well. Is there a specific setting I should be aware of to optimize the sound output? Is there another music player that is superior to iTunes?
 
Thanks in advance.

 

[krmathis]

This should do the trick.

In iTunes
* Make sure "Crossfade songs", "Sound Enhancer" and "Sound Check" are turned OFF
* Make sure the EQ are turned OFF
* Make sure the volume is set to max (100%)

 

In Audio MIDI Setup:
* Make sure output is set to the same bit depth and sampling rate as the played back audio data. Example 16-bit/44.1kHz for CD audio.
 

 

[shoooze]

Thanks!
 
I had all the itunes "enhancements" off, it just seemed to make the sound louder rather than improving the quality. In fact it probably degraded the quality.
 
The audio midi change helped, it was at 48khz, and when I switched it to 44.1khz the sound tightened up. It still doesn't sound as good as my dedicated cd player, or ps3 but it's a step in the right direction. 

 

[AVU]

Use Pure Music.  http://www.channld.com/puremusic/index.html
 
It's about a million times better than itunes, but it uses the itunes interface.  Or you can try Amarra, but it's lots more expensive, and I'm not convinced it does any better of a job.

 

[krmathis]

Thanks!
 
I had all the itunes "enhancements" off, it just seemed to make the sound louder rather than improving the quality. In fact it probably degraded the quality.
 
The audio midi change helped, it was at 48khz, and when I switched it to 44.1khz the sound tightened up. It still doesn't sound as good as my dedicated cd player, or ps3 but it's a step in the right direction. 

No way the iTunes "enhancements" could improve the sound quality. They sure can deteriorate the sound quality though...

 

[kboe]

I tried the junior version of Amarra and really liked what it did. I've got no clue "what" it did, but the results with it on are hard to argue with. I would also turn off the wireless and quit any other programs besides iTunes.

 

[kboe]

Forgot to add that I also like USB better than optical. I find it sounds just as you described, USB is much more... More to my ears.

 

[shoooze]

Thanks for the input, guys.
 
I'll try the pure music, and amarra demo's. Hopefully one of them will do the trick.

 

[leveller1642]

I bought Pure Music, used it once or twice, and never used it again. I'm not convinced it is any better than the stock iTunes output. It might have sounded marginally different, but it was hard to tell. 

 

[shoooze]

Yeah, I'm a bit skeptical on weather the sound will improve. It's still running on the same hardware, so I can't imagine the improvements will be substantial, if any. I think the respective players have tweaked the equalizer, and other settings to "enhance" the output.
 
Either way, they're both free demo's so I have nothing to lose. I'll try them next weekend when I have some quality time to listen using them.