iPod 5th gen sound issue (distortion?)

[sputnik13]

Umm, is it also possible the unit is just bad? I've fixed a few 5th Gens, and there's some cases where you get horrible distortion in the sound because there's particular an SMT part that's prone to separation (not like coming off but losing enough contact to separate the signal) because of a horrible solder joint.

Believe it or not, try throwing the iPod in the freezer for a good 15 - 30 minutes, take it out and listen to it. Idea is that the cold will make the parts contract and let the contact settle in place for a little while. Another thing you could try is push down pretty firmly on the iPod to the lower left of the click wheel.

This problem with the SMT part is made worse if you leave the iPod out in the heat and can eventually end up with your iPod losing all sound. Doing an iMod or diyMod bypasses this problem because the SMT part is in the signal path between the DAC and the headphone/dock connector, while the iMod bypasses all of the circuits in the iPod after the DAC.

If you can't get decent sound with *ANY* music, I'd suspect it's the iPod itself.

 

[penartur]

OK, thanks for an answer.
However, i've already broken my ippod (this damn battery socket to motherboard connection), so i'm buying another one

 

[sputnik13]

That's happened to me before, it can be fixed with a little solder. It took me a couple tries but it wasn't too bad. You can also replace the main board. If you weren't so far away I'd offer to take your broken one off your hands

 

[penartur]

Of course, it can be fixed with a solder, but this requires a great experience with the soldering, an iron with an extremely thin sting, and a hands growing up from a correct place; neither of this i don't have.
I've already bought a Video 60 in great condition for about $130 here; i hope someone will buy the disfunctional 60 for about $90 (or i can sold it for a parts here).
Shipping to you will be about a half of this price, so you're right, i'm too far away

Also, i've looked for a logic boards on ebay, and $40 i'm losing on my upgrade is definitely cheaper than purchasing a new logic board; and purchasing of such a board will add a shipping time, a second complete disassembling of the unit and uncertainty in a RAM amount on the specific logic board. Additional, if this sound issue was because of something with a headphone connector - it will be fixed with this upgrade. I've learned from my mistakes, so this time i'll just replace the hdd to a 240 and the battery to a high-capacity from my now dead ipod; hope during the upgrade i will not broke another battery socket

 

[sputnik13]

If you're going to spend the money on a 240, I think you should seriously consider doing a diyMod or iMod on it because of the chance of that SMT part I mentioned becoming loose over time.

For the battery connector, when you open the iPod, take a pin or anything with a really fine point, and just nudge the side of it upward until it lifts a little, and try to work the tip of the pin along the raised edge toward the opposite end. I found this to be the most effective without risking damage to the connector. I think trying to get at the little lip with a flat spudger puts too much torque on the tiny bits of solder that's holding the pins of the connector on the surface of the main board. The battery connector is just so fragile it's amazing.

 

[penartur]

Quote:

If you're going to spend the money on a 240

I'm already on a 240

Quote:

I think you should seriously consider doing a diyMod or iMod

$250 + shipping + return shipping, or $450 for a new iMod; and the cable + amp to carry with my ipod... no, i think this is to early for me to upgrade to iMod

Thanks for a battery connector advise!

 

[penartur]

I'm now on the other ipod logic board, however, issue seems to persist. For example, on the beginning of 10th track from Encyclopaedia Metallum - The Kovenant - S.E.T.I. the distortion is huge (although not as huge as on death magnetic cd). I wonder if Nuclear Blast also is a participant of "loudness war"?
Of course, i've did `metaflac --add-replay-gain' on this album, and in rockbox settings i've enabled replaygain and "prevent clipping" settings.
PS: Thanks again for your battery advise, it helped me not to ruin a second ipod's hardware

 

[sputnik13]

Is it that particular track? Do you notice distortion with other music as well? Try some music off the net with just default settings on the iPod, maybe it's not the iPod afterall.

 

[penartur]

Quote:

Do you notice distortion with other music as well?

Yes, with some other music. I'm just giving the example of an easily noticed distortion.
Strange thing that i don't remember the distortion on this track, encoded to mp3 and without all this replaygain stuff, on my previous kenwood hd60gd9.

 

[CoryGillmore]

I'm also having a distortion issue on q newly purchased used iPod 5th video 60gb. I don't have the issue with the same music on my iPhone 4. I use an RSA SR-71a and an ALO lod with both devices and the iPod sounds like hell and distorts. I am going to have it imbedded eventually but this really sucks. I'm gonna try the freezer thing when I get home. Can anyone do he solder work for me if need be? Thanks.

 

[CoryGillmore]

Ok...I don't know exactly how...but, it's fixed. I put it in the freezer, mashed on the lower left corner and enabled the prevent clipping feature in rockbox. It actually sounds pretty damn good now!

 

[Hero Kid]

Hang on... you put it in the freezer? Can I ask why?
I've never heard of anyone doing such a thing.

 

[penartur]

Quote:

Ok...I don't know exactly how...but, it's fixed. I put it in the freezer, mashed on the lower left corner and enabled the prevent clipping feature in rockbox. It actually sounds pretty damn good now!

It reminds me of one joke: "We drunk beer, then wine, then vodka, then rum, then brandy, then whiskey... and in the end we got a food poisoning because of these cookies".

 

[CoryGillmore]

Hang on... you put it in the freezer? Can I ask why?


I've never heard of anyone doing such a thing.

Sputnik from post 13 suggested it. I'm just glad it's working ok now.

 

[Hero Kid]

Oh I see. For the record it was post 16.

But yeah, I'm happy you got it working again.