[akwok]

Hey all,

So a couple of weeks ago I bought a few of Satriani CDs. Ripped them all via Apple Lossless to my computer, then started listening to them throughout the week.

The first CD sounded fine, the second CD sounded horrible. It was like the music was stuck in the center of my head, and while the highs were there it was just painful to listen to because it seemed like a whole chunk of the music was missing. I brushed this off as a bad CD recording, and didn't listen to it ever again.

Today I was browsing one of the threads here, and I eventually stumbled across an iTunes thread (which linked to the iVolume thread coincidentally). I turned off 'Sound Check', 'Volume Control', and 'Crossfade Playback' just for kicks, to see if it did anything. WOW. The difference was phenominal. There IS A SOUNDSTAGE NOW with the 'crappy' CD. It is sounding amazing!

Just wanted to share my experiences with the sound check, and provide a heads up. A horrible POS, avoid it by all means.

 

[3lusiv3]

WRONG!

Your problem is Sound Enhancer. Crossfade and Sound Check have absolutely NO effect on sound quality.

 

[3lusiv3]

By the way, I use Mac OS X so I don't know if it's different on Windows.

 

[3lusiv3]

Does anybody else think that Sound Check degrades sound quality? It's possible that I'm wrong but I don't hear any sound degradation when using Sound check? Maybe my hearing isn't as good as I thought.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3lusiv3 Does anybody else think that Sound Check degrades sound quality? It's possible that I'm wrong but I don't hear any sound degradation when using Sound check? Maybe my hearing isn't as good as I thought.

I do, as you know

Please burn a Mix-CD with SE on and compare on a CDP with headphones.
Crossfade does not do any harm, Sound Enhancer may add distortion, but it is Sound Check that kills, to my ears, dynamics & muffles the high end.

 

[3lusiv3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver I do, as you know Please burn a Mix-CD with SE on and compare on a CDP with headphones. Crossfade does not do any harm, Sound Enhancer may add distortion, but it is Sound Check that kills, to my ears, dynamics & muffles the high end.

You keep mentioning CD's but I don't burn my own CD's I only listen from iTunes.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3lusiv3 You keep mentioning CD's but I don't burn my own CD's I only listen from iTunes.

I see. Yet this is the scenario where the difference becomes really striking, when you have the same material side by side. Once adapted woth SC, once not adapted.
The sad thing is that you cannot compare the results of a *good* adaption this way due to iTunes ignoring those 3rd party volume changes upon burning (see my other thread).
You may also just turn SC off for comparison, no doubt about that. My main reason for recommending the mix-CD approach is that presumably most folks have not integrated iTunes into their HQ-system the way you have, yet a HQ-system should render the problem even more evident.

 

[akwok]

I am close to 100% sure that the Mac version of iTunes has a SC'ing which is far superior to the Windows version (the Windows version checks the high and low peaks, which is death for head-fi'ers)

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akwok I am close to 100% sure that the Mac version of iTunes has a SC'ing which is far superior to the Windows version (the Windows version checks the high and low peaks, which is death for head-fi'ers)

I'd guess it's the same, since I am on a Mac, and if the SC you get on Win is even worse then... good night. Never compared though.

 

[akwok]

The highs and lows are killed when you play Lossless with SC on in iTunes. :-/

 

[kin0kin]

i thought every audiophile knows that sound check/volume normalization and such screw things up, apparently not

dont use it, it causes clipping, extremely apparent with ipod.

 

[Cyrilix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin i thought every audiophile knows that sound check/volume normalization and such screw things up, apparently not dont use it, it causes clipping, extremely apparent with ipod.

How would you describe the sound effect of "clipping"?

 

[kin0kin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrilix How would you describe the sound effect of "clipping"?

distortion. both the itunes and ipod exhibit this problem whenever sound check is turned on.

 

[3lusiv3]

Have you guys actually heard the distortion caused by Sound Check from iTunes or are you just reiterating something you have read? I have tried many times and can't hear any difference, except for a change in volume.

 

[akwok]

... there's no logic in me starting a new thread to reiterate someone else's opinion, is there? :-/.