[Nocturnal310]

If u have ever noticed why iTunes playback is so lousy then go to preferences>Playback and Turn off Sound enhancer.


unless u have iBuds..u ll notice a big jump i soundstage, sound quality and dynamic range.

give it a try if u havent already

 

[[L]es]

genius......

 

[krmathis]

So true!
..and turn off "Sound Check" when you are sin there as well.

 

[[L]es]

and the equalizer.. turn it off !!!

 

[Currawong]

I admit being annoyed thinking something was wrong with my headphones after an iTunes upgrade, whichever one introduced the sound enhancer, which was switched on by default. Bad Apple...bad.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif I admit being annoyed thinking something was wrong with my headphones after an iTunes upgrade, whichever one introduced the sound enhancer, which was switched on by default. Bad Apple...bad.

Don't think that is right.
When I do a fresh iTunes installation I see that "Crossfade Songs", "Sound Enhancer" and "Sound Check" are turned OFF by default. The EQ is tuned ON though, but set to 'Flat'...

Thats on Mac OS X, and it might be different on MS Windows.

 

[Nocturnal310]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif So true! ..and turn off "Sound Check" when you are sin there as well.

Sound Check is the worst actually.

the Audio output is no longer bit perfect and u notice a huge drop in some frequencies.

 

[mr.khali]

I have Sound Check and Enhancer off but I use the EQ. Do you guys feel the EQ colours the sound too much?

 

[GreatDane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.khali /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have Sound Check and Enhancer off but I use the EQ. Do you guys feel the EQ colours the sound too much?

Isn't that what it's supposed to do? You mean otherwise degrade the sound??

How about the crossfade setting guys, is this a no-no too?

 

[Calexico]

Crossfade just fades out at the ends of songs doesn't it?

I wouldn't expect it to actually affect the sound quality in the song, although I'm not sure if that's its function.

 

[mr.khali]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatDane /img/forum/go_quote.gif Isn't that what it's supposed to do? You mean otherwise degrade the sound??

Exactly. Do you feel it degrades the sound too much?

 

[Duggeh]

By default the EQ is set to on and flat when you install iTunes in Windows too. Turning it off from flat doesn't seem to change anything but you might as well turn it off if you aren't going to use it.

The sound enhancer can do great things with small cheap pc speakers, but for any half decent rig, its usually better turned off.

Sound check is somewhat like replaygain, it compensates for differing volume levels between tracks by the use of attenuation. The problem with it is that it isn't so sophisticated that it is able to work between albums rather than individual tracks, and so (as an example) the Tracked Amarok, which breaks down a single 60 minute piece into its some 55 movements, loses its dynamic range (which is impressive and at times explosive) not completely but by a notable degree.

The soundcheck feature is useful however, for any time that you are say, having a party or another circumstance in which other people may be deciding on where the volume dial gets turned to. Its also useful for late night listening when you don't want a playlist to suddenly blast from Einaudi to Deep Purple.

As for turning these things off changing the soundstaging, this I am disinclined to believe. Theres nothing about them that should cause any channel blend.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif The soundcheck feature is useful however, for any time that you are say, having a party or another circumstance in which other people may be deciding on where the volume dial gets turned to.

Soundcheck is also useful in that its settings can be replaced by those made by iVolume, which provides a good Replay Gain implementation for iTunes. Can't endorse it too much, it's indispensable unless you never set up mixed playlists or use shuffle play. Well worth the price IMO.

 

[myinitialsaredac]

Other recomendation would be to use itunes with multiplugin and the foobar2k passthrough using wasapi or asio =).

Experience huge sound improvement plus you can use the nice forefront of itunes with the wsound engine/bitperfectness of foobar.

Dave
(P.S. if you have an Iphone you need to have another computer or reinstall the updated version everytime you want to update songs =(. )

 

[[L]es]

one more thing. make sure volume control is at MAX. quality suffers a bit if it isn't. 24bit or not.