[oogabooga]

AudioXplorer is a Mac program that I was hoping to use to test the frequency response of my equipment. I never got that far, because it altered my computer settings in such a way that music from iTunes sounds horribly, horribly distorted (trebles are boosted, bass and mids are destroyed).

I found out (the hard way) that this program alters entries in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and possibly /Library/Preferences/com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist. Semi-specifically, AudioXplorer appears to mess with entries for the USB DAC in the DeviceSettings file (see below), notably values like "bits per channel", "bytes per frame", and so on.

My solution was to delete those two preference files - this is completely safe to do as OS X will "rebuild" them next time a USB sound device is plugged in or the computer is rebooted.

I've been able to duplicate the problem and confirm it is AudioXplorer, simply by starting up the program and listening to my music go screwy about two seconds after the program launches!

Long story short - don't use AudioXplorer!

For those who are interested, I've copied the plist values below:

NORMAL SOUND:
<dict>
<key>device &apos;busi&apos; control on output channel 0</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>device &apos;etum&apos; control on output channel 0</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>device &apos;mlov&apos; control on output channel 1</key>
<real>1</real>
<key>device &apos;mlov&apos; control on output channel 2</key>
<real>1</real>
<key>physical format for output stream 0</key>
<dict>
<key>bits per channel</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>bytes per frame</key>
<integer>4</integer>
<key>bytes per packet</key>
<integer>4</integer>
<key>channels per frame</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>format flags</key>
<integer>12</integer>
<key>format id</key>
<integer>1819304813</integer>
<key>frames per packet</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>sample rate</key>
<real>44100</real>
</dict>
</dict>


MESSED-UP, POST AudioXplorer SOUND:

<dict>
<key>device &apos;etum&apos; control on output channel 0</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>device &apos;mlov&apos; control on output channel 1</key>
<real>0.50543212890625</real>
<key>physical format for output stream 0</key>
<dict>
<key>bits per channel</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>bytes per frame</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>bytes per packet</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>channels per frame</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>format flags</key>
<integer>12</integer>
<key>format id</key>
<integer>1819304813</integer>
<key>frames per packet</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>sample rate</key>
<real>44100</real>
</dict>
</dict>

 

[krmathis]

Thanks for the warning!