Sound distortion in iPod...

Not to many people use the ipod's eq, because it can cause distortion. I would try a few mp3's that have been run through mp3gain and see how they sound. Plus I would get another brand of earphones. Do a seach of the forum for other recommended brands.

I too have noticed a bit of distortion on tracks during play on my 15gig ipod with the same setting (bass-booster) . I just changed it to Rock and it sounds fairly good. I guess part of that is due to the earphones I Just picked up as well... Etymotic ER-4Ps... heard alot of iPod users have them for the quality.

I'd love to find a solution for the distortion in Bass-booster setting too... A Repost or update on the unit would be great.. maybe something to say what worked with the sound.

thanks..

Jay.

Did you try Eupod volume boost? I have mine at 40% and it does the job admirably...And a pair of sony Fontopia headphones would be a wise investment as well

i used the Classical setting for a while but kicking bass distorted the sound
so much that i switched to Jazz preset... does about the same without boosting
the middle bass that much.

are there any proper tests or specs about the audio quality of the iPod?
...would like to know if this guy dissing the iPod preamp was right or not :mad:

If you are using Media Center 9.1, you have a couple of options.

1) Analyze Audio on your music, this will generate a Replay Gain value for each track. Right click on the iPod in MC, one of the menu options is "Adjust Upload Volume", select Replay Gain and jack it up by +12db. Sync the iPod, making sure you've set the sync to Update Tags. (This is similar to using MP3Gain, except that it is simply changing the Replay Gain tag, not re-normalizing the whole file.)

2) If you don't want to Analyze Audio, the Adjust Upload Volume option lets you apply a fixed percentage of volume increase. Go for 40% to 50% boost. (This is exactly the same as using EuPod)

I found that the volume boost significantly increased the quality of the sound, especially the bass response. (The iPod equalizer doesn't work so well, I switched it off.)

If you use option 1) there should be no need to use MP3Gain or anything like that, it has the same effect without modifying your files. BTW the adjust volume feature is present in recent builds, after 9.1.246 or so.

pasi, I only use mp3gain and EphPod, not Media Center, but when using mp3gain, you actually decrease the volume of the music files. That way, you avoid the clipping. mp3gain and EphPod are both free. :)

pasi, have you tried just turning down the volume of 1 mp3 file using mp3gain? You don't need to do 25 gigs worth. Just try one. We're not talking a large change here. Typically, I'll adjust things from 98 db down to 92 db to get rid of the clipping.

Besides which, when I connect my iPod to home stereo equipment, I turn off the eq and let my amp handle any tone adjustments.

Try boosting the volume using MC9 and then switch OFF the equalizer. Apparently the problem with distortion is to do with the equalizer code, not necessarily the overall volume.

I found that bass response was substantially improved with either Replay Gain or the fixed volume increase. Fortunately neither of these two options actually modifies your files, so risk is low... [Replay Gain does modify a tag - but doesn't change the actual music]

good for you pasi!

Yeah, it irked me as well. In fact, I'd purchased an iPod and returned it because I hated the sound. Then I read about mp3gain, had a friend try it with his files and it worked. I wound up buying another one!

The thing I hate about this solution is that it lowers the volume of the files so you need to raise the volume on the iPod itself. Of course, the will burn the battery more.

I am puzzled as to why it is "cheaper" low-end music players can play back the exact same mp3 files and not distort them while the iPod does.

pasi, I hear ya. I don't have 25 gigs of mp3s, but it's still a pain to gain even half my collection.

I was tempted by the iRiver products also. I have an iRiver mp3/cd player and I absolutely love it. Very well designed, great features, constant firmware updates, and best of all - great sound - no mp3gain required.