Macbook sound card- bass sounds weird.

[SPalmer]

I thought I would use my mac as a stereo hub, with the slick little remote coming in handy. I hooked my Macbook up to my stereo system with a quarter inch adapter in the headphone port of the laptop and into the "Aux in" port on the stereo.

I play lots of music through it and it sounds pretty good, although I have noticed that the bass pounds and pops out of the mix a lot... I listen to lots of traditional ska so this is an issue. I thought it might be the cord or the stereo, but it definitely is the Mac's problem, because it happens through the Macbook's speakers. I tried messing with the equalizers on the stereo and the computer as well, but to no avail.

Does anyone else notice this issue? I have narrowed it down to the computer, and wonder if there are any fixes... heading off to college soon and don't plan on taking any music not on the computer.

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

Aux in on a lot of stereos is a crap. The ones on my two stereos do exactly the same thing with my Toshiba Satellite and iPod nano. Check to make sure it isn't just a crap aux in port.

If you're sure your Macbook does the same thing trough the internal speakers, you'll be able to have it repaired. Call Apple Care/Go to Apple Store.

 

[SPalmer]

Yeah I figured it might be something like that... thanks. It may be worth noting it seems to only happen when I listen to the band the Slackers (my favorite, unfortunately). It may be the way the albums are recorded, but the live ones do it too. And they were ripped in different ways and places, so it's not that.

I wonder if I could adjust the respective volume levels on the stereo and the computer? What's the optimum balance?

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

Yeah I figured it might be something like that... thanks. It may be worth noting it seems to only happen when I listen to the band the Slackers (my favorite, unfortunately). It may be the way the albums are recorded, but the live ones do it too. And they were ripped in different ways and places, so it's not that.

I wonder if I could adjust the respective volume levels on the stereo and the computer? What's the optimum balance?

Usually problems with aux in port are cuased not by bad equalizer levels, but by a bad quality in general. I'm not sure what you exact situation is.

My suggestion would be to make a cd, or find the ones you ripped from, and try to play them first in your stereo, and then in your car, lets say.

This will help you figure out wether its the stereo/computer or the tracks in general.

You should also try hooking your Macbook up to full fledged computer speakers and see what happens. If it sounds funky than you'll know that its something wrong with your MB rather than your stereo. If thats the case its only a simple call to Apple Care.

Good luck.