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iPod Poor Sound Quality?

W

whoareyou

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2008
18
0
Hi-
Im suffering from poor sound quality on my IPOD.
Iv followed advice on this forum and an using 320kbps VBR but still find the music of poor quality- in particular audio i have dragged and dropped from my computer.
Any ideas if im doing anything wrong?

Thanks
 
Please be more specific.

What kind of iPod? What kind of poor sound quality? Where did these 320kbps files come from? Are they ripped from CDs?

Incidentally, there's no need to drag and drop. iTunes will manage your files and playlists and make syncing your iPod a breeze.
 
Does the iPod Touch 32GB have poor sound quality?Or is this just a myth? Is it actually just the earphones people are speaking of, rather than the player itself??Thanks
 
If the phones don't fit, then they will sound 'terrible'. I must have very odd shaped ears because both the old and new iPod earphones (which vary in size) fit me fine, and I think they're perfectly respectable pack-in phones of acceptable quality - and this poster uses a $1200 earphone and $15,000 headphone - but I know that for many people, the fit issue is what leads to a slight muffling in sound or to bass loss. An in-ear plug type will result in a more reliable fit and consistent sound for more people.

As BV said, you didn't mention whether these were your own rips or just a result of a 320Kbps search on torrents. The latter will get you variable quality no matter what.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Please be more specific.

What kind of iPod? What kind of poor sound quality? Where did these 320kbps files come from? Are they ripped from CDs?

Incidentally, there's no need to drag and drop. iTunes will manage your files and playlists and make syncing your iPod a breeze.
Click to expand...

Sorry- its the lastest IPOD 120GB CLASSIC.
These files are normally download (which have perfectly good sound quality when burnt though).
I have been dragging in the folders from 'My Documents' into my IPOD on ITUNES- is this the wrong way to go about this?

Buy new headphones, duh
Click to expand...

I use BOSE QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones, i understood these were decent heaphones?

As BV said, you didn't mention whether these were your own rips or just a result of a 320Kbps search on torrents. The latter will get you variable quality no matter what.
Click to expand...

Yeah some are rips for torrents- but sound fine on cd burns.

When listening either through my headphones or when the IPOD is connected to the hifi the tunes can sound 'crackley' or 'tinny' esspecially at high volume.
Once bassey song was unlistenable even with the EQ turned off.

Thanks for your replies
 
Kane.Elson said:
Indeed, the stock headphones are horrible. I just grabbed myself a new pair of Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5 :D
Click to expand...

That's very nice but the price for the UE Super.fi 5 is highway robbery at US$170 from most discount retailers. :eek: One in-ear headphone I highly recommend is the Creative EP-830, which has good sound quality with none of the "boomy" bass that plagues the less expensive EP-630 model. :) And you can get it for well under US$50 depending on retailer.
 
SactoGuy18 said:
The problem isn't the player--it's the way the files you downloaded from the torrent is encoded in the first place. Note that when you encode your CD collection locally using iTunes, the sound quality is excellent.
Click to expand...

Thanks- is their anyway to anything about this or is it too late?
 
SactoGuy18 said:
That's very nice but the price for the UE Super.fi 5 is highway robbery at US$170 from most discount retailers. :eek: One in-ear headphone I highly recommend is the Creative EP-830, which has good sound quality with none of the "boomy" bass that plagues the less expensive EP-630 model. :) And you can get it for well under US$50 depending on retailer.
Click to expand...

I have the Super.fi 3 and they are pretty reasonable, sub $100 if you really want some Ultimate Ears headphones.
 
BayouBengal said:
I have the Super.fi 3 and they are pretty reasonable, sub $100 if you really want some Ultimate Ears headphones.
Click to expand...

I have the Super.fi 3 and my big gripe with them is that it's really hard to get a decent in-ear fit with this model headphone. I probably will need custom-made eartips but given the average cost of custom-made eartips (about US$100!), I'm not sure if this is a good idea.

I've had better luck with the Creative EP-830, especially with the large eartips that provide a really tight seal over my ear.
 
SactoGuy18 said:
I have the Super.fi 3 and my big gripe with them is that it's really hard to get a decent in-ear fit with this model headphone.
Click to expand...

What you do is pull out the cable from each ear piece, then plug it back into the opposite piece. This allows you to insert the ear phone more flush with your ear. The R cable will still go to your right ear, but the L headphone will be in your right ear...and vice versa. Make sense?
 
whoareyou said:
Sorry- its the lastest IPOD 120GB CLASSIC.
These files are normally download (which have perfectly good sound quality when burnt though).
I have been dragging in the folders from 'My Documents' into my IPOD on ITUNES- is this the wrong way to go about this?



I use BOSE QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones, i understood these were decent heaphones?



Yeah some are rips for torrents- but sound fine on cd burns.

When listening either through my headphones or when the IPOD is connected to the hifi the tunes can sound 'crackley' or 'tinny' esspecially at high volume.
Once bassey song was unlistenable even with the EQ turned off.

Thanks for your replies
Click to expand...

First, use the original files. Don't convert anything. Just leave them as they originally were because you'll only be degrading the quality further if you convert them again.

Second, Bose headphones are completely awful. Bose will add to the already bad sound quality of downloaded MP3s.

Get yourself some good Audio-Technica or Sennheiser headphones and start ripping your music from original CDs or buying from the Amazon MP3 store.
 
I own an iPod classic 80GB, and the thing sounds horrible. Sharp highs, loose bass and a complete lack width to the sound. Its the only ipod ive ever had that will clip (overload the amp which gives that crackly sound) in my car. Its crazy and not sure if its the ipods amp or my cars. Not sure if apple fixed this with the 120GB classic. I got myself a ipod touch, and that thing sounds much better then the ipod classic. Whats amazing is that the new touch uses the same audio chip as the classic now, yet sounds much better. It maybe software related, or some other distortion created by the classics circuitry. In the end, the 5G video ipod has the best sound ive ever heard on an ipod, even slightly beating out the new touch.
 
mosx said:
First, use the original files. Don't convert anything. Just leave them as they originally were because you'll only be degrading the quality further if you convert them again.

Second, Bose headphones are completely awful. Bose will add to the already bad sound quality of downloaded MP3s.

Get yourself some good Audio-Technica or Sennheiser headphones and start ripping your music from original CDs or buying from the Amazon MP3 store.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips
 
A few clarifications maybe:

Some of the opinions presented hitherto are purely opinions - they have no application to reality in terms of how the iPod Classic measures when in use.

- With the Bose Quietcomfort 3, you're hearing music at better quality than many Bose-bashing owners of other headphones.
- The Classic offers the best balance of quality and stable sound playback characteristics out of all the HDD iPods to date, the 5G included.

The problem is your material, and this goes for anyone.

Clipping and distortion is a problem if your tracks are recorded at varying volumes, especially tracks which have been further processed to high volume levels by whatever ripping software the original torrent poster used. This is the other problem with torrents. You have no control over not just at what quality the material was recorded regardless of the bitrate, you have no control over how it was recorded.

As several people have said, rip your own using iTunes for better results. You could also use MP3 gain tools to reduce the effective volume of the tracks in order to eliminate the clipping.

The other fact: Any iPod has crap EQ. Starting with the Classic it got better (only took, what, 4 years?), but it still is the suck. The distortion is a component of the EQ as many presets overdrive the sound to clipping, especially with 'hot' material. Don't use it. If you want to use EQ with your music, consider alternative players.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Incidentally, there's no need to drag and drop. iTunes will manage your files and playlists and make syncing your iPod a breeze.
Click to expand...

Can anyone explaing syncing to me...... i dont want to connect my IPOD to my computer and have every single audio/video file downloaded to my IPOD every time.
Can i still sync withoug doing this?
 
Sesshi said:
A few clarifications maybe:

Some of the opinions presented hitherto are purely opinions - they have no application to reality in terms of how the iPod Classic measures when in use.

- With the Bose Quietcomfort 3, you're hearing music at better quality than many Bose-bashing owners of other headphones.
- The Classic offers the best balance of quality and stable sound playback characteristics out of all the HDD iPods to date, the 5G included.

The problem is your material, and this goes for anyone.

Clipping and distortion is a problem if your tracks are recorded at varying volumes, especially tracks which have been further processed to high volume levels by whatever ripping software the original torrent poster used. This is the other problem with torrents. You have no control over not just at what quality the material was recorded regardless of the bitrate, you have no control over how it was recorded.

As several people have said, rip your own using iTunes for better results. You could also use MP3 gain tools to reduce the effective volume of the tracks in order to eliminate the clipping.

The other fact: Any iPod has crap EQ. Starting with the Classic it got better (only took, what, 4 years?), but it still is the suck. The distortion is a component of the EQ as many presets overdrive the sound to clipping, especially with 'hot' material. Don't use it. If you want to use EQ with your music, consider alternative players.
Click to expand...


Thanks for explaination
 
whoareyou said:
Can anyone explaing syncing to me...... i dont want to connect my IPOD to my computer and have every single audio/video file downloaded to my IPOD every time.
Can i still sync withoug doing this?
Click to expand...

On itunes you can select whether to sync automatically or manually...

auto = all (or selected/ticked tracks)

manual = what u want to sync

I suggest you read this article found on apple.com funnily enough!

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1351
 
whoareyou said:
Can anyone explaing syncing to me...... i dont want to connect my IPOD to my computer and have every single audio/video file downloaded to my IPOD every time.
Can i still sync withoug doing this?
Click to expand...

Just create a new playlist with the songs you want on your iPod, you can call it iPod sync or something similar.

Connect your iPod to iTunes, highlight your iPod under Devices and click on the Music tab. Make sure Sync Music is ticked and chose Selected Playlists. Tick the box next to the playlist you created above and then click the Sync button.

Next time you add any music to your iTunes library just add it to your playlist and it will automatically be uploaded to your iPod the next time you sync it.
 
Thanks for all yor replies and links- :)

OllyW said:
Just create a new playlist with the songs you want on your iPod, you can call it iPod sync or something similar.

Connect your iPod to iTunes, highlight your iPod under Devices and click on the Music tab. Make sure Sync Music is ticked and chose Selected Playlists. Tick the box next to the playlist you created above and then click the Sync button.

Next time you add any music to your iTunes library just add it to your playlist and it will automatically be uploaded to your iPod the next time you sync it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that- and it will all list correctly in the IPOD- not in a playlist?
 
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