[pharmelink]

Have been dealing with some items that are bugging me to no end.

Symptom: using iTunes, I play back music and the sound drops to nothing, if the tune has very faint volume in a section, the Mac drops all sound entireley. Then picks it up again when it gets louder. Watching the levels, I get "sound activity" when so sound, (equalizer displays are one or two bars high), and I've tried using other applications (Audion, MP3 Rage, ID3X) and get the same no sound symptom.

To make everything real interesting....those same songs on my ipod play with no problems. And if I play on an old Pismo Powerbook, no problem.

Hardware: originally a PowerMac G4 867Mhz single processor, running 10.2.X and 10.3;
current hardware: 12" Powerbook 1GHz running 1.3 and iLife 04.

Any help?
('')

[dtriska]

Do you have Sound Check on?

[pharmelink]

Originally posted by dtriska:
Do you have Sound Check on?

No I've turned all features off, however I will not say that before I readded the files into iTunes, it was not on.

I've tried it on and off, and not sure it made a difference in the past.

I also recently (for other reasons) tossed my itunes preferences and re added all the tunes, and for that I think all default settings were on.

[chabig]

Have you tried simply turning the volume up? I think it might be a "feature" of your speaker system that is clamping down on the low level signals to minimize noise.

Chris

[pharmelink]

The speakers I'm using are the original Apple speakers (tan multicolored Apple logo ones).

I will also try switching the connection cabble (am using miniphone to miniphone, but can switch to a miniphone to 2 RCA cable).

Will post update.

[pharmelink]

From doing a Google Search on AppleDesign Speakers I ran across this excerpt from a 1994 post:

You would only choose AppleDesign speakers over these Yamaha speakers if you need two inputs on the speakers themselves for your Mac's beeps and an external CD ROM drive. The YST-M10s have only one stereo input (like most powered speakers except the Apple and Altec models).
Finally, Mark Anbinder and Martin Hying were wondering about why a CD-ROM drive in an AV Mac "skipped" when played through AppleDesign Powered Speakers. The problem is that the AppleDesign speakers have a "noise gate" inside for the 1/8-inch input only. This cuts out low level signals (hiss, for example) because the design assumption was that this would be plugged into the cheesy 8-bit output of your typical LC or Performa.
On an AV Mac, all it succeeds in doing is cutting off very low level audio, as you've discovered, on CDs like classical music with very quiet passages. To confirm this, listen to the AV output on headphones, and you won't hear any skipping. There is no noise gate on the RCA input section of the AppleDesign speakers. Try it; you'll see.

Will Test it tonight with an RCA connector. and switch out the mini pho port.

[pharmelink]

That was it!

If using the mini-Phono jack on the AppleDesigned Speakers (the original beige ones) it assumes you are sending a crappy signal and as a curtsey drops any low 'noise" to no sound.

Use the RCA plugs and these things are phenomenal!!!!

Great Tidbit.