[Phranken9]

Maybe I've gone a little deaf, but when listening to music with the system and iTunes volumes set to the maximum in my headphones, some mp3's still aren't at the volume I'd like them to be. I've tried upping the Volume Adjustment inside of iTunes Get Info to 100%, but it still seems to be lacking.

Is there any way (aside from re-ripping all my cds) to boost the general sound output for iTunes or the system in general?

[RayX]

Get an amp to drive those headphones.

[fisherKing]

have you increased the volume in the equalizer?

sounds like you need better headphones actually.

meanwhile, there are some shareware apps (check out versiontracker, search for "itunes") that offer volume boosts, etc.


loud IS better...

[RayX]

Can you be more specific?

Which headphones?
What are you plugging them into exactly, Powerbook? Power Mac? Headphone output?

If iTunes volume is maximum, and your system volume is maximum and you still have problems with low volume, stop there. It sounds very much like your system does not have enough power to drive the headphones that you are trying to use, and as I said above, you may need to run through an amp to not only give you enough power, but to give you decent sound quality, all these stupid tweaks for increasing the volume are just degrading your sound quality even lower than it probably already is.

"loud IS better..."? Not the way you are suggesting, fisherKing.

[fisherKing]

"loud IS better..."? Not the way you are suggesting, fisherKing



that's a general comment for life (not just ilife )

and i agree, which headphones? in my experience, itunes cranked and good headphones should be just fine...

[Phranken9]

Originally posted by RayX:
Can you be more specific?

Which headphones?
What are you plugging them into exactly, Powerbook? Power Mac? Headphone output?

If iTunes volume is maximum, and your system volume is maximum and you still have problems with low volume, stop there. It sounds very much like your system does not have enough power to drive the headphones that you are trying to use, and as I said above, you may need to run through an amp to not only give you enough power, but to give you decent sound quality, all these stupid tweaks for increasing the volume are just degrading your sound quality even lower than it probably already is.

"loud IS better..."? Not the way you are suggesting, fisherKing.

The headphones are Sony MDR-V600's I've had them for about two years now, and they're plugged into the audio jack in the back of my 867 G4 tower.

I hadn't thought about insufficient power, I have an extra 80gb drive sitting inside of the tower, a USB keyboard and 2 button mouse, all other peripherals (External FW CD-RW, Harmon Kardon Speakers, and printer) have their own power supplies; I didn't think that would be too much for the stock power supply.

I have tried upping the volume via the iTunes eq, and searched VersionTracker for iTunes, sound, volume, and a few other things, not really finding what I was looking for.

[tooki]

No no no no. He's not saying that the headphones are overloading the power supply. Nothing of the sort. It has nothing to do with that.

What he's saying (correctly) is that the audio amplifier isn't producing enough volume. This is by design, so as to not blow out the line in jacks of audio gear you might be plugging the Mac's audio output into.

Some headphones are more efficient at converting electricity to sound than others; those will sound louder on a given amplifier. My Sony headphones also are not terribly loud.

Just hook up the headphones to an amplifier (e.g. the headphone jack on a stereo, or on computer speakers that have a headphone jack), and connect that to the Mac.

tooki

[dtriska]

iTunes 4.5 is quieter than 4.2.

[RayX]

Originally posted by dtriska:
iTunes 4.5 is quieter than 4.2.

Rubbish.

"The volume slider in iTunes is now logarithmic, like most stereo volume knobs. This makes it have a more useful range, but you might need to adjust the position to get the volume you are used to...Human hearing is logarithmic, which is why stereos have log volume."

"We got complaints that iTunes didn't have log volume, which means that when you adjust the slider, you can move it a lot at one end and it doesn't sound much different, while at the other end moving it a little makes a big difference."

"With log volume, moving the slider an equal amount changes the volume by the same amount throughout the entire range of the slider...The maximum volume did not change, i.e. the max is still 100% like it was before."

Apple Support Thread (mostly idiots posting that don't understand and can't be told, though.)

[dtriska]

Originally posted by RayX:
Rubbish.

Whatever. All I know is I have to turn up the system volume in addition to the volume in iTunes to get the same level of sound as with 4.2.

[bmedina]

Yes, read again that the volume slider is logarithmic. That means you'll have to turn the volume slider up higher to get the same volume.

As to the original poster, get different headphones. I had those same ones for a couple of years, and they're garbage. Too bad I paid $100 for them when cheap $20 headphones sound better.

[Apfhex]

Originally posted by RayX:
Rubbish.

"The volume slider in iTunes is now logarithmic, like most stereo volume knobs. This makes it have a more useful range, but you might need to adjust the position to get the volume you are used to...Human hearing is logarithmic, which is why stereos have log volume."

"We got complaints that iTunes didn't have log volume, which means that when you adjust the slider, you can move it a lot at one end and it doesn't sound much different, while at the other end moving it a little makes a big difference."

"With log volume, moving the slider an equal amount changes the volume by the same amount throughout the entire range of the slider...The maximum volume did not change, i.e. the max is still 100% like it was before."

I don't think it's more useful at all! Now, when I move the volume slider about half way down (from max), it's almost silent. All of the volume difference takes place at the very end of the slider. I had to move the volume up to max to get about the same sound I was getting with 4.2 at around 80%. (that is, I'm sure the max volume is still the same, but the new slider behavior gives the impression that iTunes is now quieter, and the new log slider gives LESS control over volume level)

[bmedina]

Originally posted by Apfhex:
Now, when I move the volume slider about half way down (from max), it's almost silent. All of the volume difference takes place at the very end of the slider. I had to move the volume up to max to get about the same sound I was getting with 4.2 at around 80%. Obviously, something is not right here.

I think you're not understanding what logarithmic means.

[Apfhex]

Originally posted by bmedina:
I think you're not understanding what logarithmic means.

Er, you replied too fast. I clarified my post... must've been thinking about something else when I typed that.

What I should have said is, while the new slider is logarithmic, the scale is in the wrong direction, unless users really DO want to have so much control over very, very quiet volumes.

[Phranken9]

Originally posted by tooki:
No no no no. He's not saying that the headphones are overloading the power supply. Nothing of the sort. It has nothing to do with that.

What he's saying (correctly) is that the audio amplifier isn't producing enough volume. This is by design, so as to not blow out the line in jacks of audio gear you might be plugging the Mac's audio output into.

Some headphones are more efficient at converting electricity to sound than others; those will sound louder on a given amplifier. My Sony headphones also are not terribly loud.

Just hook up the headphones to an amplifier (e.g. the headphone jack on a stereo, or on computer speakers that have a headphone jack), and connect that to the Mac.

tooki

Because I'm a bum......what would be the cheapest means to do this ?
(no stereo, speakers have no headphone jack)

Thanks for the replies

[Will McGoonigle]

VLC has louder sound than Quicktime. I wish we could hack QT to do that.