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dreilly1 · Nov 17, 2003, 04:19 PM

Has anyone noticed any problems with sound as a result of upgrading to 10.3?

We upgraded my wife's powerbook last week, and when she went to iTunes to play some songs, a few of them sounded distorted. They tended to be sparse-sounding songs (piano music or guitar folk music), and the distortion happened when the mid-range got too high (at least, according to the iTunes EQ).

I suspect a software problem (either sound drivers or Quicktime), for the following reasons:

- Although we don't have a machine with 10.2 around to compare with, she's pretty sure that this problem didn't exist in 10.2

- She gets the same distortion with the headphones plugged into the powerbook, which rules out a hardware problem with the speakers

- We get the same (well, similar) distortion on my iBook with 10.3

- It's happened with iTMS music as well as home-ripped MP3 files, and the affected tracks play without the distortion on her iPod, which rules out corrupted music files.

Has anyone else seen (err... heard) this?

Buck_W · Nov 17, 2003, 09:51 PM

I'm not experiencing any distortion problems, but after installing 10.3 on the Cube, I have no sound at all at times. The only remedy has been unplugging the speakers and plugging them back in.

One of the first things I checked was sound in the system preferences. The speakers did not show up at all. After unplugging and plugging them back in, they appeared and all worked fine. This has happened numerous times on the Cube since 10.3 was installed. (I am having no problems at all on my PB.)

Anybody have any suggestions as to the cause?

Spliff · Nov 18, 2003, 06:33 AM

I've noticed some anomalies with Quicktime under Panther.

The Finder uses 70% CPU to preview mp3 files. That's at least 20% more than it used in Jaguar. I dunno what's going on there, but it makes the rest of the system sluggish.

Not only that, but I hear a lot of snaps and pops in mp3 files when played in the Finder. They sound great in iTunes, however.

And finally, I've been having random audio sync problems when playing VCDs and AVIs in Quicktime. Never had the out of sync audio with these files under Jaguar.

Johnny_B · Nov 18, 2003, 07:02 AM

Sometimes under 10.3 (never in 10.2.x) the volume buttons stops to work (nothing happens), and I have to go to the control panel in order til adjust the volume. Last evening, it even started to hang, "screaming" out thoose "pip, pip, pip" sounds you get when you turn up the volume with the volume keys. I know you could turn them off, but I like them on; and even when I asked the control panel for no feedback it just continued, so set down the volume on the speaker (on the speakers, not from the mac) all down and went to eat. When I came back the same thing, it was doing the same "pip" thing. Before I have just taken a restart when this happends, but now I thought that I had to figure out what it was. So I went to the "Activity Monitor" to watch for high cpu using apps (which often apps that have hung has), and none of the use alot of cpu apps where right (Force Quit). But the service named "BenzelService" (or something like that), seemed to be the source of the problem. After quitting this, the popping stopped, and my volumes keys also worked !! But I didn't get a visuel feedback on the volume buttons though.

Really hope they fix this.

tsheley · Nov 18, 2003, 08:26 AM

Count me in with the sound problems on the Cube.

dreilly1 · Nov 19, 2003, 09:51 AM

I guess I'll go to Apple and submit this as a bug, then. Maybe I'll also put 10.2 on my firewire drive and try running that, but that may be more trouble than its worth...

orry_main · Nov 24, 2003, 12:52 PM

I've not had any of these sound problems, but just now, instead of a nice happy alert sound, I got an angry buzz. Any alert sounds I try to change to gives me an angry buzz, not whatever it's supposed to be. Yet I'm listening to iTunes with no problem. And the little pips that come up when you change volume are fine too. It's ONLY the alert sounds. Curious. Anyone else have this rather odd problem? Or have any idea what it might be?

I'm on a late 2002 iBook 800 with 10.3.1

Appleman · Nov 24, 2003, 01:00 PM

Last night, my sound was only maximum or muted, nothing in between.
In the System Preferences I found that the system thought my Soundsticks did not have any way of "settings for the device".
I first swapped the USB plug with the other port, but a restart did fix it.

Strange, but happened only once so far.

Sound in iTunes, in preview in Column view, in QuickTime, in iMovie, in DVD sounds OK.

kennyland · 11:58 AM

@ dreilly1

i'm having the same problems with sound, sometimes, being distorted.
not only with itunes but also preview, and when i'm sending sound to my stereo, using an imic.
i'm running jaguar 10.2.6, so it's not an panther-only issue.
i guess the problem turned up after an upgrade from 10.2 to 10.2.6, but i'm not sure on that.
on a dutch board someone is having the same problems after an upgrade to panther 10.3.3
a really annoying bug.
is there a fix yet?

edit

its the friggin' imic causing these problems. when plugged in and not selected, it evens affects the built-in audio controller.
goddamned overestimated piece of cr@p

edit

oeps installed panther now the problem seems to be solved
weird...