[apostacy]

Anyone ever have any problem with the quality of the tracks you ripped from a cd? I recently bought Elvis Costello - When I was Cruel, which as I listen to it on my stereo, is very bass-y. But when I play it from iTunes or my iPod the bass is very distorted. It sounds like it may just be a speaker/headphone issue, but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggested work-arounds.

[King Bob On The Cob]

when ripping into a lossy format, iTunes will loose some information, unfortunately, some bass is lost in the default encoding values. You could rip into Apple Lossless format and then nothing would be lost except file size.

[analogika]

Turn off the sound "enhancer", and turn off the equalizer.

If you must use the equalizer, realize that increasing bass will make the signal LOUDER, resulting in distortion.

Turning up the pre-amp in the equalizer will also make the signal LOUDER, resulting in distortion.

If you turn up the bass in iTunes' equalizer, you must LOWER the pre-amp.

[Wevah]

Aye. I run the equalizer with a -3 preamp, generally, to avoid clipping.

(Of course, some would say the equalizer is evil, but it's really personal preference....)

[bmedina]

Originally posted by King Bob On The Cob:
unfortunately, some bass is lost in the default encoding values.

Not in my experience. 128kbps AAC sounds pretty good to me. Any added distortions are generally much easier to hear in the higher frequencies than in the lower.