mid to low freq distortion - can it be fixed?

[danx55]

hi all,

noticed this first with my ep630s and recently with my cx300iis - cant recally if VBs were same but assume they were

was on a flight the other day and plugged my 300s into the plane audio and noticed that the sound was much clearer

the distortion i get isnt the lowest bass, but is sort of mid bass - tricky to describe - the hight freqs are all ok - its just this particular mid low freq that i seem to have issues with

im using downloaded mp3 tracks - think they are in AAC format

can they be clean/improved?

thanks
dan

[CrowdAds]

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by danx55

im using downloaded mp3 tracks - think they are in AAC format

OK, which is it?

[dfkt]

So, I assume what you're saying is you get distortion with your MP3 player, but not with the audio jack on a plane? What player do you have, and do you use EQ with it?

Your files can only be either MP3 or AAC, those are very different formats.

[danx55]

doh! its the jet lag honest yes sorry i do get the mp3/aac thing really :/

pretty sure itunes is set to use aac at mo for downloads - and player is a 8g nano 3rd gen - but i dont have an iphone honest

cheers
dan

yes the plane's output was nice and clean compared to the ipod - maybe its got a massive cd auto changer with all wav recordings on it

[selectortone]

Perhaps you need to add the background roar of jet engines to get the EQ you need...

[danx55]

yeah that might do it

but when using my ipod on the plane the distorition was still there - so it might no work

im fairly sure it must be the aac quality, as i think if i rip a cd from itunes of the same album, it is ok when played in the car

the nano has a very basic eq and ive tried messing around with this but still get the issue

[Satellite_6]

You don't "set" iTunes to AAC for downlaods. . . the store is always AAC.

If you been encoding (not downloading) with iTunes using the standard settings then that is probably why. The standard is 128kbps CBR AAC. I would change it to 160 VBR AAC at the very least.

The iTunes AAC encoder is good but do not use the mp3 encoder - it sucks aaaaaaaasssss. (no I'm not going to prove it, it just does!)

[danx55]

hi - when you say 'not downloads' do you mean im stuck with the 128k rate? most of my stuff is downloaded direct from itues store and not ripped cds

thanks
dan

[Satellite_6]

Originally Posted by danx55

hi - when you say 'not downloads' do you mean im stuck with the 128k rate? most of my stuff is downloaded direct from itues store and not ripped cds

thanks
dan

The store is 256 kbps nowadays. Older files could be 128. If you downloaded it from the store you can't make them any better. If the files aren't the problem ditch the ipod and get something better. If the plane's audio is better that's a pretty bad sign!

[danx55]

is it likely to be the player? are ipods not
very good?

[The DarkSide]

The files are most likely clipping - so MP3Gain is a useless suggestion. There is AACGain, but I've never used it: http://altosdesign.com/aacgain/

[danx55]

thanks will check that out.

only noticed this issue with iems. buds seem ok.

[danx55]

would clipping be across the whole frequency range?

would mp3 be better than aac for this?

cheers
dan

[cnhardwick]

If you do not mind forking out a buck (or using free methods which I shall not speak of), what you could do is buy a song from a place that offers 320kbps MP3s like Amazon MP3 or 7digital. Preferably a song you already have on your iPod that you can easily hear distortion on. Then put the the MP3 on your iPod and listen to the two songs side by side. If both are distorted then you know it is either your iPod or your earphones. If one is not distorted then you know it is caused by low quality music files.

[danx55]

yes will have to try something like that.
surprised that no one else has had this
cheers
dan

[The DarkSide]

The bitrate of a song makes no difference when clipping is concerned. Try AACGain, and use MP3Gain for the mp3 files. And you don't need to pay for an application to do this - the free apps work perfectly fine.

I do agree that crap quality files can cause issues, but that's usually due to constantly reconverting the files over & over. Aac to mp3 to flac to aac again,...it's a common and foolish practice. This causes.mad issues.

[danx55]

thanks Darkside. will give that a try.

the current tunes I'm listening to are straight downloads
from iTunes. so I've not done any further converting myself.

cheers
dan

do you know if it will work with iTunes?

[danx55]

ah, this looks like same issue
http://discussions.apple.com/message...ageID=10328408

[Satellite_6]

Originally Posted by danx55

ah, this looks like same issue
http://discussions.apple.com/message...ageID=10328408

But that is about iTunes, not ipod playback. . . one more reason to run away from apple tho.

[danx55]

oh right.I'm probably confused then. thought it meant that the
files handled by iTunes were getting knackered by it. oddly similar
issue though

"tracks that you buy from iTunes music store are always in AAC format (protected with FairPlay DRM). Since these songs are protected with DRM, you can’t normalize them using AACgain" bummer

so would another player be better or would i still have to gain all my tracks ?

mmmm....oddly - turning on sound check and then turning it off again after playing some tracks, seems to have improved it :/ ......or ive gone mad!!