Voyager/Ipod 3.5mm i-lead (at last!)

Since Quabbage raised the issue, perhaps he can provide some more info and we can investigate it some more.

Perhaps it is a "file"/"ripping"/"conversion" issue, perhaps it is an ipod hardware issue.

Quabbage, if you are interested in pursuing this further please post again and I will ask some questions and get you to try a few things to see in which direction we should look for a solution.

OK,

first question, this may require relistening to some of the tracks in question, do these "glitches" occur at exactly the same place in the same track every time ?

No.  If I rewind back to listen to the glitches, they don't reoccur in the same place.  If I play the song again from the beginning the glitches might not even happen again for that track.

I am beginning to suspect that this is an iPod issue.

See the following thread on Headfi where someone mentions (in response to a similar problem)  "All iPods will pause or skip if the buffer overflows. You're probably trying to play tracks that are larger than the built in RAM. Use AAC instead of lossless and that problem with go away."

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f15/ipod-classic-static-crackling-certain-tones-305787/

Now I don't often use lossless on my iPod but I do tend to use use v0 variable bit rate MP3.  I think I'll do some testing with AAC.

Sounds to me like Quabbage has the direction, if it is not repeatable then the problem is not in the file but the replay of the file.

Have to think from a digital processing POV that random glitches sound like dodgy RAM to me.

Cannot quite see why a buffer overflow would not occur at the same time/place every time when processing a VBR file.

Unless of course, the playback RAM/buffer share memory with the OS which might or might not be using the same amount of memory at any given time.

That is a bit too deep in the software for me.

I would give the AAC a try first to see if that overcomes the problem.

I'm out of time for fooling around ATM but will see if I still have the files with problems and if they are repeatable.

Darren, thinking a little more about it, as far as I am aware, Miguel uses Apple lossless and I have never heard him mention the problem, so I am rather dubious as to the explanation given earlier re buffer overflows, there may of course be more than one explanation for similar sounding symptoms.

Have you tried playing the same files back direct from your computer rather than the ipod ? and are your symptoms those of a repeatable error ?

Still, trying AAC seems like a good first step.

Edited by tg - 29 May 2009 at 1:51pm