# VLC vs ITunes Sound Quality



## NetMinder (Dec 15, 2003)

I have been using iTunes for quite some time (The current version) and i didn't think the sound quality was that great so just for fun I tired playing my music through VLC. Well guess what? The sound quality (dynamic range, clarity and presence) was to my ears much much better. I then played one song back and forth between VLC and iTunes and it confirmed what I heard (both equalizers were set at flat to make it comparable)

Am I just hearing things??


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## TheBat (Feb 11, 2005)

Very interesting observation. I'll have to look into it.

I've also read that LAME for iTunes does a better job of encoding than iTunes, as far as MP3 goes. Anyone done any comparison testing on this?


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2007)

Have you turned off the "soundcheck" options in iTunes? That can make a big difference in terms of sound quality. Other than this they should both sound pretty close to similar if not exactly the same .. I can't see any technical reason why they would should this much difference if it's not the soundcheck option in iTunes causing the issue.


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

Make sure soundcheck and enhancer are turned off to achieve the most natural sound. Also keep the iTunes volume high and control the volume with your speakers or Mac system volume.


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## NetMinder (Dec 15, 2003)

Turning off those two settings did the trick.

The sound quality is now much better in Itunes and is identical to VLC

Thanks for the advice on this!


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