The first problem is described within a series of posts on Apple’s discussions forum, where customers claim some loss in audio clarity once iTunes 9 is installed. As described, users complain that bass-heavy audio played back through the software is muddy or muffled, a problem they have not experienced before. Others complain at loss of clarity and detail when playing existing music files. However, some customers are denying this, saying music playback has markedly improved. The second problem appears more common. Customers are complaining that iTunes 9 appears to suffer from intermittent drops when streaming music to AirTunes using an Airport Express or an Apple TV.
Some claim the problem emerged on upgrading to Snow Leopard, but we’ve seen situations in which these dropped connections are occurring on systems not running that OS. Some report success in fixing this issue by simply selecting ‘multiple speakers’ in iTunes, in which music is pumped out of the Mac’s speakers as well as via iTunes. A year-old Apple tech note describes other potential approaches to solve this problem. All of this appears to imply that for better or worse, iTunes 9 has changed the AirTunes sound output.
