Troubleshooting MP3 Playback On Select iDevices
September 30, 2016
Several listeners of the www.chvrchespodcast.com have said they have audio playback issues with some of the podcasts. After several weeks of testing, I was able to get the weird sound issue to happen on my Apple iPod Touch.
So I created several example files to post to see if others can reproduce consistently. These are recorded originals from my Marantz (one in MP3 format and one in WAV):
- Download Marantz MP3 44.1 (Original).MP3 (235.9K) [Original]
- Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Original).WAV (2594.6K) [not expected to play on an iDevice because it is WAV format]
- Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported as WAV 16-bit PCM).wav (1243.4K) [not expected to play on an iDevice because it is WAV format]
The following were imported into Audacity 2.1.2 on Windows and exported out:
- Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported as MP2 160kbps then to MP3).mp3 (113.5K) [Export #1]
- Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported as WAV 16-bit PCM then to MP3).mp3 (113.9K) [Export #2]
- Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported MP3 Constant-128kbps-JointStereo).mp3 (113.9K) [Export #3]
If any of these MP3s don't sound right [Original or Export #1, #2, #3] on your computer or iDevice, then can you please let me know at: [email protected]. Thanks!
Update #1 (9/30/2016 11:15 AM PT) - My friend Victor was not able to find any sound quality playback issues on his iPhone 7 or iPad Pro. Neither could play the WAV file but that is expected. The WAV file sounded fine on his Mac.
Update #2 (9/30/2016 11:15 AM PT) - These MP3s all sound AOK to me on my iPad Air 2 in the Chrome browser.
Update #3 (10/2/2016 1:45 PM PT) - The first original MP3 and Export #2 and Export #3 make no sound on my iPod Touch running iOS 10 using Safari browser. Export #1 sounds like high-pitched clicks and beeps.
Update #4 (10/14/2016 - 9:11 AM PT) - These seem to play find on multiple Android devices, Windows PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, and Linux Desktop OS via multiple browsers. I verified the podcasts play via iTunes also on various platforms other than iPhone 6 devices.
Update #5 (10/14/2016 - 11:43 AM PT) - These are two new test files after swapping all the cables I am using in my recording study. RAW MP3 directory from Marantz and then an output of the Marantz MP3 from Audacity: