Is my Ipod on it's last leg?
 

I have one of the previous generation 80 gig Ipods. I purchased it about a year and a half ago and I use it a lot. It's been dropped a few times and it's gotten wet but nothing serious and nothing recent.

In the past month I've been noticing that the sound quality of my music on the Ipod is increasingly worse. I notice this in my car too, so it's not my head phones. My car has an AUX jack that I hook up the Ipod to so maybe it's the line out jack that's causing it?

I know that Ipods usually don't last all that long and that once they break you can't really do much except replace them but I guess I'm wondering if there's anything I can do about the problem. Or if anyone else has even had this problem for that matter. I've never heard of it happening before.

I had hoped this Ipod would last until august when my cell phone plan expires and I plan to buy an Iphone but in the past month the sound problems have gone from barely noticeable to obvious.

Did you play with the equalizer settings recently? Or perhaps the Sound Check feature was either turned on or turned off, so it is not what you expect?

Test it in a dock somewhere. Many shops allow trials.

If the headphone circuit is screwed it will sound fine.

If the processor is toast it will sound shite.

Don't assume all is lost. There are some companies online that will do component level repair of iPods, which will still be cheaper than out of warranty replacement through .

Worst case scenario and you decide to get a new iPod, bring the old one to the Apple Store. They'll recycle it for you and give you a 10% discount on the new one. Unfortunately that discount only applies to iPods, so you can't use it for your iPhone.

I actually had no idea that it had those. I'll have to try it. What is the sound check feature?

You mean like play it through a dock and see how it sounds?

Well, if I end up having to replace it maybe I'll just get a shuffle to hold me over. But it still works for the most part so I'm planning on keeping my ipod until it's much much worse.

iTunes: About Sound Check. In my experience, Sound Check tends to make songs quieter. Go to the Settings section on your iPod.

Sweet. Thanks, that helped a little but I think it really just made everything quieter. I hadn't messed with the Equalizer settings so that's not the problem.