Why does the audio from my playlist sound so degraded? The same files played via the iPad music app sound perfect. I imported the files directly to StageTraxx but they truly sound awful like a low res mp3. No output effects are currently enabled. Please help!

  • Loz likes this.

Audio imported from iTunes needs to be transcoded. That always degrades audio quality. You should import the files directly without using iTunes if you want to keep the highest possible audio quality. See the note here: https://stagetraxx.com/user-guide/songs/#from-itunes-music-library-ios-only

Files imported directly not through iTunes just have 6dB less volume than in iTunes to have a bit of a buffer if you want to increase the volume of certain songs above 0dB. Apart from this they will sound identical to any other app.

a year later

I downloaded my mp3s directly from my iCloud and the audio quality is degraded. Do I have to transcode them too?

No, tracks imported as local files keep the original quality.