I have the equalizer turned off in iTunes, so I don't think that's the problem. Is Apple adding some undocumented "secret sauce" to playback in iTunes? There is also the possibility that it's psychological. I'm just too lazy to set up an ABX test by myself...
Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this, and if they have any ideas. I'm very pleased to have Play in my toolkit...now I can have Ogg Vorbis and Flac on my Mac! Thanks for the hard work Stephen, everyone.
Mark
