Hello all

I have a strange audio problem that I can't resolve.

I have a G4 1.33Ghz iBook running OSX 10.4.9. 

Weird: Audio skips or is distorted in if playing through either the internal headphone socket or my firewire audio device (an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile) but not if playing through the onboard speakers. The distortion is not fuzz - it's hissy, squelchy and intermittent, almost as if the sound were being played through an effect (though not one I'd ever want to use). I get this with iTunes (CD and mp3), with playback through the Finder, and with Peak.

Weirder and weirder: when I use Logic Express with the Firewire audio device or the internal headphone socket the sounds do not distort. However, certain individual sounds - ie specific samples or tracks - within songs don't play. When I playback through the internal speakers these sounds do play.

What I've done so far:
• run repairs in disk utility
• reinstalled Tiger and updates
• reinstalled the latest M-Audio driver
• junked Quicktime and iTunes prefs
• checked that audio output is set to 44.1

Does anyone have any further suggestions?

Thanks and best wishes
willm

I've sorted the problem. My beloved headphones had suddenly gone strange and were warping the sound in strange ways.
I am reporting immediately to the yard in which newbies are shot.
Apologies.
willm