I've read every post here that I could find to confirm that I'm not missing something, but I still can't seem to get the replay gain to work with my 30GB 3G iPod. Here's what I'm doing:
1) All my mp3s in MC9 (9.1.269) are analyzed and show values in the replay gain column.
2) I have checked the "Apply Replay Gain" checkbox in the "Set upload volume adjustment" dialog in MC9 and set the spinner on the left to 12.0dB
3) I synched my iPod via a smartlist that contains all of my un-rated songs and a smartlist I created just for testing replay gain that has songs with replay gain of 4 or more and songs with replay gain of -17 or lower. All three checkboxes in the Synch dialog are checked.
4) On the iPod, I have tested with Sound Check both turned on and turned off - there is no difference.
5) On the iPod, I play one of the songs that has Replay Gain of about -18 (a song recorded on the original CD at a very high level). I listen for a minute or two to get a good feel for the volume. Then I switch directly to a song with a Replay Gain of about 4 (a song recorded on the original CD at a very low level). In comparison, the second song is barely audible. The Replay Gain of these two songs differs by over 20dB. That means that one song is over 6 times louder than the other. I would think if the Replay Gain playback on my iPod were working, these songs would play back at much closer levels, but they do not. They still sound about 20dB different in volume level.
I am convinced by this and many, many hours of other listening that Replay Gain is not working for me. What else can I try? Wipe out the iPod and start from scratch? Some other setting? I'm open to ideas because it does get irritating adjusting the playback volume all the time.
Any help appreciated.
-- TRW
Media Center Registered 9.1.269 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0 Service Pack 3 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium 4 1785 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 225 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3502.5436 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.60 (1021)
Ripping / Drive G: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive H: Copy mode:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32112
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: E:\Sounds\complete_rip.wav
Burning / Drive H: SONY DVD RW DRU-500A Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:24 MaxSpeed:24 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: Yes / Normalization: None