The VideoLAN Forums

I listen to music on an old laptop, and the sound becomes distorted when there is lots of sound at one time, or when it becomes loud. Does this have to do with the computer's onboard sound or is it because of the ipod headphones I am using?

Also, in VLC, the headphone equalizer setting makes music sound muffled and distant.

I don't know if a bad sound card can have such an effect, it's either bad headphones/speakers or bad sound sources. If you're sound files are compressed to much (e.g. 128kbit/s MP3), then the effect you described will appear. I don't think it comes from the iPod headphones (if they are original ones), because they are quite decent.

Have you tried with other head phones, or setting it up to your hi-fi system?