iTunes 10 CD Distortion on playback

[aglinder]

Just downloaded iTunes 10.1.1(4), and something's gone horribly, horribly wrong: playback of an ordinary audio CD (I have tried several different discs, all the same result) gives very distorted sound.

I tried unchecking various 'sound control' aspects of iTunes, like the EQ and Normaliser, nothing. Still terrible distortion. I also tried playing the CD's through VLC - same result. So somewhere, something that was installed with the update has screwed things up.

MP3's I had already play fine, other audio plays fine, just CD's (as yet).

I'm running Leopard 10.5.8, iMac 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM. Using an external Samsung DVD-RW ('Super'drive packed up).

PLEASE HELP!

 

[aglinder]

OK, have made some discoveries: not ALL CD's are distorting, it just happened that the fist 3-4 I tried were all Warner Bros. published discs and it seems to only be those CD's that are affected.
Browsing the internet I find that this is a common problem and it seems to relate to the external combo-drive I have, Samsung TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-S084C.
Can anyone suggest what I can do, besides replacing the drive? And does anyone know why it's only WB discs that are affected?
The drive works perfectly in all other respects.