my machine is a g4 ibook 2004. your trick worked. i do have good sound now. however i am not really sure what is going on. because now i have noticed that the problem was probably mpg321 which plays gibberish still. rhythmbox and yauap worked fine. i just think that the mpg321 is messed up. however i am now able to upgrade to lenny and sid and sound works, just not wieth mpg321 i use yauap instead. thanks