Muffled sounds after upgrading to 5.3
 

Last night, I finally gave in to the annoying popup recommending me to upgrade to 5.3, so I downloaded it and installed it.

Today, when I started up my computer and opened my Winamp for the first time since downloading 5.3, the sounds came out to be muffled and "softened" as opposed to the clear and unmuffled sounds I had before upgrading.

I haven't tweaked with the equalizer or anything (I never do to begin with) so everything has always been set on default. My speakers are working like they've worked before except when playing music on Winamp.

What could be causing this?

The actual current version of Winamp is 5.31, try downloading and installing 5.31. Hopefully the Winamp.com page will be corrected/updated soon.

If that does not work, try the DirectSound config tweaks. Close & restart Winamp after making the DS tweaks. Although not necessary, you may want to close Winamp, close down Windows and restart. Some users have found, changes don't fully take effect until a reboot.

Although you did mention you have not tweaked anything, make sure you are not using a DSP/Effect plug-in...

Winamp > Ctrl+P (for preferences) > Plug-ins > DSP/Effect select (none)

My settings have DSP/Effect off for DSP/Effect and DirectSound output for Output in the Plug-ins menu. The fuzziness of the sound is still occurring =/

Which version did you upgrade from? Does this happen with MP3 and/or ACC files?

Winamp > Preferences > Nullsoft Mpeg Audio Decoder > checkmark (or uncheck) 'Fast Layer 3 EQ'

Still no luck? Please provide system and Winamp specs.

Yup, that last one fixed it :D! Thanks so much :)