pulseaudio sound quality

i just installed ubuntu after i got the adapter i needed
anyways i figured id try pulseaudio, because on my old install of kubuntu, i never got more than one
sound app outputting at the same time.
i installed pulseaudio and it works, i can output audio to my usb stereo (CND$450 so its not junk)
the only problem is the audio quality sucks, with more than one pair of headphones. this is all detailed here as well(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=562917)
it sounds like stereo, 56kbps bitrate, but the music file is at least 128 kbps so its not the song (i cant tolerate anything less than 128)
ive searched high and low and it appears that nobody has this same issue. some have distortion, they change their volumes to fix that, ive tried that and it didn't work.
Please help me, i really need this