Clicks and pops in ripped music

[garym]

Also, have you tried a player other than itunes or wmp on your computer. doubtful that this is the issue (given you've tried two different players). But try something like winamp or foobar2000 and see if you can play the flac files without pops/clicks.

[mville]

Don't know if the sound card has a name, as it is an integrated unit into the motherboard, an ASUS P8P67 Deluxe. The driver is Realtek® ALC 889 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC, Realtek Audio Driver V6.0.1.6235 for Windows Vista/7 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL). Win 7, 64 bit OS. (This is the newest Audio Driver they have.) Have been thinking about dropping back to older versions to test them.

This all looks OK, so I doubt it's the drivers. Sounds like something else may be conflicting with the sound in your setup. Not sure how to troubleshoot this though.

[sgrizzle]

Just a follow up to close the thread. I disabled the motherboard integrated sound card, uninstalled all related software/drivers, and installed a separately purchased PCIE based unit/associated drivers. The PC immediately notified me of a resource conflict, and insisted on being rebooted. The result? No clicks and pops whatsoever after the reboot. Don't know if the motherboard sound card, the drivers, the software, or a resource conflict was to blame, but at this point I really don't care. It works, which means the nightmare is over.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

Steve

[sgrizzle]

Oh, by the way, what does "Lossy" mean? (Please remember that I am a newbie) I know what it sounds like, but I have seen it being used in different contexts that seem to conflict. I'm happy to read a good URL reference on the differences between the standards. Would like to read about FLAC too.

Steve

[Spoon]

lossy = loss of quality

mp3 and aac sacrifice quality to get smaller files.