I have a Sony DD1621 DVD-ROM drive and a M-audio Revo soundcard (running latest drivers 1.0.1.5) whenever I try to play back CD audio it has crack and pop noises in it. Even if I use EAC in secure mode to extract the data and play it back it still has these noises - but if I play back a file someone else has ripped the problems are not present. I thought that maybe my DVD drive was getting interference from something in the IDE cable perhaps, but if this were the case why is data(programs) not effected? All other sound output is perfect only stuff that is played from a cd or ripped from a cd and played back has the problem - and not all cds only some cds or some tracks. All the cds I have tried are in perfect condition not a single scratch on either side of the disc. I am at a complete loss as to why this happens. It is also very annoying as I am trying to put my cd collection on my pc. Some albums transfer perfect some don't - the ones that don't have the same problem no matter how many times i try to rip or play them and the problems seem to be in always the exact same place in a song. This is happening with all of my Metallica albums and a bunch of other 'acoustic' sounding albums (Live - Secret Samahdi), it always happens quite a bit in 'Run Rabbit Junk' and 'Lithium FLower' on my GITS SAC OST cd - I hope you can understand what type of music seems to exhibit this problem most. It is completely baffling and totally annoying.


Any ideas?

Actually just listened to the distortion again. Its more of a crackle sound during guitars/guitar like sounding instruments more than anything.

This is very strange. If other people's wav files play ok, then it's your cd reader that can't rip audio properly. But if that is true, it should be easy to check with EAC. It is also strange that the distortion is always at exactly same parts.

- Are you sure the distortion shouldn't be there? I mean, it could be part of the song, or maybe your speakers are the ones that are distorting.

- Did you try test & copy and see if CRC's match?

- Does your cd-rom cache data, and did you set the drive properties according to this?

Thanks for the reply, yeah the more I think about it it sounds very strange. I finally got my standalone cd player back and will try the cds in that just to make sure. Other than that I don't know - EAC doesn't report any errors and the drive doesn't cache audio data. Also when I am using foobar between songs it will often produce 2 pops and a click in the left channel before the next song starts.

Well I just listened to some cds with the problem on my cd player and the distortion is there but so faint it's hard to hear. The DVD-ROM in the computer seems to amplify the noise more. So I guess it's a case of less than optimal recording job done on the cds in the first place. I should have tried this sooner!