This may be somewhat vague, but bear with me...

I bought a Turtle Beach Riviera recently, and had a slight problem with it where certain parts of songs had slight static-esque problems, so I sent it back. The problem was consistent and not random. It always happened at certain parts of certain songs, and always sounded the same (the noise itself wasn't random either, in other words.)

I, then, purchased a HT Omega Striker, which I received earlier today and installed. It sounds very good, except for a slight problem - occasional clicks and pops. They aren't random. They happen at certain parts of certain songs, always. As far as I can tell from trying to read up on some of this tonight, when someone has problems with clicks and pops, it could be related to all kinds of things, and I'm always under the impression that the clicks and pops are randomly occuring and unpredictable. Well, mine are predictable. It isn't the sound files, because when I put the CD in and listen straight from the source, it's still there. I'm not exactly sure what to do. I've tried reading up on a lot of methods and solutions to dealing with pops and clicks tonight, and have done what I could, but nothing has worked. It isn't exactly the biggest deal in the world, and some albums are completely click-free, but it's a big deal to me. Could it be the card itself? Am I unlucky? I tend to think not. I feel like some other factor has possibly caused the problems for both of these cards, but I wouldn't know where to point the finger. I would hate to send another card back without making 100% sure it isn't something else. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Do these statements not tend to make you think that the problem may actually be with the CD (clipping?) / sound files (lossless?) rather than the sound cards themselves?

You could try "looking" at one of the sound files in question in an audio editor and determine whether clipping is occurring.

Hi I once had a similar problem with a soundcard and it turned out to be a latency issue with the pci slot(not enough power going to the card i think) that it was located in .

Video cards hog PCI latency for no known reason. This makes other components wait for access and causes stutters.

I know some control panels for soundcards allow you to turn the latency up.
Have a look and see if the control panel allows you to do this first.

If not there is a tool you can download to turn up the latency .I will find the tool for you if you have no luck with the above.

You ripped the files from CDs, right? Actually, it could be the files. CD players (and CD player software) have pretty good error-correction and error-hiding ability. I've had several slightly-damaged CDs that I thought were in perfect condition 'till I ripped them.

You can try burning a CD from the ripped files. If the CD-copy has the noise, your original CD is bad. (Error-correction won't work on the copy, because the data is intact... it's just the wrong data.) As you probably know, the soundcard is not used for ripping/burning (unless you make an analog copy). So, if the burned-copy end's up with a defect, it's not caused by your soundcard.

What ripping software are you using? Some ripping programs (like EAC) will tell you when they get an uncorrectable error. EAC has error correction, and a tool to remove (hide?) defects. A couple of times, I've had to resort to making an analog recording. When I need to make an analog rip, I use Audiograbber.

I'm gonna throw my hat into the ring. I think this is clipping that is present on the source cd's.


Are these recent discs (post 2000)?