[germanium]

The distortion experienced on problem 1 is likely due to over sensitive input circuit in your amp as the distortion comes in at higher volumes. If it was a ground loop the the sound would have a lot of noise when little or no signal is present such as a loud hum or buzz. Problem number one is most definately a problem with your amp not the card.Prblem # 2 can be addressed by turning off all system sounds in the mixer provided by windows seven. Your system Doesn't seem to work well with this card when multiple sounds of different sample rates  are played. My system with the same card does ok at that. If that doen't work go into sound properties & turn off the system sounds.

 

[wasp131]

I had a popping problem when i first got mine,
turned out to be poor contact in the opamp sockets,
Just pop out the 3 opamps clean the "legs" and be sure to check the sockets,
I found a picture online (cant find it now),and the bottom corner of one of the sockets was actually rusty red.
Worth checking if all else has failed,good luck.

 

[LokiS]

Thank you for the responses, I'll try the suggestions and see how it goes, will report back soon. Will look around for information on the opamps and see if we can do something, I'm hesitant to remove them as I sent a email to the seller for a replacement ST version of the card or a refund so will double check the information.

As for the amp that is very disappointing, I researched and read about it for days... I thought it would be the right choice. However I wont rush into a new amp yet as the STX provided enough volume before I could notice distortion (at least I think, still testing a lot).
 
 
Quote:

The distortion experienced on problem 1 is likely due to over sensitive input circuit in your amp

 
Is this something I can try fix?, and is there anyway to tell if this is so for other amps before buying in the specs anywhere?.
 

 

[ninjikiran]

Computers are complex devices and while not as often as in yesterday(not that far back) sometimes a combination of hardware or drivers  can conflict with one another.  Best way to figure that out is to look at correlations between what you have and what other sufferers have.  Internet troubleshooting beats manually testing everything in hopes of figuring it out(like a wild goose hunt).
 
Only thing I can suggest is make sure everything is connected to the card which needs to be.  Some of those newer sound cards draw off of the power supply directly rather than only using the power allotted to them by their bus.  And while a device might work under such circumstances, it won't to full capacity.  Like a faulty power supply not supplying the proper voltage to a video card and performance suffering(more common than you think).

 

[LokiS]

Believe me, it's been days and a great deal of hours trying to find similar sufferers with no luck, with only some semi related popping issues. I only found one related to problem 1 somewhere on these boards and nothing came of it. This is my last hope on here

In the PC everything is connected properly, STX had the extra power cable in and the power supply is a good one which definitely can provide power to everything requiring it.

 

[germanium]

On problem # 2 did you try the low latency drivers that come with the unified driver package. These may solve your popping issue. You may have too much DPC latency to get good sound & these low latency drivers are supposed to correct that. There are four different drivers that come in the unified package. Look for the folder that says "Low DPC Latency" in the unified driver folder.