[XIX47]

I wish you luck OP. I am dealing with the same issues you are experiencing with the crackling and popping sounds. I am using an internal sound card as well, so there is a chance that the OP's computer or internal sound card is distorting the sound. What music player are you using?
 
I hope you find a solution OP; perhaps it could solve my issues as well.

 

[KGUN]

  I wish you luck OP. I am dealing with the same issues you are experiencing with the crackling and popping sounds. I am using an internal sound card as well, so there is a chance that the OP's computer or internal sound card is distorting the sound. What music player are you using?
 
I hope you find a solution OP; perhaps it could solve my issues as well.

Hello XIX47, I usually just use winamp but I Tried in other players also.
 
I've now tried 2 usb sound cards, one that just hooks right into the usb and the other is just by a long cable. Both usb card don't have static/crackle/pops Only when I turn the volume up and down on the windows settings does it make some sounds, that could just be usb with volume control issue or something, or the two usb-sound cards aren't good for volume control from OS, Aaaaaanyways... I may resort to that External - Creative - sound card I posted previously. 
 
What brand internal sound card do you use?

 

[XIX47]

  Hello XIX47, I usually just use winamp but I Tried in other players also.
 
I've now tried 2 usb sound cards, one that just hooks right into the usb and the other is just by a long cable. Both usb card don't have static/crackle/pops Only when I turn the volume up and down on the windows settings does it make some sounds, that could just be usb with volume control issue or something, or the two usb-sound cards aren't good for volume control from OS, Aaaaaanyways... I may resort to that External - Creative - sound card I posted previously. 
 
What brand internal sound card do you use?

 
Ah I wanted to try a trial version of Winamp to compare to the software I am using (foobar2000) to see any audio differences, but it is currently unavailable.
 
Hmmm, for my setup I am using a dedicated headphone amplifier to adjust the volume. I know the Xonar DGX has a built in amp, but I dunno how much power your headphones require. Would be interested in getting such an amp in the future? That will allow you to adjust the volume and bypass the volume control issues from the USB sound cards, especially if the Creative Sound Card you linked earlier has the same issue.
 
I have the Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card. It was working flawlessly for me until I decided to buy a few CDs for ripping. Though I am not sure if it is the cause of distortions in my tracks or not at this point.
 
 

 

[KGUN]

My headphones don't need a lot of power, apparently.
 
Winamp is free, or.. are you looking at a payed for winamp with more stuff/features. I didn't know there was a payed for winamp version must of never looked for it.
 
I Would be interested in some sort of volume control or .. additional output if I didn't get enough from the creative card. I Think it will probly be ok though. and it has the dial on top too so. works out well. oh wait, just realized I could just plug my headphones into my RX-V990 receiver from the creative card if I had to so that covers that.
 
The Creative card should work out well for me.. if I had known I'd have issues with the Asus card, me in particular, I'd of just bought the creative usb card. d-mn it. I Don't mind having external stuff, I have some desk space or just put it on something else.
 
oh, one more thing I want to mention, that Creative card has bass redirection, which I'm pretty sure works as a crossover for the center/sub output. which I need for my speakers setup.
 
-KGUN

 

[Notus]

Couple of things came to mind. Try using different PCI-e Slot for the card or just plug it in and out to make sure its seated properly.
Also you could try taking it out and turn the computer on and go to windows then turn it off and plug the sound card back in and start.
 
Btw are you hearing sounds when nothing is playing or is it dead silent? If it is dead silent, then its most likely software issue.
When music is playing or music is off, when you scroll with your mouse, do you hear odd sounds?
You can turn the headphone amp off by selecting 2 speaker setting in your Sound card Control panel ( you should hear an audible click sound coming from the card ), try different modes and increase the Ohm rating also, crank it up to the highest with no music playing and turn the volume up and listen if there is noise at all.

 

[KGUN]

 hey- I Can't use a different slot. I Only have one pci-e slot available, the other is blocked and I Can't move my GPU anywhere..
 
 
 
"Also you could try taking it out and turn the computer on and go to windows then turn it off and plug the sound card back in and start." .. hmm well I Did take it out and re-install it to the computer to make sure it was in properly.
 
there's no static/crackle/pops when there's nothing playing.
 
right at this moment, I just had an idea.. while typing this I Realized.. what if it's something to do with my HDD and being able to process/handle whatever file/songs I'm playing.. what if... hmmmm I need to test something, I need to find the song play it through an online browser or something that plays it well that's not through my HDD..
 
brb.
 
while I'm looking  around.. let me know what you think about my theory, idea. if you're on. if you know of a site I Can play the exact song online/browser let me know. I suddenly have a boost of hope!

EDIT: update:
 
youtube: I Tried some, but still crackles.
there must be another place.

 

[KGUN]

Solution Discovered.. well it seems I thought I had a solution. by lowering the mixer volume (within the soundcard program), I no longer heard the noises in that part of the song. I now I have new issue. Apparently when I lower or raise the volume in say.. VLC program. I Get all kinds of annoying static-y sounds. weird. I think I need to read back to what someone said before in this thread. d-mn it.. so.. close .. to finding the issue.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I've set the mixer setting in the sound card to around 50 LEFT 50 RIGHT *EDIT: I actualy turned mine down even more down to 42.. [ I feel like I definitely need an amp now... ] Maybe a schiit amp 

 
There is no more static/crackle/pop sounds at that one part of the song. So that's fixed. I'm still doing testing though. XIX if you want to test your sound card, see if lowering the mixer or the setting specific to each channel on your sound card to 50 or lower gets rid of the static sounds. It WILL lower the total amount of output from your sound card, so..
 
but it helped me.

 

[Notus]

Well if the sound card is dead silent without any noise played then it most likely is not a problem with anything related to hardware. At least your sound card is not taking any EMI noise what could explain the pops and crackle sounds. I have encountered problems before with sound cards and software, most common is noise when you move or scroll with mouse.
It could be even latency issue, but i don't think that could explain it. You could always try to remove the drivers completely, reset all audio settings and purge the remnants of any drivers and use official Asus drivers. I think program like the CCleaner can remove anything that is left behind. Not sure tho.
 
You could always try to reset your windows audio settings and see if that fixes anything.
 
Hmm, Go to the audio and audio devices window, Volume tab and there you will find the advanced sound settings or just advanced settings. Then look at the (i think its called) Performance?
Reset settings. Check if those settings do anything to the sound. Also from the Audio & Audio Device / (tab) umm... Defaults? anyway check if your Asus Xonar DGX is properly showing there.
 
Sorry if this is confusing and i might have used wrong names since my windows is in my native language and i am trying to translate the names...
 
Btw you should check if you have issues if you set the Xonar DGX to higher Ohm setting and lower the volume of windows / xonar.
May i ask what headphones are you using?
 
Do you notice any difference when you use the different jacks from the Xonar with your headphones?
The amp works from only the green jack so the rest should be line out's.

 

[XIX47]

  My headphones don't need a lot of power, apparently.
 
Winamp is free, or.. are you looking at a payed for winamp with more stuff/features. I didn't know there was a payed for winamp version must of never looked for it.
 
I Would be interested in some sort of volume control or .. additional output if I didn't get enough from the creative card. I Think it will probly be ok though. and it has the dial on top too so. works out well. oh wait, just realized I could just plug my headphones into my RX-V990 receiver from the creative card if I had to so that covers that.
 
The Creative card should work out well for me.. if I had known I'd have issues with the Asus card, me in particular, I'd of just bought the creative usb card. d-mn it. I Don't mind having external stuff, I have some desk space or just put it on something else.
 
oh, one more thing I want to mention, that Creative card has bass redirection, which I'm pretty sure works as a crossover for the center/sub output. which I need for my speakers setup.
 
-KGUN

I have checked the Winamp website, and the site states that Winamp is currently being reworked. So it is not available to download at this point.

Ah, I thought that they needed a dedicated amp since they are higher quality headphones compared to the mainstream phones. It looks you have everything covered then to control the volume outside of windows. I really hope that external Creative Soundcard solves your problem. If it does, then I might need to look into purchasing an external DAC to see if that helps me out.
 
I feel the pain of buying audio gear and later regretting it. I went through 2 headphones before purchasing my AKG K-712s, which are great for my needs. Now I just need to think about how to sell the DT-990's.

 

[Notus]

Its a good thing they are reworking winamp since winamp has issues with latency and heavy memory loads. It sometimes introduces odd sound during playback when your computer is under heavy load. That is the reason i started using Foobar2000, i often listen music when i play games and winamp had issue with the odd sound. The older winamps were great but the later versions were just a sad bloated multimedia player.
 
KGUN you don't have volume control on your keyboard? Even my cheapest keyboard has a volume control for windows, i think it cost 8€.
There are some smaller USB DAC's for computer gaming with volume control but they all just adjust the windows volume.
Btw you mentioned something about double amping, you know you can turn off the amp in the Asus Xonar DGX?
Just set it to 2 speaker or any of the speaker setups and the amp turns off, you hear a audible click from the sound card.
 
Also my wave setting is set to 50% on the Xonar control panel settings (and windows). But setting it at 100% does not introduce any pops or crackle for me when i listen to the song you mentioned.
Metallica - St, Anger?

 

[KGUN]

Notus, 
 
Holy cr-p I Didn't realize that about switching to just " 2 - channel "EDIT- I Think I mean "2-speaker".. yea... I knew when you switch to headphone, it makes a click sound, for the amp(?) so.. also I will the -wave- thing I didn't even use that. I Don't know what the wave is. and I was talking about the mixer setting being at higher levels and producing the messed up sounds(static/crackle/pops). it's called "mixer" ..
 
 
======
I'm still considering getting the Creative external card.. I Feel like I shouldn't have to lower system volume but maybe I'm wrong. I know some people do it for better volume control. oh well.
 
-
yes, Metallica - St. Anger, starts of in the left speaker, easy to hear the sounds I was getting.
 
-
If I get that creative card I'll let this thread know.
 
 
-
UPDATE: I kinda like these, but I just got the JVC's.. Philips Fidelio X1 - 
 
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-X1-28-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B00B3QD94O/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1406035860&sr=1-2&keywords=hifi+fidelio
 
http://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/X1_28/-/overview
 
I Feel they'd be great for the thing I Do more of, which is gaming. Open back is good b.c you can hear your own voice say you're talking on a mic, and you can understand what you're saying and make sense. I have a problem where if I can't hear my voice/tone I Sound off n' don't make sense..  I'm sure there's a technical term for that. hmmm...

 

[Notus]

 I Feel like I shouldn't have to lower system volume but maybe I'm wrong. I know some people do it for better volume control. oh well.

If you don't have analog volume pot then you use the system volume. IF you have a analog volume pot then you set the System volume to 100% and use line Out and control volume with the analog.
I control system volume with my keyboard ( has volume control ) its digital and it adjusts the system volume only.

 

[KGUN]

Hey, I'm still experiencing some crackles.
with the mixer turned down I don't hear it in that part of the song, Maybe just turning the mixer down just lessens the effect to near inaudible.. but when the song picks up I hear it still.. 
-
The weird thing is, if I play a station I regularly listen to through winamp program, Digitally imported vocal trance, it sounds perfect. - EVEN - with the mixer turned all the way up, which is great. I'm thinking.. it could be something to do with something in my computer..  - it it's fine playing an internet radio but not songs from my HDD . maybe it is my HDD. I'm not an exeprt on that stuff.. maybe someone on here knows HDD or other internals can effect the songs. 
-
I Tried youtube as I said before or atleast the best one I Could find for st. anger song, and there's definetly crackles from the youtube one. 
-
the vocal trance station from digitally imported sounds perfect. I'm unsure what to do now. if I Should get the Creative card or not. hmmm...

 

[Notus]

I am not expert myself with these things. Sorry i can't give you a easy solution for your problem. To me it sounds some sort of driver / audio decoding issue. Software related anyway.
Anyway i hope you find a fix for your issue.

 

[KGUN]

Quick question, 
 
on winamp, I noticed when I play the digitally imported station (vocal trance), the kbps is consistently 96 kbps
when I play the song test st. anger, the kbps jumps around from 200's to 300's up and down constantly.
 
my Q: Can this jumping around cause an audible static problem? I Really don't know. I'm just trying to rule out any other ideas/problems before I decide to get that external usb Creative card.. also, under details for st. anger the bit rate is stated as: 281kbps.
Thanks.
 
EDIT- for the ones who are knowledgeable about variable bit rate and constant bit rate, which is better or which is less likely to cause problems. especially with media players on a computer and using an internal sound card.  if VBR is the problem how would I go about listening to all music in CBR? say through winamp? I'll be back.