Crackling in higher bit rate streams

[ismarketing]

Also, which buffer size are you using?

Increasing it can help in your situation.

Jean-Marie

Thanks - I played with buffer sizes and there was no difference with the noise.  I seem to have made some progress re-routing cable TV lines away from audio cables.  I'll keep experimenting and report back.

I did check activity monitor, and initial playback of any file format swamps the cpu of the mac, using 100% and more of the CPU.  That would be interesting if I only heard noise at the start of playback, but it's intermitant and perisistent throughout the listening session.

More soon and thanks for the ideas.