I don't know that much about computer audio as I am just getting into it but I found this on Empirical Audio's site. " 4.Dedicate the Laptop to music playback if you are using USB. Using the computer for lots of other tasks can cause conflicts, increase latency and cause popping in the audio. "
Help with clicks and pops on PC audio
I have used a Squeezebox Touch wirelessly with good success playing files on my laptop at 16/44, but with too many dropouts for higher-res files to be usable. Recently tried to go from laptop to DAC via USB to experiment with hi-res files, using JRivers as my media player. Files play, but with clicks and pops similar to a dirty LP. This occurs whether I'm going straight to my W4S DAC1 or ADL Esprit, and changing USB cables does not help. I'm wondering if the JRivers player isn't set up correctly? I was reading the Audiophileo site and note that clicks and pops can occur if hardware buffering isn't correctly set, but I don't really understand that or know whether that might be a clue to my problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.