Audio quality diminishes gradually and improves following a system reboot.
Audio quality diminishes gradually and improves following a system reboot.
I've experienced this concern consistently since using headphones. When Windows runs for extended periods, game and YouTube audio begins displaying faint but noticeable distortions—such as noise, pops, or crackles. These aren't random; they persist even when playing identical files. They appear across both low and high frequencies, including normal speech. Over time, the interference intensifies, making the audio more pronounced. Restarting Windows temporarily resolves it, but the problem reappears after about an hour. My suspicion points to the Windows audio mixer handling shared-mode audio, which might be the culprit. The MPC-BE version configured for WASAPI exclusive mode doesn’t seem to cause this issue. Initially, I used a 192kHz 32-bit format (based on incorrect info), which produced heavy popping even with a strong CPU and upsampling. Switching to 48kHz 32-bit helped reduce some crackling, though the problem lingered. My system uses an HD-650 headphone via Asus Z370-E, with Asus Nahimic driver 6.0.8899.1 installed from a GitHub release. The latest Asus driver switched to HDA instead of UAD, which also introduced artifacts. Windows automatically installed the Realtek audio console, so I thought I had selected the correct one. Is there a method to identify and fix this issue? It seems rare for others to report similar problems online—maybe it’s not a standard Windows bug?
Disable all automatic enhancements. Adjust audio settings to 44100 at 16-bit. These changes might reduce unwanted artifacts.
I recently tried Hollow Knight and noticed the main menu music sounded really choppy. Switching to the OST in exclusive/bit-perfect mode didn’t help much—restarting fixed it. The track is 44.1kHz/16bit, so it’s not just Windows issues. I also played it on YouTube with an old PC connected via TV and speakers set to 48kHz/24bit; the audio was decent, no crackling at least. Not great, though—I think using the motherboard for HD-650 might have caused bigger problems than I imagined.
Switching to 48kHz 24bit resolved the issue. (Despite Asus claiming support up to 192kHz 32bit) Audio from games now sounds normal. Haven’t checked YouTube, seems fine. Edit: Returned later. Occurs randomly; playing games for hours without doing anything caused the crackling again... Edit2: Restarting after shutdown removes the crackling; it works once I restart.