My gf has an HP Pavilion 7915. She previously had a quite nice sounding three speaker system with a little woofer and two small tweeters, made by Creative. A while back, the tweeters started “crackling” really bad on some songs. She bought another set of PC speakers off of ebay (that don’t work with the woofer, unfortunately) and they are now "crackling also, but again only during certain songs.
Is there anything else that could explain the crackling sound if not just the speakers being blown/cheap?
If the crackling only happens with some songs, and not others, I would think there is a problem with the song files themselves - are these from a CD, or are they .mp3s or some other lossy compressed format(.wma, .ogg, .rm, ect)? If they are the later they may have been encoded poorly.
It may be nothing to do with the speakers themselves, or the computer hardware even.
In what form are the songs ‘stored’? Are they mp3s? Are they on a CD?
If the crackling is only on certain songs, and they are mp3s then the crackling may actually be part of the track. (recorded when the mp3 was made)
In my experience, until I upgraded my system, when I played cds they would crackle and play badly. It was because my computer could not keep up.
If the songs are on a cd try copying them accross to the HD into mp3s. if the songs are mp3s try re-recording them of re-aquiring them from wherever they came from.
Beyond what has been suggested, the only other thought is if your sound card is separate from the MoBo, removing and reinstalling same, obviously with power off. Sometimes the trolls beneath the bridge go away when contacts are thus exercised.
Thanks for all of the great responses. I suspect the culprit is lousy mp3s. This is good news, because I really miss the bass we had with the old system, and this means I can again battle the dust-bunnies and reconnect them.
