ElAbogado

Start-Control Panel-System-Hardware-Device Manager-Network adapters-Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card, left click & disable. That, after switching to Media Jukebox 12, seems to have done it. Thanks. You nailed it. Now I'll think about the output questions you suggested. Thanks to everyone.

A great many thanks to all who have replied. I'm trying your suggestions as an interim fix, but more importantly I'm learning that I was naive in my approach. I did find and spend some time in the "Computer Audiophile Academy," which was helpful, but I guess I needed the "Computer Audiophile Preparatory School." Your comments are right on the money and I really appreciate the guidance. I'm going to reconsider the whole project backwards from the amplifier. If I can get one of the interim fixes to work, I'll post it just for curiosity's sake. I'm trying Media Jukebox 12 now. Thanks again.

This is my first post here at this forum. This is a really great website. May I suggest that a "Newbie" area be established here? I'm almost embarrassed to post this simple question because most of the discussions here are far more sophisticated. I tried to do my homework here before posting, and I learned a lot, but perhaps my problem is just too simple or passé to merit attention. I'm a retired (long ago) live-sound technician and sometimes musician who is finally getting around to ripping my cd collection to a digital format. From reading this forum, I realize now that what I'm trying to create is called a music server. How disappointing to realize how low popular audio standards have fallen? I've experimented with MP3s and various WMA formats at different bit rates, and (perhaps unfortunately) I can hear the difference (and I do not even consider myself an audio snob). So I have determined to use a lossless format. I can afford the disk space. I use John Coltrane's "Love Supreme" as my test track. My problem: even after going to a lossless format, and even after going to an uncompressed lossless format (WAV), I still hear tiny little dropouts in the music... tiny little pops... about once or twice per 60 seconds of music. When I go back and review the passage, the "pop" is not there, so I know it is not a problem with data storage but rather with playback. My technical specs: I'm using (or trying to use) a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop running Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3. I paid extra for a "high speed" hard drive (thinking of avoiding latency in home recording). There seems to be something called a "Legacy Audio Driver" involved, as well as a "SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC." I'm also using Windows Media Player Version 11.0.5721.5260. Are there adjustments I can make? Or was I doomed to fail with this configuration? I've already looked around and set everything I can find to "full acceleration." Should I just abandon this quest and get an off-the-shelf music server... or a MAC... or perhaps just one of those 200 disc capacity compact disc players? I can't believe that, after all these years of development, getting high-quality audio out of a computer is still sooooo difficult. Any advice will be appreciated.