cabinessence

Hi mark, thanks for the welcome and quick reply! I've done some fooling around with Audio Midi Setup with khz, bitrate, and faders, and also got rid of a couple random things running in the background, to no avail. Here's my activity monitor on startup (plus Firefox, Activity Monitor, and screen capture): http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/1844/59596146.png I have tried a few players (iTunes, Cog, Songbird, Play) and the problem is there with all of them.

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm having the exact same problem on my 15" Blackbook. When I use the Presonus Firebox OR a normal line-out to my stereo system, there is annoying distortion. When I plug headphones or computer speakers into the headphone jack, the sound quality is much better. Any ideas about what audio programs/daemons to look for that might be the culprit? OSS is not on my system.