[USB-Audio - USB Audio DAC, playback] Ocassional crackling, rarer light hissing in one of the two channels

[westonlast]

I see this output from "pulseaudio," but nothing is logged when the sound crackles:

W: [pulseaudio] sink.c: Default and alternate sample rates are the same.
W: [pulseaudio] source.c: Default and alternate sample rates are the same.
E: [alsa-sink-Intel ICH] alsa-sink.c: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write!
E: [alsa-sink-Intel ICH] alsa-sink.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_intel8x0'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
E: [alsa-sink-Intel ICH] alsa-sink.c: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
W: [alsa-sink-USB Audio] protocol-native.c: Failed to push data into queue

This is all with default settings. Disabling the Pulse Audio scheduler doesn't help. The audio output should be flawless. It's practically impossible to figure out ALSA, even with the Internet.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:4.0-0ubuntu11
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-37.64-generic 3.13.11.7
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-37-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.6
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: westonlast 3706 F.... pulseaudio
                      westonlast 6055 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: westonlast 3706 F.... pulseaudio
                      westonlast 6055 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Jan 25 01:33:09 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-10-03 (114 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release i386 (20140722.2)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:DAC successful
Symptom_Card: USB Audio DAC - USB Audio DAC
Symptom_PulsePlaybackTest: PulseAudio playback test failed
Symptom_Type: Underruns, dropouts, or "crackling" sound
Title: [USB-Audio - USB Audio DAC, playback] Underruns, dropouts or crackling sound
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/03/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1204
dmi.board.asset.tag: alienware
dmi.board.name: A8N32-SLI-Deluxe
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: alienware
dmi.chassis.version: alienware
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1204:bd04/03/2006:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnA8N32-SLI-Deluxe:rvrRev1.xx:cvnalienware:ct3:cvralienware:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
modified.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: 2015-01-24T22:30:13.991660

[smogsy (smogsy)]

i have seen this on 14.04 & 14.10

Running Google Music from FireFox to Arcam Irdac.

It ran fine for around 12 minutes then after a track change it turned into cracking due to high volume sounded like it was going to crack my speakers.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.