An additionial data point, the same install and sound card on an intel G965 board shows the same behaviour. So I think a hardware issue can be ruled out, unless alsa-lib 1.0.13 is using some new code path in the driver that <=1.0.11 isn't.
-- sound crackling with feisty libasound2 in some apps https://launchpad.net/bugs/97004 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
