I know we've talked about this a while back but not sure if there was ever any resolution. Now I'm starting to notice it much more, even not during gameplay getting intermittent audio clipping/stuttering. When there is no audio playing there is no sound coming out of the speakers so it's not like it's interference. I might isolate the audio board and toss in my own amp and see if that gives any indication of where the issue lies. The only modification I have right now to audio is the new line filter (which I have another of I can toss in just to compare) and have the aux audio unplugged for front headphone from the motherboard, I think that was Steve's suggestion a while back to joseph5185 and myself for testing.

Already unplugged, something Steve suggested a long time ago, never plugged it back in.

Was that for audio clipping or for noise/hum/popping? I don't believe ground loop isolators deal with clipping at all. But I already have replaced the ones in my JJP games.

Yeah, way past that kind of simple fix sadly. It seems more like a digital sound delivery issue, very similar to what I've experienced in the past with slow computers playing games, etc. I'm gonna swap out the ground loop isolator for another new one I have (grabbed a few from amazon when I was replacing them in the past) just to rule that out but I have the same replacement one in my woz without issue.

I'll mess around with the other ground loop isolator and the levels and see if I can get any change to happen. The clipping seems more repetitive/consistent versus specific to a sound type but I'll actually pay close attention and see if I can determine and adjust volume levels.

For anyone following along at home, this resolved it!

It's a standard motherboard header/pinout I'm pretty sure, F_AUDIO. They show the motherboard and the pinouts they use but they only label 3 of them. Looks like it's labeled as pin 7 for an I/O sensor. These are all for "front panel" connections on a PC which would be on the front of the case.

WHY it causes this behavior is an interesting question..

https://i.imgur.com/yF5D9.jpg

Yes.