The point I was making is that I was right when I said that pops and clicks were related to latency. That is what I said was causing the issue.
My first (and proper) suggestion was to increase the buffer size. That is the first thing one should check. A smaller buffer size setting will reduce latency but a buffer setting that is too low will cause pops and clicks. That is why I told the OP to try increasing it. That usually solves the problem.
Since I did not hear from the OP I was unable to make the next obvious suggestion which is to increase the sample rate. The higher the sample rate, the lower the latency but keep in mind that it also increases processing time and works the CPU harder.
You do not want a buffer rate lower than what is needed and you do not want a sample rate that is higher than what is needed.
Incidentally, both these settings are found in the MIDI and the OP said Parasound sent him a message telling him to "check the MIDI settings", so either way I was pointing the OP in the right direction.
Every tool, device, driver and application is different and sometimes you don't even see the Advanced Setting for buffer size. Regardless, they are both related and both can solve pops and clicks issues so they are the first thing someone should check when they hear pops and clicks while playing their digital audio files.
Peace
The way the OP responded got me thinking if he might have changed the buffer size or anything that affected latency. That's why I posted the way I did. Also, note that I wasn't the one who "shot" any idea down.
In
audio playback, changing buffer size has never made much of a difference for me in solving playback issues, though I have never come across any issues playing back 44.1/16 through 192/24 either. I only ran into issues with higher sampling rates, and DSD256, and only when I used my slowest Acer notebook on win10. In such cases, changing buffer size had helped but would not fix it totally. The best solution is to get more processing power/speed. Come to think of it, I wonder if the OP has anything (e.g. apps) running, or settings (e.g. energy saving related) in his MacBook that might have affected it's overall performance.
Adjusting buffer size could have been a potential solution in some cases, just that I do not quite believe it is in the OP's case for the following reasons.
1) OP has a powerful laptop that should be able to play audio files of resolutions up to at least 192kHz/24bit at ease, using iTune's default settings (he confirmed that's what he was using).
2) The problem went away after he adjusted the midi setting from the default 44.1/24 to 192/24. Down converting from 192/24 is easy and virtually harmless, even my slowest Acer notebook has no trouble doing it with default Foobar or JRiver settings.
3) OP has no such issue using the same Mac playing the same files with the SA8005's USB DAC, without changing the MIDI settings.
I have had my fair share of issues in trying to get one of my DAC to play DSD256 using the slow Acer notebook running win10, so I have done a lot of reading on topics related to USB DAC playback issues including buffer size, and other settings. It seems to me the issue he faced with that particular integrated amp's build in usb dac is an odd one.
Lastly, whenever I used the Mac with my usb DACs, it would work 100% of the time trouble free without having to play with any setting. As you said, I didn't even have to see the advanced setting, not for audio playback. In case I may have to, some day, I would appreciate it if you can post a link, or a picture to show where I can find the buffer size setting. My MacBook Pro is running OS 10.13.4 and I could not find any such settings in MIDI, iTune "Preference", or anywhere else so far.
