This is something that's been bugging me for a long time, and I'm no expert on the ins and outs of why sound behaves as it does, hence why I'm in the newbie forum, so I'm hoping someone can educate me to put my mind at ease..
I've had my Xbox 360 and PS3 hooked up to a variety of sound sources over the years. They are currently connected to a set of Logitech 2.1 Z623 speakers, but I've also had them through regular built-in TV/monitor speakers. No matter what I have them hooked up to, however, I've noticed sound clicking and popping in certain games and almost always under the same circumstances. I've driven myself nuts trying to isolate the problem, but I am starting to think now it is coming from the source and is not hardware related.
I will give a couple examples of the clicking I hear. I've been replaying the first Mass Effect on Xbox 360, and almost every single time I hit a loading screen, the sound clicks noticeably once the game loads up. On the loading screen itself there is a very low spacey humming sound, and I think when that sound is cut off when the loading finishes, that is what is producing the clicking noise. Is this normal behaviour for when a sound is interrupted mid-playback?
The same thing occurs in more recent releases as well, like XCOM: Enemy Unknown. At the end of every mission there is a sequence showing your spacecraft returning to homebase. The ship makes a lot of low rumbly sounds, and when the scene abruptly changes from that to your menu screen, I notice a loud click/pop. My guess is that when sound is interrupted without a fadeout or something similar, it produces a loud click?
I apologize for my ignorance on the topic, I am a complete audio newb, but I do appreciate clean, clear sound and thus notice these pops and clicks every time they occur. I think it would help me put my mind at ease to know why this occurs, anyone have any insight for me? I've done extensive searching on Google but can't seem to find anything on this subject.
