Premium - Crackling, Stuttering

[chrislounsbury]

After a day of futzing around with this, I'm at wits end.

I'm using a Dell Latitude laptop (work laptop).  It has a fully updated version of Windows 7 64-bit.  Since the last update (I think) I've bee hearing crackling and stuttering in any and all tracks.  It comes and goes, there could be 30 seconds of pristine playback and then a brief crackle/stutter.  

After searching the forums and Intertubes, here's the things I've tried:

1. Resetting sound device settings, and trying various stample rates and bit-depths

2. Toggling off Hardware Acceleration

3. Toggling off Play all songs at same volume

4.  High quality streaming

5.  Downloading playlists local

I went so far as to drop $100 on a USB DAC that bypasses my built in Soundcard in my laptop and docking station, and the crackling still persists.  

It does NOT happen in iTunes, Windows Media Player, or in YouTube videos.  Only Spotify.  I'm getting really frustrated, as I'm paying $10 a month for a service that is almost unusable to me for 8-10 hours a day.  

It works fine on my iPhone and my several Macs at home without issues.  Only my Windows 7 machine that's causing the problem.  

[DJ1111]

Its your bluetooth headphones. Use regular plug in headphones and it will be gone. trust me!!

[DJ1111]

I bet your using bluetooth headphones. Plug in a pair of non bluetooth headphones and it will be gone. Trust me its that easy. lol I just finally figured it out.

[cgibney]

Bluetooth and/or wireless headphones are not the sole cause. 

This has been a tough problem for many people to solve because there can be many different causes. There's no single solution. For me and my wife, we've never been using wireless headphones. We use wired speakers that connect to the audio jack of our Windows PCs. 

My problem was likely tied to DLL conflicts and/or old DLLs. My fix was very labor intensive. I'm glad whenever anyone finds a resolution, but again, there's no one cause.

[tomaatti22]

I'am going to give up with this crackling **bleep**. It occurs mostly on high tones. I have Sennheiser HD600 headphones + Nuforce uDac3 +

 windows 10 and i'am using equalizer apo. Same problem with my speakers JBL Control 1 and amplifier.

Really annoying cannot listen anything. Any other audio content on my computer seems to be ok so it is spotify's problem.

Maybe this month and after that it's over with spotify.

[deanofitz · Accepted solution]

Another solution is if you are using wireless headphones try unpairing then pairing again - that solved it for me.

[sdh68k]

I get it on my system, and I'm using wired USB headphones. Seems to go away for a while if I reboot my system but will always return within a day.

[Wizzohizzo]

Too much hasle for a very expensive product, relying on poxy community to fix issue.  Absolutely ridiculous. **bleep** paying or using it again after my runs out. 

Why be loyal when they got loads of music app out there n this ain't cheap either. 

[Wizzohizzo]

Choosing to pay for stuff with no customer support is a bad idea. Ppl r playing guessing game here. Russian roulette. 

Fyi i have uninstall app and unpair bluetooth over n over again. 

Good luck ppl.

Too much hasle for a very expensive product, relying on poxy community to fix issue.  Absolutely ridiculous. **bleep** paying or using it again after my runs out. 

Why be loyal when they got loads of music app out there n this ain't cheap either. 

[Wizzohizzo]

That will be a temp tin mate. This problem is from spotify. The anoying tin is that spotify not making any effort or even trying.  And we still keep coughing out money  but we complain about sky, bt customers service etc at least they have got one n made the effort. I will be switching to Google music.  Better support  or neptunes i think the othet ones called. Excellent customer support n with phone num. Think i might have got the app name bit wrong. Am done paying for this ungrateful  twats **bleep**.  

[jairosk8]

Chill.. eat a snickers!

[xtanav]

This started happening to me on my LG v10 and I use Spotify as my primary source of music in my car. My car is a 2016 with no aux all media is connected via BT. I thought is was my phone and replaced with a brand new LG G6, clean download, brand new phone..same darn issue. If this cant be fixed ill pay for a subscription elsewhere with another service

[staKfr]

Same here. Tried external sound card or regular jack.

My power managment is on "high performances".

Even without any other program and low CPU usage in CTRL + ALT + DEL.

Always crackling...

I have no clue and I never used bluetooth headphones...

Tried reinstall / driver update...

Sorry guys.

I had crackling everywhere, not only Spotify. So this is not a spotify issue.

It seems it was my capture card software for HD60-s. I reinstall it and it's fine now.

I'll update if needed 😉

[tmcnama1]

This worked for a minute for me, but the crackling came back unfortunately. 

[tmcnama1 · Accepted solution]

My Realtek audio driver seemed to be the issue on my PC. (I was getting crackling on desktop app, web app, but never on my phone).

For me, the only thing that worked permanently (uninstalling/reinstalling did not work long-term), was rolling back my audio driver for my headphones/speakers to the native driver.
1. Open the Device Manager (type devmgmt.msc in the Windows search box).
2. Expand the "Sound, video & game controllers" and right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio". Target the specific device you are trying to prevent crackling on (Headphones, Speakers, etc).
3. Select to "Update Driver Software".
4. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer".
6. Put a check in the box "Show compatible hardware" if not already checked.
7. In the list of devices, click "High Definition Audio" or "Generic Audio Device" (the native driver).
8. Click "Next".
9. On the Update Driver Warning box, click "Yes" (install the driver). 
10. Restart the laptop if prompted. If not prompted, then no need to restart.

After this discovery, I'm going to try to reach out to Realtek support to see if they can clarify if this is just a compatibility issue between the driver software and Spotify.

[dwg2017]

I am using a Dell Inspiron laptop -- After failing to stop stuttering with many recommended interventions, problem was solved when I right-clicked on the Spotify icon on desktop, and clicked on "Troubleshoot compatibility" -- "Start Program", etc.    The Spotify program would not start from within that box, however, when I went back to the desktop icon, and opened it again, the persistent stuttering had vanished, and it continues to work well.    

[EclecticShel]

One alternative: I would suggest restarting your computer or device and if that doesn't work, log on to the website and launch the web browser version. It worked in the web browser when the application failed to deliver.

[chucklebus]

I had all the same issues and tried everything in this, and other threads. Youtube/Media Player fine. Then I noticed that my PC wasn't keeping correct time. I searched loads of threads on that too and tried literally everything suggested to no avail. Two weeks of tearing hair out!!!!

My Kaspersky Internet Security was also a few days away from expiry.

So, I've renewed Kaspersky, rebooted and now the time is correct and Spotify is working again.

Just checked everything else...soundcard driver is still the same (Intel SST Audio Device (WDM), Spotify settings.. crossfade is on, no proxy, hardware acceleration is off.

Could it be Spotify has an internal clock, not syncing with Windows clock, and by renewing Antivirus fixed it? So I would say not neccessarily a Spotify fault, but they ought to make it as resilient as YouTube/WMP especially as they're charging a subscription for it!!

[spanchal]

I have exactly the same problem. Fine playing the same audio in QT but terrible in Spotify as is all other audio, local or streamed. Spotify is currently unuseable on my mac. Have tried re-install to no avail!

[hipgig_music]

Please check the problem with sound distortion on track 'I got the news' from Aja allbum by Steely Dan

There you can easily hear Spotify's problem between . 2:15 a 2:21 seconds.

link to the song  open.spotify.com/track/0s1qlZS6lwflT07Dz0anvK 

Do you know the cause of this problem? More and more I come across such little problems like clikcs, drops, distortions and they do not have anything common with the audio devices or internet connection, settings, etc  beacuse you can hear these problem by everyone on specific songs in specific time frame like I showed in this track 'I got the news' from Aja allbum by Steely Dan

[ellismg]

Thanks fo rthsi post. Its amazingly annoying interference, in my case caused by charging my Monster Clarity sound box (a very good product btw). Wasnt like this in the old days!! MGE