Static during playback

There is loud static whenever Audacity plays any audio file. The loudness of the static is proportional to the volume of the audio sound being played. There is no static with any other media player (Rhythmbox, Movie Player, VLC Media Player, etc.) when playing any audio file.

I am running Audacity 2.0.0 with Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit OS, and an Intel i5 cpu with a Gigabyte GA-Z79X-SLI motherboard and Intel Z97 express chipset. The motherboard is equipped with a Realtec 1150 codec.

I have tried every tweak I can find, but so far I cannot eliminate the static. Anyone know how to eliminate this problem?

Strange. That sounds as if the audio is distorting due to being at too high a level, but if that were the case it should also occur when playing the same file in other applications.

If you open Audacity (close Audacity first if it is already open) then drag a “known to be good” audio file into Audacity, then without doing anything else, click the Play button, do you get the problem?