Unwanted crackle.

Im using Audacity 2.1.2 on my Windows 7 home premium PC. All my audio is currently on Minidisc. This is no longer practical for me so I am re - recording each Minidisc using Audacity, which is fine up to a point. However, I find that when playing back the Audacity recording, I get a quite loud crackling occurring periodically which is embedded in the recording. This can last for a few seconds or sometimes longer. I thought that maybe I was recording at too high volume, but it still occurs at lower volumes. Ive been an Audacity user for a long time, but have never come across this before. I suppose it can be best described as sounding a bit like an electric power saw. Any help would be much appreciated.

What’s the connection in the middle. SPDIF?

If you listen to the player with headphones, does it die in the same places as the recording?

DAT is famous for ratty digital transfer. Their solution is transfer analog by the headphone connection and a good stereo analog interface. So that may be your desperation method if the headphones sound OK.

Koz

Thanks kosikowski, I shall persevere with your helpful advice.