Latency Mon says...
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Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts. 
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I worked on getting the latency lower, and brought the worst offender down to 0.30 MS by disabling things I don't need or use (Firewire Card, Display Link Display Adapters(?), Audio Devices, Network Tunneling stuff (?), AMD HD Audio, Realtek Mic, VIA HD Audio (?), MS ISATAP Adapter, MS Kernel Debug Adapter, MS Teredo Tunneling Adapter, Web Cam).
 
My worst latency is now 0.30 with DirectX Graphics Kernel. Can that be uninstalled?
Next worst is NT Kernel at 0.21
USBPort.Sys at 0.20
 

Nope, it's still not fixed.
 
I'm seeing spikes on this
portcls.sys
When I get the pop.

Support has emailed me and told me to leave work early and call support.
 
How can I argue?
 
Hopefully tomorrow.
 
I left Latency Mon running all evening while I mixed and the worst measure I have is 0.73 from storport.sys.
 
Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks.
 
Next worst was 0.29 from ndis.sys. I was browsing while I mixed.

You might get some tips here...
http://forum.giga-byte.co.k/index.php?topic=4562.0

Geoff, the stuff remaining for you I still have enabled on my machine. If you open task manager, right click on those processes and lower priority on them (can also bump Sonarplt.exe to above normal while in there). Many of those I set to low, and they get bumped up if a higher process calls them.

I called support.
 
Deleting the Aud.ini file seems to have fixed things.
 
 

Still having trouble...
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CONCLUSION
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Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:23:53 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

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SYSTEM INFORMATION
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Computer name: DESKTOP-DAF0RU8
OS version: Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64)
Hardware: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., Z77X-D3H
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 16344 MB total

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CPU SPEED
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Reported CPU speed: 3503 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 MHz (approx.)
Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.
WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.
 
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MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
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The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.
Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 1902.472630
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 4.010435
Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1900.134363
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1.209651

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REPORTED ISRs
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Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.
Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 161.944048
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.051428
Driver with highest ISR total time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.060152
ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 1668156
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

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REPORTED DPCs
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DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.
Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 33335.360834
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: storport.sys - Microsoft Storage Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.233313
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.725383
DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 12247041
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 15
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 1
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

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REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
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Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.
NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.
Process with highest pagefault count: vssvc.exe
Total number of hard pagefaults 15280
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 2870
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 1818141.313446
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.812707
Number of processes hit: 25

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PER CPU DATA
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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 111.725794
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 161.944048
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 6.489251
CPU 0 ISR count: 1517150
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 1157.572081
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 64.273149
CPU 0 DPC count: 10084346
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CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 49.588693
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 110.992578
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.406434
CPU 1 ISR count: 150913
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 235.348273
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 3.503608
CPU 1 DPC count: 427677
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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 34.017612
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 31.73280
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000431
CPU 2 ISR count: 93
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 305.410505
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 7.058061
CPU 2 DPC count: 736572
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CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 40.293625
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR count: 0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 231.796175
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.924729
CPU 3 DPC count: 112479
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CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28.201426
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR count: 0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33335.360834
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 3.160238
CPU 4 DPC count: 372966
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CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 38.092968
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR count: 0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 172.572081
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.903207
CPU 5 DPC count: 110741
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CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 26.439792
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR count: 0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 244.303740
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 2.449340
CPU 6 DPC count: 296639
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CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 38.426795
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR count: 0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 173.753354
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.889243
CPU 7 DPC count: 105638
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What about the drivers in latencymon? What are the top offenders?

With Win10, I am not sure if there is more at play here, but it seems like you have indexing/shadow copy services running. "vssvc.exe" is a shadow copy call, and I disabled Windows Search Indexer on this machine completely. If you have any "backup services" running 24/7, I am not sure if you can lower priority, but would also consider disabling them (and do them manually). IIRC, the USB PORT/Storport.sys fell into the Windows Search functionality (as long as drivers are current).
 
I have no clue if these are linked to any auto-save/backup features of SONAR (or how you may have them set).
 
 

I'm getting there little by little. 
 
A little bird gave me a secret that helped. Disabling some kinda hard drive thing on the mobo.
 
I left Latency Mon running when I went to dinner and had a hard spike when I returned, but just now, I mixed for 45 minutes and never saw a spike that would have done me in.
 
The crackling is mostly gone. I copied between projects without issue tonight for the first time I can remember.