Removed unneeded audio drivers

Just a post that maybe will help someone else.  I was having some intermittent latency type issues on playback (glitchiness, pops) despite proper settings.  I recalled a thread that I believe Craig Anderton had started several months ago (searched for it but I cannot find it) regarding removing unneeded audio drivers.  I had 2 that were not tied to my interface (a RealTek driver that had installed with Windows, and a monitor-audio driver from an old monitor I used to use.)  I removed both of them.  Glitchiness gone immediately.  It may all be in my head, but I would swear the audio actually sounds cleaner.  I have not gone back and done A-B tests with/without, but that was my immediate perception.
 
At a minimum it improved the playback - must be some driver interference that was occurring.

bapu
...No pops and crackles.
 

Poor Snap gets no respect. 
 

I laughed at your response Bapu, guess that part was obvious.  But apart from the absence of obvious noise, the music itself seemed cleaner.  This project has a lot of processing-hogging going on, I'm sure that's part of it.
 
Thanks for the prior input Craig.  I had assumed the "non-used" drivers wouldn't impact my sound, glad I'd seen that post before.  Guess I shoulda taken time then to remove/disable them.