Thanks for the info. I have tried all of the Mix Control and all have the same clicking/crackle sound. I don't have the TI firewire but do have VIA. I had read that VIA was a decent chipset for Focusrite. I also tried with the legacy driver and with the correct driver and didn't notice any difference either. My guess is probably the firewire drive as I didn't have an issues with a USB interface.

Thanks again for all of the info. I will take it step by step and see what happens. An e-mail to tech support may be in my future. :-) I'm thinking that it may be the firewire driver as that seems to be a common problem when someone has issues with this particular Focusrite unit. Maybe I'll get a Focusrite with a USB. I really like their preamps.

Focusrite support is pretty awesome too. Usually when one of these threads pops up Matt from Focusrite pops in but he might be busy doing holiday stuff.

  If you like the Focusrite pres (and yeah they are indeed awesome) I've been using the Scarlett 18i6. I don't think it is supposed to be as nice as yours but to me it has just been rock solid. The only downsides are it only has 1 set of outputs, does not have the loopback function some models do and it only has 2 pres. However if you have the cash the Octo Pre they sell (or whatever it's called) just plugs straight into the light pipe giving 8 more of their pres. You can also use other interfaces as dumb pre boxes this way but this method only gives 4 extra inputs at anything above 44.1khz. If you want the full 8 pres you have to record at that samplerate. I'm sure if that is the same with the Octo Pre.

If you want something fancier the MOTU stuff looks pretty smokin' and they are much faster than the Focusrite stuff to get the ultra low latency if that's really important to you.

However I can get my roundtrip latency down to around 12ms on the Scarlett which isn't noticeable at all. I do have to increase that a bit during mixing though if I'm using the really heavy duty plugs or want to edit/tweak during playback. It's not like it drops out a LOT if I don't but it will occasionally and that's obviously annoying.

Cheers.

I just wanted to follow up with what I've found in my adventures. The DPC Latency Checker is a wonderful tool. I found that my network adapter was causing some grief with my audio. I disabled it and have only noticed one little "pop" in my audio since then. Other than that I haven't had any issues. I'm going to continue testing by putting a load on the computer and enabling and disabling devices. I haven't tried recording just yet. Thanks again for all of the input. I will post back here again with any positive or negative results that I find in the hopes that it may help someone else.

Hi all,

Moevb - I'm glad to hear that you've narrowed the issue down to DPC latency and are already getting better performance.  It sounds like you should be able to get your system pop/crackle free by continuing with DPC latency checker, but if you are still unable to get rid of the occasional click, do contact Focusrite  tech support here:  http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/contact.php

Beepster - You were right that I was "busy with holiday stuff".  Our offices have been closed for the past week due to the holiday.  I appreciate you helping moevb in my absence.  

Happy New Year, Matt. No problem. You guys have been good to me and you make good products. You deserve the business. Cheers.

Gotta love Focusrite input on a Cakewalk forum!  
 
The 18i6 aint too bad either.  
 

A few years ago, with my prior DAW PC, I had the same problem, and like you, used DPC latency checker to narrow it down to the network adapter driver. As soon as I disabled the driver the problem went away. As at least one post previously stated, I would recommend against getting rid of the Focusrite device unless you have no other choice. IMHO it truly is one of the best interfaces out there in that price range. I have the DSP version which is esentially the same thing except for the addition of the internal DSP chip and an extra headphone out and it has always worked very well for me. Not to mention, the Saffire MixControl software provides amazing monitoring/routing capabilities. I have it plugged in to a SIIG FW400 card with the TI chipset and it works flawlessly.
 
Hand in there, it sounds like you're on the right track.
 
JTW