Thanks for the offer John T. But I don't believe that sending you the mp3 files would help you or me. I believe that no matter what mp3 file(s) I sent you, they would all play perfectly on your computers. You would need a duplicate of my setup to try and get the same problem.
I have spent quite some time analyzing the problem and I really don't believe it's in the mp3 files created with MC 9.1.xxx (LAME 3.93.1 "--alt-preset insane" = CBR 320).
As I have mentioned in prior posts, the pops and ticks do not repeat in the same place each time. For example, take a 1 minute track. The pops may appear at the very beginning or ten, or more, seconds into the track. If you immediately stop the track and start it again, the pops WILL NOT appear at the same point on the second play - for that matter, they may not appear at all.
Furthermore, if you burn the track(s) (as an mp3 data disc with Nero 6.0.0.15) and play them on a standalone dvd/cd player (i.e. Sony DVP NS715P) the tracks all play perfectly. So something is going on between the hardware and software of the computer to generate this problem.
The Card Deluxe folks are coming out with a new WDM driver for this card in November (the driver is currently in beta testing). As soon as the new driver is available I will download and install it. If this doesn't work to solve the problem I guess I'll have to live with it on this particular computer.
As I also mentioned, this problem is not occuring with MC 9.0.180 on another computer I have with the identical type of pro grade soundcard.