Thanks for your answer, Junior2613. Unfortunately, the drivers that worked for you aren't supported by my system. I found a very good improvement after installing the relatively old drives that came with my system plus the ATI HDMI Audio Device R2.29 from the Realtek site. This is not the ultimate solution as I keep hearing crackles from time to time, but they are now much more bearable. I hope that new Seven updates will fix this problem.