There are some disturbancies in the background, some noisies. Have tried various mediaplayers. Have also used my professional Digigram Soundcard (PC Card format) with just the same "hiccups" but without the background noisies. Shortly after starting playback, there is a short disturbance. It comes with certain intervals. The cpu activity during these "hiccups" goes up from 3-5% to about 25%. So far this is the only real problem with this computer. A smaller problem is the rather primitiv fan regulation...