Hmm, maybe totally unrelated, but if I use cdplay(1)[1], I can hear
   the interrupts of my mouse moving and of my keyboard as a 
   faint clicking/noise in the output... Now this isn't perfectly
   audio layer [output is the CD's phone-link], but maybe somehow
   related ? [*audio-illiterate*]


this sounds more like bad audio hardware - cross signals, and such.
ie, mouse activity signals on the motherboard cause the audio to
pick them up and lose... i've seen this multiple in cases.


.mrg.