I've recently been ripping CDs for listening in my new IS250 non nav. MP3s sound great but the albums that I ripped using WMA via Windows Media Player crackle BIG TIME! It only happens once or twice per track but it sounds like the dash is coming apart. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a problem with WMA format or the way that I created the media?

 

I would think that any crackles are from the file itself and no its probably not due to WMAs unless you made the WMAs at a really low bitrate.

 

i have heard the crackling in many songs played in my IS and my previous cars. It is the file and not the stereo system. i often find that some wma files are the smaller files in comparison to the mp3 files, but any low quality file can sound bad. i have even noticed this on my computer speakers.