No, no random crackle or pop.

Sometimes i get "failed to unmask ide" on boot up.

Sometimes while it's playing and i fast forward to the next song, it locks up when the hard disc spins up. It tries to spin up twice, then it just sits.

Sometimes I get "contact support", at start up.

Sound quality is always fine. It does it both in the car and in the house so I know it's not the power connectors in the sled.

I think I'm going to try the serial log to see if one or both of the drives is bad... I live in the northeastern U.S. and my drives have spun up in some seriously cold weather, that could be the cause...