hmm, I have begun hearing it again (I just got to a song that makes it more prevelent than others) and the VolAdj is still off. So at this point I believe that the VolAdj has absolutely nothing to do with this issue

Yes, the configuration you described matches mine. When I did brng the empeg's valume down, it still did it. This seems to point the finger at the MP3's even more. But how could I have distorion in the MP3 when it is ecoded at 256 static (using lame) from a source CD that sounds fine?