I have tried to test this issue with the same Creative Titanium PCI-E SB0889 chip (in PCIEX1_2 slot), but cannot see any noisy/crackling issue on my testing system.
I have tried playback the audio file in MP3 format (Win 7 integrated sample MP3), the sound is ok, no noisy/crackling occurs.
I also tried with both Win 7 integrated audio driver and latest version of driver which is downloaded from Creative website, both version drivers are working fine without any problem. Please see below pictures for reference.
Please help to check below:
1. Make sure user's sound card is in good condition.
2. Which driver version? Did user try latest version from Creative?
3. Which PCI-E slots this user installing? Tried other PCI-E slots?
4. Has user tried disabling the onboard sound in BIOS?
5. Is there any yellow mark in the device manager?
6. Please also provide the detail system configuration (OS, driver version, CPU, RAM etc)
My configuration:
CPU: i7 930
RAM: 2x Corsair 2GB DDR3-1600
OS: Win 7 64bit
Sound card; Creative SoundBlaster Titanium PCI-E SB0889 chip (in PCIEX1_2 slot)
Sound driver 1: 6.0.1.1347, downloaded from Creative website
Sound driver 2: 6.1.7600.16385, Win 7 integrated driver