Well, yesterday I picked up a UAD-1. It was pretty frustrating for a few hours as it was doing the crackle and pop thing. I was on the phone with UA tech support for a long time...the tech support is great, but we were unable to find a conclusive answer to the problem. We tried a different pci slot, many different adjustments with possible software and hardware conflicts, and still the problem wasn't fixed.
So, ready to just return the darn thing, I decided to try one last thing...moving other pci cards around to different slots. It was a pain, but dagnabbit, it worked! Whatever was causing the conflict resolved itself and now the UAD-1 is working as it should (as far as I can tell).
Anyway, the plugs sound fantastic and they are a welcome treat. It was just a lot of work to get there!
Terry