(not ryclark, but just one or two thoughts which may help) Since you are using your computer and AA for playback only, increasing the buffer size to its maximum, 8192, if needed, is not going to affect what you hear at all! Indeed, it ​should​ remove your glitches. The only caveat is that you might notice a slight delay in the tracks starting to be heard because the buffer will need to be filled first before actual playback can begin. Your i7 2.9 GHz CPU, is it multicore or only single core? If the latter, that again could affect the playback throughput. As ryclark indicated, it is always best policy to have the audio files on a separate HDD to the OS. Your SSD may be fast enough to allow the audio to stream successfully, but there is no telling when the OS might decide to "grab" the CPU in order to perform some action it considers vital at that moment. Such "grabbing" can affect the throughput of data, which, in your circumstances absolutely must be continuous, though the increased buffer will clearly help. Are you able/willing to transfer your audio tracks to an external HDD? If your computer has at least one USB 3 slot available, I would, personally, stream the audio from a dedicated external USB 3 drive.
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