OK, I got a chance to try a few things this weekend, headphone to RCA, unplugged the PC, and played a CD in the drive. Good news is the buzz is gone but the bad news is, the audio quality is still poor. I did rip all of my CD's in the WMA losless format so I am pretty sure that is not the issue.

I am still wondering if anyone thinks an upgraded external PC sound card with digital outputs (like the ones I mentioned before) would yeild any better quality sound?

Thanks
Dan