Gottesfreunde

i have been around and around this problem. i purchased the ProMedia 4.1's after one of my Acoustic Research Speakers that i bought five years ago burst, and what i thought was lots of research into the best computer speakers. i own a Mac and only had a two channel port, but was informed the ProMedia's would work with an adapter. i anxiously awaited my speakers and received them after ordering them from Klipsch's web site in November. When i plugged the speakers in i heard noticable crackling noises and hiss during playback of Mp3's (most of which were encoded at 44khz/320kbps--and none lower than 128kbps). i also observed this sound while playing regular audio CD's. Thinking it was the adapter, i purchased another that was recommeded by Klipsch that had gold plating or something fancy like that. Still the hiss and crackling noises plagued me. i noticed that if i only had one set of speakers plugged in the noise stopped, so i thought that regardless of what Klipsch said, the speakers would not give me satisfactory performance without a soundcard that provided the capability to plug in all the speakers the way they were intended to be plugged in to the computer, so i bought the "Soundblaster Live" for Macintosh. i have plugged these speakers in every way imaginable, i have moved them farther from my monitors and my computer. i have plugged the electric plug in into a surge protector, i have the front two speakers on one end of the room and the rear speakers now behind me. i have messed with the surround sound, i have turned off every sound source except the ones absolutely necessary for playing music, i have unplugged and replugged the speakers in almost every configuration imaginable. i still experience loud hissing noises from these speakers that completely destroys the experience of ambiant music that i enjoyed listening to while working. "Crystal Clear Sound" is a tremendous overstatement when it comes to these speakers. i am dissatisfied to the point of tears of rage. i want to return these speakers, but fear this will not be acceptable as i have repeatedly asked about the returns policy in the e-mail exchanges with the tech support person from Klipsch to no response to this aspect of my questioning. And then, i don't even know where to begin to purchase a new set of speakers that truly offer the sound this crappy product from Klipsch promised. Owning a Mac, i have simply come to expect things to work as promised without me having to fiddle with it to make it do so. However, being a previous WinTel PC user, i am no stranger to fiddling. i have a B&W G3, and i STRONGLY advise any other Mac user out there to be wary of these speakers. However, although i read too many reviews to count prior to the purchase of these speakers, i did not read the messages in this forum... had i done so, i doubt i would be sitting here typing out this whining missive into the noosphere. ------------------ "never attribute to malice that which can equally be explained by stupidity."