I'm using an ASUS VH236H monitor and an EVGA GeForce 570 GTX both of which are brand new. My monitor has an audio out port for speakers/headphones so I plugged in my headphones and made a random selection from my library when I noticed two things:

1. There are static-like artifacts during "louder" parts of songs.
2. There's what seems to be a volume cap in place. When I crank the volume past 100% in VLC the decibel level does not truly increase but the amount of static does.

The cable is not new; I yanked it off of my PS3 when my DVI cable broke. It has been used a good amount on my HDTV and PS3 so I doubt it's a matter of burn-in.

I like the way the setup works with an HDMI cable as opposed to DVI because my headphones barely reach my rig whereas I have plenty of slack when they're plugged into my monitor.

Thanks in advance for any support.

Note: I'm using a high quality HDMI cable from monoprice, AKG K702 headphones, and VLC media player.