I gave this another go today. I have all the latest firm/soft-ware, using older b/g AE from jp#s. I have the AE, and it hubs internet to 4 laptops from a comcast cable modem connected via ethernet. I tried both analog out and toslink to my ancient 1990's dac, and no pops or clicks that I can hear.
The problem I had before(with clicking) was the wrong sample rate output on my computer playback device properties. wrt popping and clicking, bit depth makes no difference, and never has with anything I've used, new or old.