Adjust for Audacious drop-outs?

[John Hupp]

On a 14.04.2 i386 desktop with a P4 @ 3.0GHz + Hyperthreading and 2GB, I 
find that Audacious skips/drops out a lot at the beginning of a CD track 
(or MP3), then after the first 30 seconds or so the problem decreases 
and is only occasional (perhaps 1-2x minute).

Starting from the default settings for everything, I increased the 
buffering from 500 ms to 1000, 1500, 2000 then 3000).  There was some 
improvement but the problem did not disappear.

By contrast, playback by VLC Player (granted, a heavier program) was as 
smooth as butter from the first note on both CD's and MP3's.

Can I solve the Audacious problem with further settings changes?