It's machine processing lag caused by really horrible code -- basically it pounds your machine with sound files.

It's not "server side" because it's your computer, not the server, that's being forced to try to play umpteen copies of the same sound files over and over.

No, it's not saying there's anything wrong with your computer. There is however, something wrong with Cryptic's software.

re: fleet defense- The overlaid sound re-occured for about 5 secs whenever I changed maps (moved sectors, entered new event, etc). Haven't done that event since as it was so broken. Shame, as I like it.

Even idling in sector space afterwards, CPU was working much more than normal (48%) on all 4 cores trying to keep up. (normal load ~20-30%%, even in events).