Wet filament can give popping sounds while extruding, and indirectly cause stringing because of the moisture evaporating in the extruder. This causes filament to ooze out because of the high pressure. But since its a week old it's most likely fine.
Step 1: make sure you have dry filament.
Step 2: follow this guide: https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/
8 mm retraction sounds like waaaay too much, a direct drive printer should print fine with under 1 mm retraction.
I was in the same position, doubting between a mk4 and a p1s. Decided to build a Voron instead, no regrets.
I just got my magicphoenix kit delivered. It has some nice addons that the default voron does not have: nevermore, tap, and canbus (no more cable chains to the toolhead). The packaging is nice, everything is placed in layers in the order that you build it.
I paid a little over €1000, and that includes some extras such as steel Y backers, a CNC tap, extra lights and DHL express shipping.
I had to pay about €230 extra in duties and tax (shipped to the Netherlands).
That makes sense then, not as bad as I thought. And we live in a tiny country, so the mobile providers need to maintain a lot less infrastructure.
How is that even possible? I pay €27 for unlimited calls and texts, plus 10 GB of data every day. In The Netherlands. You guys are getting scammed I feel.