Since most chainrings are sold with even numbers of teeth, I am assuming that is what you have.
If your front chainring has an even number of teeth, every other tooth can wear a bit more than the others. Thus, if you put a chain on the chainring so that the teeth that used to have links with outer plates now have inner plates, that could cause it to sound odd. More detail here:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chain-life.htmlThus, it is possible you put the Sram chain on with the links out of phase so to speak, and then got lucky by putting the old chain back on in phase.
I am only guessing that this is what happened, but I have no other suggestions for why.
I assume your rear sprocket is 17 teeth, as that is what SJS usually supplies. Thus, only the chainring and not the rear sprocket would likely be the source of the odd noise.
I cut a small notch in one tooth on my chainrings and in one tooth of my rear sprocket (I use a 16T rear sprocket). When I put a chain on, I am careful to always put a link with an outer plate on the teeth with the notch.
If you take your chain off, you might want to mark the chainring first on which type of link was on one of the teeth so you can consistently put your chain on the same way.
Have you measured your chain for length (or stretch)? I usually replace chains at 0.75 percent stretch.
I have no suggestion on whether or not you need to reverse sprocket or chainring.
