I'm gonna weigh in here. I started having this problem with my MacBook Pro 16" i9 late 2019 - along with a host of other problems which were generally linked to the inability of the cooling system to adequately handle the heat produced by the i9. I found various sources online reporting the problem and eventually there was talk of a software solution from Apple. This never came. Alongside the weird crackling and popping was another problem, reported in music producer blogs, that audio interfaces using USB2.0 would experience dropouts and various other glitches. I took the computer into Apple and spoke to them multiple times about these issues, never receiving any acknowledgement that the problem existed or indeed that they were aware of the widespread nature of the issue. They tested my speakers multiple times - presumably with their own diagnostic software or in safe mode, and concluded that there was nothing wrong with the computer. In light of my experiences - both the overheating and the audio glitching - which impacted my work as a developer and music producer, I decided to upgrade to the new M1 Pro based MacBook Pro, hoping that this would solve the problem. Alas after migrating, I am STILL experiencing issues with the audio. I can't believe that it has been SO long and NOTHING has changed. I was going to try a fresh install of MacOS without using TimeMachine out of desperation, but it seems that people are still experiencing issues even after completing this process. I am completely at a loss of what to do... The sound is completely unbearable to listen to! And the problem occurs almost every few seconds!

Still a problem on mine. I'm on the beta program so I got Ventura before the general release. This solved the problem for a bit but with the subsequent updates the problem returned. So tired of this...

I reinstalled everything from scratch without TimeMachine to try and get rid of this problem. I did this on the recommendation of some of the others on this forum and of the Genius Bar people. It was no mean feat as I have a lot of music and development software on my laptop. I initially thought that it had worked as I couldn't hear the glitches, but as I reinstalled some of the software and started working on development stuff again the problem returned. I find that in order to listen to music from the MacBook Pro speakers I need to close most other programs, including Docker, pressumably because it reduces some of the memory pressure. Honestly at my wits end with this.

They're never gonna fix this are they... I mean it has been over 3 years since I first experienced this issue and I'm on my second laptop and it's still happening.