I can reproduce the cracking issue with macOS 12.2.1 on the following devices with internal or external audio hardware: MacBook Pro 2021 16" M1 Pro MacBook Pro 2020 13" M1 MacMini 2020 M1 (I can't reproduce this issue on a MacBook Pro 16" 2019.) In the console, I see something like this every time it happens (coreaudiod): Audio IO Overload thread: 2ac774 inputs: '<private>' outputs: '<private>' cause: 'Unknown' prewarming: no recovering: no Using a setting at or below 48khz reduces the issue but i expect that it don't happen at all; very annoying when working with audio files.