[AMD Ellesmere] Crackling sound on Pulseaudio

Also, I can add that I've only noticed this issue happening while using DisplayPort, and playing back sound through my LG Monitor. This doesn't happen when using a USB or Headphone jack headphone/headset. Also, I've never noticed it happening when using an HDMI monitor, only DP. It could be a bug with the display drivers, but I find it to be unlikely, given that restarting PulseAudio fixes the issue temporarily, and then it comes back.

Static that plays back while playing a song on Spotify (Snap).

This is the static that can be heard while playing a song from YouTube on Firefox. Notice that the crackling starts right away when pressing play on the video, but it also has a delay to stop the static.

Also, I've noticed that if I don't play anything for a few minutes, the static can't be heard.

This issue isn't related to the motherboard itself, because I have the monitor connected to the RX 580's DisplayPort output, not the internal audio output. I don't get this issue while using USB-C audio, Analog output/input or through HDMI, only DisplayPort.

OK, so I've found out that the crackling only starts when I change the audio output for the first time after starting Ubuntu up. After that, it only stops if I restart the pulseaudio service, or by restarting the PC. So, the issue clearly has something to do with the change in output audio device.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

The problem still occurs on the latest stable PulseAudio packages (1:15.0+dfsg1-1ubuntu2.2) for Ubuntu 21.10. Also, doing a "pulseaudio -k" on the Terminal, and then restarting any software that was outputting audio, fixes the issue. I've noticed that this only happens after the output audio device is changed between the available devices. So, going from the "HDMI/DP3 output" to "Digital Output" and then back will cause the crackling after a few minutes.

I am experiencing this issue in Xubuntu 22.04, pulseaudio 1:15.99.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu1, with this Hardware:
GIGABYTE B550I AORUS Pro AX (BIOS F15 with AGESA ComboV2 1.2.0.5);
Ryzen 7 5700G (Cezanne) with integrated graphics;
audio output via HDMI (mainboard).

@ppq

I've actually been able to determine what the issue was. The speech-dispatcher package is the one causing issues. It is possible to uninstall it from any Ubuntu installation (or Ubuntu-based distros). But to make sure that indeed this is what is causing the issue in your case, try to run this command on your Terminal:

speech-dispatcher -K

And check if the crackling noise will go away. If it does, uninstall it using apt:

sudo apt remove speech-dispatcher (or replace remove with autoremove if you want to also uninstall any packages related to speech-dispatcher).

It seems that this package will stop behaving correctly after some time with the system running, and will interfere with everything that pulseaudio will output.

The issue goes away when speech-dispatcher is uninstalled, meaning that this package is related to the bug in question, and is resolved once it is removed.

Thank you, Matheus, "killall speech-dispatcher" instantly removed the crackling for me. I have uninstalled the package like you suggested, fortunately I do not need TTS support on my PC. Thank you for your help!

I can confirm "killall speech-dispatcher" fixes the hdmi output noise while reproducing any audio.
My setup:
https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=fd15b34806

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

can confirm this also affects combination of
Ryzen 5600X
Asus Strix B550-I motherboard
Sapphire 6600XT graphics card

monitor is connected via display port

"killall speech-dispatcher" fixes issue (had previously used "pulseaudio -k" but that is more of a pain)

Can confirm removing speech-dispatcher solved the issue of crackling, delayed sound on Mint 20.3

Ryzen 3 Pro 4350g with Radeon integrated Graphics.

Sound over DP, speakers connected to monitor.