Audio popping issue

[Crimson1128]

I've had a similar issue myself, *near* constant audio popping/lagging, with two notable exceptions; the audio seems to temporarily play as normal while either playing a footstep sfx or an ambient housing sfx (fireplace crackling, water fountain flowing, etc)

it's honestly the strangest thing, as i've never had issues like this before endwalker. stranger still is the fact that when i relocated my ffxiv install from my ssd to my hdd in an attempt to find a solution, it... actually somewhat worked, now only occuring occasionally, usually during combat... but downside is the far greater load times, and of course, the fact that although it's better, the issue still persists.

Edit: I've also seen a few other threads with similar issues, one of which suggested that a common cause may be systems using Realtek audio. Given that my desktop does as well, seems like that might be the culprit, as my laptop- while i despise trying to play ffxiv on such a small screen- has not had any audio issues whatsoever compared to my desktop.