Please PROPERLY address audio stuttering issue

[Coraha]

Adding my voice to the chorus here. I have had the audio stuttering issue since launch, but by turning the listening position to 100, it was made manageable; With the launch of 6.01, it's become even worse. It's made the fourth fight of the new raid almost unbearable. Previously, it only happened in fights, but now I get it when loading into certain populated areas as well.

[thesm1l3y]

Bumping for awareness. I've had this issue since EW Early Access and it only got worse with the patch. I'm on the verge of unsubbing till this is fixed. I haven't continued the story since EW dropped and I'm still in SB, stuck for weeks now.
Fix this asap, it's absolutely unplayable like this!

[ScarlettSwyrwyb]

I've also had the same experience, I had some minor sound issues in fights with 8 or more people in them before 6.01 but 6.01 has made the sound effects and music in even light parties totally garbled.

[Kazemon15]

People kept going on about how good the music is for the 4th Boss of the new raid is and all I could hear is stupid stuttering and can't engage in any input for the music because there is none! Only stuttering. Do not disrespect Soken like this and keep ignoring the problem. All his hard work from the hospital bed for nothing... I feel sorry for all his hard work.

[Vyncet]

Been having issues since early access. Cutscenes were unbearable to listen to.
At some point during the first week the audio bugged and locked up my entire game, then subsequently crashed my computer. I'm not sure if these issues sped up the process, but my hard drive began to fail hard after this. It was rather old, however I had no issues and no hint of issues prior to the audio and fps lag of Endwalker.

Since replacing the HDD and also getting an SSD, I completely reinstalled the game and this time did not install the new paid spatial audio feature. The stuttering still continues, as well as the fps drops. It's not *as bad* as it was on my old hard drive, but it's still a bit disorienting. I've tried everything except switching to DX9, and the reason I haven't is because I've seen too many people say that switching did not help or they were unable to even open the game after a while even if they swapped back to DX11. I don't want to risk that happening to me, since at the moment I can still play the game, it's just highly inconvenient.

I hoped the patch would fix things and while I had no stutters the first three floors of Pandaemonium, the 4th floor was a disaster. Everything from the BGM to the combat sounds were stuttered entirely. At that point I tried the suggestion of lowering the hz/bitrate, and that removed all sound from my game. It stopped the fps drops that accompanied the audio lag for the fourth floor at least.

Since relogging I've had audio stutters happening again, whether it be in dungeons or even me progressing the MSQ on my alt and fighting small mobs at destination points.
I'm currently running an AMD FX-4300 and while I know that's old and will soon be replaced, I have no problems with any other games and I never had problems with FFXIV until 6.0. I wondered if it was an AMD problem but I've been seeing people with Intel describing these issues as well.

[Fyxation]

Welp. Before I started the game today, I read the patch notes and turned down my audio settings to a lower quality as suggested (this is something I had already tried to no avail). After waiting in queue for 2 hours, I did a FATE and the audio is still awful if not worse. After weeks of dealing with this, I'm somewhere between disappointed and disgusted.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

I'm testing it in non Endwalker areas, so far no problems there. Since Endwalker is unplayable without completely disabling all sound, I will have to resort to leveling my manbun alt lol.

[Maeklos]

I'm testing it in non Endwalker areas, so far no problems there. Since Endwalker is unplayable without completely disabling all sound, I will have to resort to leveling my manbun alt lol.

I'm still doing the post-ShB patch content (on 5.4 now). After logging back in (and waiting through the 1000+ queue) my sound is fine... so far. But I've had zero combat. For me, from my experimenting earlier today, it seemed as if my sound would be fine until the engine "broke". The first time, it was doing a dungeon roulette (The Twinning). I exited and came back in, which is when I started experimenting by running circles in the Crystarium and using Dyskrasia. After the 3rd or 4th cast, my sound broke and it was choppy forever after, distorting to pure audio garbage in actual combat. I logged again and came back, and went into the Rising Stones (thinking the audio issues had something to do with LOD processes), but after the 3rd cast of Dyskrasia, the sound broke again, even to the point that ambient sound and background music was chopped and distorted.

I logged out and then back in, loaded up my brand new man bun and wandered around Gridania, doing quests. Everything was fine until I cleaned up and only had my kill quests left, then went out into the wilderness. In the very first fight with only True Thrust and Vorpal Thrust, the sound broke and stayed broken; even upon going back to Gridania the BGM and ambient sound was broken, choppy, and distorted. I wound up muting everything and turning in all my quests, then logging.

tl;dr: Sound is fine for me until combat. Then the sound engine breaks entirely and can't be fixed except on relogging. And with 1000+ queues still... bunk that. Heck no.

[Helbereth]

Has anyone tried a full reinstall of the game? I'm considering it as an option, but I'd rather not go through that if it's gonna be for naught.

[minopoki]

Not true. My problem with stuttering audio (which is coming and going) just started today after the 6.01 patch. So I guess it changed something. Gee, thanks.

Fair. I made a quick edit to the original post stating that information, so that can see that the problem is even worse than we first imagined.