"Ambient Sounds" has static

[Fiel_Tana]

A lot of Mac users have had far better luck using the XIV on Mac launcher. It is a third party launcher, so be warned it is *technically perhaps* against the TOS, but it does solve the audio issues, some graphical flickering and general crashiness of the game. They however only support Big Sur 11.6.7+, so if you go that direction you may need to upgrade your OS.

As for when the sound popping began, it looks like the EW release was where it started to be reported. For me it began a while after release, then seemed to clear up at some point, mostly. Happens on Mac and PCs. Based on a guess, it may be due to the new Immersive Audio added in EW, I'm not an audio professional but the timing matches.

I'm guessing you are using the latest official launcher which would update normally since you're not on Monterey, but thought it worth a check.https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...bef4df96da316e