Now, this might just be a hunch, but I recently had a friend deal with audio glitches on Windows 11, where after an update, it would start crackling.
I can ask him about how he fixed it, but I remember it being something like the system thinking it was outputting surround sound over normal speakers and that, in certain applications, would be problematic.
It only changed this or even allowed these choices after the update. So just a hunch, but I can ask him about it, it was a little while ago when it happened.