>>106359963
Good to know the DAC came to the rescue. There was also some anon from the /pcbg/ general having similar problems (realtek onboard audio stuttering, nvidia gpu driver experiencing DPC issues), and using an external audio interface solved the crackling issue: >>106292172
Come to think of it, having the audio controller (or the audio bus parent device) use the MSI(-X) interrupt model might've alleviated issues with latency a bit, but it's not a guaranteed panacea (and leaning to snake oil at times)