I have the same issue on Xubuntu 18.04 and Debian Stretch. It occurs on a fresh install while watching a video in Firefox. Restarting Pulseaudio does fix the issue for me as well.
I observed that when the problem occurs, I can see multiple instances of speech-dispatcher in Pavucontrol. Whenever I select a different output device for all of them, the crackling disappears. If one of them has the same output device selected as Firefox, the crackling comes back. I could fix the issue by uncommenting the last line (DisableAutoSpawn) in /etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf. I hope it might help. My system: Xubuntu 18.04 CPU: Intel i3-4160 Motherboard: Gigabyte H97-D3HM GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to speech-dispatcher in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1739310 Title: Sound crackling in Ubuntu 16.04 Status in speech-dispatcher package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Sometimes, when i’m watching videos in youtube or facebook, the sound is distorced with a “static sound”. After searching the web for a solution, i found this site (maybe it’s the same problem, with better explanations in english): https://github.com/mumble- voip/mumble/issues/2350 Always when i start the service “speech-dispatcher” for the first time while playing something with sound, the bug occurs. So, i think maybe the problem is with this “speed-dispatcher” service. When i restart pulseaudio everything becomes normal again… This problem happens in ubuntu 17.10 too. It’s a annoying bug and i don’t know the best way to report it. My specs: GPU: Nvidia GTX 950 Motherboard: Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 (Rev. 6.0) CPU: AMD FX 8300 P.S: I'm using Xubuntu now but this bug occurs in all ubuntu 16.04 "family". Sorry for the bad english. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04 Package: speech-dispatcher 0.8.3-1ubuntu3 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-40.44~16.04.1-generic 4.10.17 Uname: Linux 4.10.0-40-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.13 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: XFCE Date: Tue Dec 19 20:50:34 2017 EcryptfsInUse: Yes InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-11-13 (36 days ago) InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 16.04.3 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170801) SourcePackage: speech-dispatcher UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/speech-dispatcher/+bug/1739310/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
