I have the same issue on Xubuntu 20.04. I find that just exiting Firefox completely and relaunching it resolves the audio problem on other applications and stays fixed, even after relaunching Firefox, unless I go to a website that causes the issue to start again. So, it seems to be very website specific for triggering it. One website that always triggered it was, strangely enough, www.subway.com. I was in a live meeting with MS Teams at the same time, but not 100% sure that MS Teams factored into it except that the audio of the meeting got scrambled up until I exited Firefox. If I went back to that website again, it would happen again.
Unlike the other commenters, I don't even have a webcam on this PC at the moment, so I don't think it's webcam related. But, I do have some other hardware in common with the previous poster -- specifically Radeon and Starship/Matisse Audio. At the time of the incident, the audio (of both MS Teams and Firefox) was playing on the Starship/Matisse Audio port. But based on all of the comments here, it doesn't seem to be sound/video card specific, as I'm seeing both Nvidia vs Radeon and Intel vs AMD throughout this thread. $ lspci | grep Audio 2d:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] 2f:00.4 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller $ uname -a Linux sylvester 5.4.0-73-generic #82-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 14 17:39:42 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux $ dpkg -l | grep firefox ii firefox 88.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 amd64 Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla ii firefox-locale-en 88.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 amd64 English language pack for Firefox $ sudo lshw -C sound *-multimedia description: Audio device product: Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] physical id: 0.1 bus info: pci@0000:2d:00.1 version: 00 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0 resources: irq:116 memory:fce60000-fce63fff *-usb:2 description: Audio device product: Plantronics .Audio 478 USB vendor: Plantronics physical id: 3 bus info: usb@5:2.1.3 version: 2.43 capabilities: usb-2.00 audio-control configuration: driver=usbhid maxpower=120mA speed=12Mbit/s *-multimedia description: Audio device product: Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] physical id: 0.4 bus info: pci@0000:2f:00.4 version: 00 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0 resources: irq:118 memory:fcd00000-fcd07fff -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to pulseaudio in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1906741 Title: Firefox sometimes causes garbled audio Status in firefox package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in pulseaudio package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Opening certain applications/websites at the same time as Firefox causes the audio to become garbled. The audio sounds distorted with an echo. Certain actions are guaranteed to cause this, but it can also happening when only running instances of Firefox. I've been able to consistently cause this by launching Zoom from a link within Firefox. This does not occur when using Chrome. The only way to fix the issue is to shut down all audio-related programs. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04 Package: firefox 83.0+build2-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-56.62-generic 5.4.73 Uname: Linux 5.4.0-56-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.12 Architecture: amd64 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC2: rdevans 55475 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/controlC0: rdevans 55475 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/controlC3: rdevans 55475 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/controlC1: rdevans 55475 F.... pulseaudio BuildID: 20201112153044 CasperMD5CheckResult: skip Channel: Unavailable CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Thu Dec 3 16:55:36 2020 Extensions: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing ForcedLayersAccel: False IfupdownConfig: # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8) auto lo iface lo inet loopback IncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite) InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-10-20 (1140 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412) IpRoute: default via 10.0.0.1 dev enp7s0 proto dhcp metric 100 10.0.0.0/24 dev enp7s0 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.0.7 metric 100 169.254.0.0/16 dev enp7s0 scope link metric 1000 Locales: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing PrefErrors: Unexpected character ',' before close parenthesis @ /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja:greprefs.js:354 PrefSources: prefs.js Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=83.0/20201112153044 (In use) RunningIncompatibleAddons: False SourcePackage: firefox Themes: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-11-12 (21 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 02/18/2011 dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc. dmi.bios.version: P1.40 dmi.board.name: H67M dmi.board.vendor: ASRock dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.chassis.type: 3 dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.40:bd02/18/2011:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnH67M:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.: dmi.product.family: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.product.sku: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M. 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