Running Big Sur (v 11.6.2) on an MacBook Pro (13" | 2019) -- making sure that the ONLY application running is the one that you need/want to get audio from (in my case using Chrome)... so I had to quit FireFox, and Zoom applications and BOOM!!!! All of the choppy-ness is GONE and audio sounds WAAAAY better.... so, thanks to those who mentioned quitting other applications to fix this annoying problem!!!!