Hi guys, I have the same problem on my 16" M1 Max with 64 GB RAM. Not maxing out neither CPU nor RAM. It only happens when running Parallels, though. A sudo killall coreaudiod solves the problem temporarily. It seems like a problem in coreaudiod or on the kernel level. Monitoring the system logs with the Console app yields more or less the same error log entries each time a crackle is heard (noticing the mention of an Audio IO Overload): default 12:15:57.957273+0200 coreaudiod index: 0, start: 0xd02e498a81b, duration: 0x47, fault address: 0x120214000, fault pc: 0x193d37128, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957334+0200 coreaudiod index: 1, start: 0xd02e498a919, duration: 0x8a, fault address: 0x120354000, fault pc: 0x193d37128, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957355+0200 coreaudiod index: 2, start: 0xd02e498aabd, duration: 0x3f, fault address: 0x12039c000, fault pc: 0x193d37128, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957375+0200 coreaudiod index: 3, start: 0xd02e498ab0a, duration: 0xc4, fault address: 0x1203a0000, fault pc: 0x193d37128, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957393+0200 coreaudiod index: 4, start: 0xd02e498abe5, duration: 0x46, fault address: 0x120410000, fault pc: 0x1a0389500, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957411+0200 coreaudiod index: 5, start: 0xd02e498acdd, duration: 0x8a, fault address: 0x120404000, fault pc: 0x1952a1938, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957431+0200 coreaudiod index: 6, start: 0xd02e498ad7a, duration: 0x2b, fault address: 0x120408000, fault pc: 0x1952a1938, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957449+0200 coreaudiod index: 7, start: 0xd02e498adb6, duration: 0x94, fault address: 0x12040c000, fault pc: 0x1952a1938, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957468+0200 coreaudiod index: 8, start: 0xd02e498ae73, duration: 0x39, fault address: 0x120410000, fault pc: 0x1952a1938, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x4, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957484+0200 coreaudiod index: 9, start: 0xd02e498b06a, duration: 0x4f, fault address: 0x12001c000, fault pc: 0x193d37128, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c default 12:15:57.957539+0200 coreaudiod index: 10, start: 0xd02e498b0cc, duration: 0x50, fault address: 0x120020000, fault pc: 0x193d37128, faulting TID: 0xb8a57a, fault type: 0x9, PID: 0x331f6c (...) default 12:15:57.960874+0200 coreaudiod Audio IO Overload thread: b8a57a inputs: '<private>' outputs: '<private>' cause: 'Unknown' prewarming: no recovering: no default 12:15:57.961083+0200 coreaudiod CAReportingClient.mm:508 message { "HAL_client_IO_duration" = 98458; HostApplicationDisplayID = "com.apple.WebKit.GPU"; cause = PageFaultsOffIOThread; deadline = 20835502; "input_device_source_list" = ""; "input_device_transport_list" = ""; "input_device_uid_list" = ""; "io_buffer_size" = 512; "io_cycle" = 258; "io_cycle_budget" = 11354166; "io_page_faults" = 0; "is_prewarming" = 0; "is_recovering" = 0; "issue_type" = overload; lateness = 150; "other_page_faults" = 68; "output_device_source_list" = "Internal Speaker"; "output_device_transport_list" = BuiltIn; "output_device_uid_list" = BuiltInSpeakerDevice; "safety_violation" = 1; "sample_rate" = 48000; "scheduler_latency" = 13834583; "smallest_buffer_frame_size" = 512; }: ( 384592846520321 ) I hope this helps, Thomas