Audio/Sound problems from Guest OS (Ubuntu)

[Dekker]

I have been using VB for ages (since 4.x I think), and guest OS sound has been off-and-on throughout the releases... Right now, it is frustratingly off...

VBox.Log is attached.

Host: i9-14900K, 64GB Ram, Windows 11 (latest)
Guest: 10GB Ram, 4 processors, Ubuntu 23.10, but also tested 22.04.04 (LTS release)

A few VB releases back, I was using Intel HD Audio through WASAPI, and all was fine. VB had a release in the fall that coincided with it no longer working - guest was registering output (OS's sound meter was twitching with audio output), but host was not hearing anything.

Switched to ICH-AC97, and audio works, but stutters every 5-10 seconds, and never stabilizes.

Workaround for the last ~6 months was to register my audio interface as a USB device, register a filter for it, and when the VM starts up I could hear properly, albeit it was Guest only, as host was disconnected.

Something must have changed or I must have hooped some setting, but I'd like to figure this out. Any ideas? See attached log. The log is of me starting the VM, logging in, playing an MP3, hearing nothing, then shutting down.

Oh, and yes, I did search the forums. Others with similar problems were given suggestions to allocate fewer CPUs to the guest (to free CPUs for the host), but that shouldn't be a problem here. Other suggestions involved memory, but that shouldn't be a problem here. I have also tried the other Guest audio controllers, to no avail... I have also tried the same VMs in a different machine (reduced the RAM to 2 GB, and CPUs to 1), and still same problem.