Weird audio issue on new Mac Studio M4 Max

[ChromeCrescendo]

I received my new Mac Studio M4 Max yesterday and used Apple Migration Assistant from my old Mac Studio M2 Ultra

Now, on the new machine, any time music is playing, whether it be on Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc., skips occur within songs, akin to what you would hear when a CD skips for a second (this does not happen on every song but happens often enough to make me say WTF?)

I am on macOS Sequoia 15.5

The only change from my prior setup is that I have added a Seagate 8TB external HDD for Time Machine backups (which does vibrate but, I know vibrations cannot effect playback of a non-physical digital audio file)

It's very strange and does not happen to audio accompanying video - only when playing strictly audio files

I have restarted the computer, checked Audio MIDI settings, checked my interface firmware, everything is updated and all settings are proper (same as they were prior to the migration)

Anyone else experiencing this? Advice? Thank you.

Very strange

 

[S.B.G]

That's rather bizarre. My MS is not exhibiting that behavior thankfully.

Maybe try creating a fresh profile and see if the issue persists. If it doesn't, then the problem might be in your original, migrated, profile.

 

[ChromeCrescendo]

That's rather bizarre. My MS is not exhibiting that behavior thankfully.

Maybe try creating a fresh profile and see if the issue persists. If it doesn't, then the problem might be in your original, migrated, profile.

Thanks - just weird because it never happened on my old Mac Studio - same exact profile and settings