so I create a combined sink from two audio devices, my HDMI (DP actually) monitor with OK speakers and the analog stereo audio out, which got a subwoofer attached, without satellites. pactl load-module module-combine-sink, this works swimmingly, sound is awesome, I can set exact audio levels for each output, no notes.

problem is, I’m listening to an internet audio stream via Rhythmbox (tried mp3s off a network share, same deal) and when there’s heavy CPU activity, the sound slows down, goes oooOOooOooOOoo like if you remember audio tapes from the olden days that got stretched/deformed. this only happens with the combined sink, if it’s just HDMI audio, no issues.

used to happen infrequently, only when launching games or android studio doing compiling but nowadays with every other site having some cloudflare/anubis-like CPU torture, it’s getting really tired, really fast.

tried looking at htop, pw-top, following the journal but nothing of substance is observable; possibly because this lasts for a second or so and those tools ain’t exactly real-time.

maybe the issue is the devices being 48 KHz whilst the stream is 44.1 and there’s some resampling happening? tried looking at pipewire/wireplumber documentation but that stuff is way above my head; “quantums”, wtf?!

so is there some priority I can elevate or something so that this audio stack doesn’t get compromised? I don’t wanna give up the setup nor Rhythmbox.

Fedora, Plasma, Wayland, i5-4670, RX 580.