Audio only stutter

[Roy Terhaar]

Time to report back

What did I do and test so far?
- I have installed a snapshot to get my system stable again
- I have done apt-get update, apt-get upgrade running 4.14.33+ now
- I have removed addons that were not used (just to be sure they don't interfere or use resources)
- Checked audio and video settings once again

I have tested and video files seem to run fine (as expected) so I focused more on the audio files playing flac and mp3 files. I did not notice any difference in the issue; both formats having same stutter issue.
I have tried playing the same audio files from either the external disk or the SD card; form both locations stutter issue exists.

Playing without advancedsettings.xml file will often (not always) display CAESinkPi:AddPackets Underrun (delay:0.00 frames:xxxx) message in kodi.log. Sometimes it will also crash kodi.
If I use following advancedsettings.xml file I don't get any Underrun messages in kodi.log, but the occasional stutter still exist, however kodi does not seem to crash anymore using this setup:

<advancedsettings>
<cache>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<memorysize>125829120</memorysize>
<readfactor>40</readfactor>
</cache>
</advancedsettings>

Is it possible that something is claiming/locking the HDMI interface for a moment causing kodi to stutter?
Maybe something in the kernel?

Also found following link using google:
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/playback-video-sound-stuttering-after-march-5th-update/71323/40
Not sure if it helps in the right direction, but maybe worth mentioning...