This game and only this game has issues when the audio subsystem is executed.  The intro movie sound works just fine but once the main menu loads all sound starts to crackle.

I've read all the suggestions, about bloom, etc etc.  None of it works.

Audigy s zs up-to-date drivers.  All other games, WoW, COD4, supreme commander, CIV, Unreal work fine.

I've read about the k-lite codec pack and that it may cause issues, however that has never been on this machine prior to the install of this game.  I did however install the pack to see if it altered the audio.  It did in fact alter for the worse.  I've uninstalled the software with the audio from the game reverting back to the crackle.

The only solution and it is not a solution, is a complete reinstall of the drivers.  An uninstall reinstall of the audio drivers allows the game to function until the system either goes into standby or a restart. 

Let me add more to this, if I do not launch the game after the full reinstall of the drivers and restart the machine multiple times or let it go into stand by if I launch the game after those restarts everything is fine.  Once I restart after closing the game and re launch the game the audio goes to crackle.

This happened to me a long time ago, over a year, on another different machine in which the developer finally discovered there was a problem with how their software was working with the audio subsystem and had to patch it. 

The fact that all other games work fine and that the game does work fine after a reinstall of the driver and then to finally end up with bad audio after playing the game has to link to this game.