Strange distortion problem (easily fixed by engine restart but very annoying)

[chaosgrid]

I have a problem since pretty much forever (Windows 10, now Windows 11) and all recent VoiceMeeter versions:

After some time, the whole audio playback stream gets distorted in a really bad way. Recently, the problem has become worse (meaning, it happens more often - not sure what the trigger is). My A1 main device is the base station of an Arctic Nova Pro Wireless but I think I've had this problem with any main sound device. I also tried to assign realtime priority to the voicemeeter.exe process but it didnt help. Simply restarting the engine fixes it.
My audio devices are using WDM and 512 samples for buffering.

I attached two samples, one being the distorted version. Note though that the recording is kinda weird, it does not sound this sped up through my speakers but the general distortion effect is similar. Maybe the way it is sped up when recording is a hint what is causing this?
It seems like at some point voicemeeter has a hiccup that causes it to speed up the playback but then hits the buffer end all the time..

[duncanpa]

Check the thread Voicemeeter and Statics, Stuttering, Crackling sound & Choppy audio