I had a similar problem: the audio started creaking when the computer was on heavy load and wouldn't stop until the pipewire service was restarted.
I was using linux-zen kernel and I read that this was a known issue of linux 6.4, if I remember well.
Using linux-lts solved the problem. Hope this helps!
Update: Moving form Zen to regular 6.5.4 kernel greatly reduced the number and intensity of crackles. Unfortunatly, moving from regular to 6.1 lts remained with the same reduced crackles.