Audacious

Even cheap hardware should be able to handle 96 kHz fine nowadays. My circa-2008 laptop with a Sigmatel STAC92xx chip (Intel HDA-compatible) plays it without crackling. Try using ALSA output with the "hw:0,0" device to give the audio stream the most direct path from Audacious to the hardware. Also make sure the buffer size is not set unreasonably small (the default 500 ms should be fine).

$ cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 96000 (96000/1)
period_size: 6000
buffer_size: 24000

On my machine it only shows

access: MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 4
rate: 44100 (44100/1)
period_size: 88208
buffer_size: 441040

So even though it doesn't crackle on alsa, it's being resampled. But it's good to know 96000 is common, so another reason I should buy a new machine or at least a sound card. I just wonder if it plays back fine through pulse, or even supported properly through pulse?

Are you sure you're using "hw:0,0"? (Check in Preferences -> Audio -> Output Plugin -> Preferences -> PCM Device.)

I get: ALSA error: snd_pcm_hw_params_set_format failed: Invalid argument.
If I set device to hw:0,0
I run it in two ways:

DISPLAY_ALSA_DEVICE=rate_converter audacious

and

audacious

Both have same issue.

.asoundrc file:
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm{
@func getenv
vars [ ALSA_DEVICE ]

default "hw"

}
}

pcm_slave.sl2 {
pcm "hw:0,0"
rate 96000
}

pcm.rate_convert {
type rate
slave sl2
}

By default it should just work. When I set default device - it works. But default device IS hw:0,0
No other apps were running at time when I started Audacious.

cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
closed

But with default settings I get: cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
access: MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format: S32_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 44100 (44100/1)
period_size: 2736
buffer_size: 11024

Made error.
in previous message you could see me executing program with shell variable.(bash)
I made error there. I corrected error and run program. With Variable I got

cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
access: MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format: S32_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 192000 (192000/1)
period_size: 11904
buffer_size: 48004

So it seemed to work with forcing alsa. So for me issue is sorta solved.
But I am still willing to test this bug with no variable/.asoundrc trickery.