Audio takes ~10 seconds to kick in

For all applications & all output devices, there's about a 10 second delay between the time I hit 'play' and the time the video/song/file's audio starts playing. It will be in sync but it's like it takes a few seconds for the very sound waves themselves to bounce down the wires, talk to the chips etc etc before they find their way out of the speakers or headphones. It's a 2021 Macbook Pro and since it's Apple, I'm assuming there's a simple fix that they've hidden. Lil help?