HDMI Sound continues to crap out during sleep - El Capitan

I bought the Macbook and immediately upgraded to EC, so I have nothing else to compare it to, but HDMI sound dies when the MB goes to sleep (inconsistently). I have tried killing coreaudiod, unplugging and plugging the HDMI cable and the Apple-branded adapter. A restart doesn't fix it. The PRAM reset does fix it. I have to say the MB is the worst Apple product I have ever owned (and I've had many). While I am not sure if it is the device, the OS or the combination, there is plenty of evidence of the problems on these boards and in the bug reports. If anyone has had this problem and successfully resolved it or found a reasonable workaround, I would appreciate some feedback. Resetting the PRAM every time is not a reasonable workaround nor is using the internal speakers. There is absolutely no reason that this configuration does not work. The monitor is an LG 34UM95.