Media Playback In Monterey Is Painfully Glitchy.....

Monterey is not playing back any media. I noticed it the other day however the issue resolved itself after a reboot, but now it's back again. Songs via the Music app show that it should be playing after you click "play" - but the slider doesn't advance. And hitting the spacebar to preview a song or video in Finder yields the same result. The video content appears still and silent. Quicktime also does not play music or videos. I tried to see if creating a new user account would help remedy the issue, but it was still there. This is a new 2020 edition Mac Mini. Anyone have the same issue and/or found a resolution?