mono, crackly audio, device not appearing raspberry pi 2B

[bluenote]

I am using the 3.5 jack to speakers on a raspberry pi 2B

As detailed here: https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/audio-output-mono-instead-of-stereo-ubuntu-18-04-1-rpi/18001

Audio output is mono
Audio output is delayed and crackly for desktop sounds, as well as sometimes simply silent

I note that no sound device shows up in Sound Preferences / Hardware

Some workarounds from that thread:

Editing /etc/pulse/default.pa such that:

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

and commenting out:

load-module module-suspend-on-idle

Results in a device "Built-in Audio Analog mono output" showing up in Sound Preferences/Hardware,
audio is mono, but does not crackle/miss and desktop sounds work seemingly as expected.