Cracking sound after system update on mac

Hey. Yesterday I did a system update on my iMac (model: late 2015), which still runs on Mac Monterey. Eversince, when I play sound via my audio interface, the sound is distorted. It’s like like a stuttering noise that repeats itself like every 3 seconds. Remarkable: when I play directly on the built-in speakers, the distortion is not there.

I have tried restarted my iMac, reinstalled the drivers and all the standard things, but nothing works… For me as a music producer this is really killing.

Has anybody had this issue and/or know what is a possible solution?