audio playback is inconsistent, not reliable and sucks. It used to work and now it doesn't. IT HAS NOT BEEN FIXED IN V2018.
Audio cache is inconsistent, not reliable and generally doesn't work well. it has been damaged since re-writing software. this is a VITAL function for many that do spot work and need reliable audio for timing. How this slips through the cracks I do not know. PLEASE JUST FIX IT. PRONTO. I am a user fro v4. I have slowly watched the train run off the tracks since CC and this is just unacceptable.

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Dennis commented
Audio is still broken as of AE CC 2019 (16.1.2) (I think it's getting worse if that's even possible)... Using Mac OS X 10.13.6, 64GB RAM, 1500MB/s RAID or 1100MB/s Internal - doesn't matter... I've tried turning off display color management, working at 8bpc, conforming all audio sources to match AE settings regarding hardware bits/kHz, any res, any flavor of GPU/CPU acceleration, every trick I know has been attempted, external audio hardware/internal hardware only, etc...
I’ve been using After Effects since V3.5 - this is beyond frustrating...