Really strange. There IS one update I NEVER install on XP (virtual or otherwise) ... it's the .NET v4 package (I forget the exact title). Do you by chance have this installed?
It's really weird that my systems had the exact same crackly sound issue, which no amount of "fiddling" with various version of VMWare Tools; modifications to the VMWare config file r.e. various emulated sound drivers; and even the newest 5.0.2 Player didn't resolve -- but it suddently "fixed" itself over the weekend. There were NO changes to the system except the Windows 8 updates that installed Sunday.
FWIW the system is an E8500 on an Intel DG33BU motherboard with 8GB of RAM and an Intel 335 SSD (with a 2TB 2nd drive).