The sound stuttering issue is very annoying at the moment - from my conversations with CS and other posts online here, I can't believe that it was fixed on one person's box by an engineer visiting... The very fact that it is intermittent may have something to do with this.
The V+ box has its issues, but I congratulate ArmitageS on the approach he has taken - very calm and collected and hopefully the August code drop will fix this irritating issue. Oh, and good luck for the new baby