You have no idea how happy I am to see you found a fix!
This has been such a headache for the last year or so. 
Just adding some info about all the experimentation I’ve done to address this issue on my three Android devices.
The issue for me is that all my videos have sound and play just fine on Chromecast and on my desktop and laptop computers in the Chrome browser, but the sound is missing when I play some of the videos on the Android devices in the Plex app.
I tried all sorts of different quality, optional audio support, and other settings in the Android Plex app. The only one that worked for me was to change Settings > Advanced > Player > H264 maximum level to 3.0.
Have you noticed whether changing that setting affected any other types of video / audio?
Have you noticed whether changing that setting affected any other types of video / audio?
No, I have not noticed any effect from changing the H264 maximum level to 3.0 except that the audio now works for all the videos I’ve tried.
Thanks @DaveBinM for all the research here. Just hit this today on my Nvidia Shield Pro. Noticed the same that any of my MKV files in HE-AAC will take forever to start playing… play for 1-2 seconds, then go back to spinning. Though in my case, even changing the audio to another track like EAC3 5.1, it has same behavior. Go to a DTS show and immediate play, etc.
Media Info on mine that is failing (and seems to be directly on topic with this thread. Android, plex, HE-AAC not playing properly). :
Stream 0:
Codec MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a)
Sample Rate 48000 Hz
Bits per sample 32
ACC extension SBR
Stream 4:
Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
I’m happy to post a sample somewhere privately for you.
We have a fix for this which should be coming in the first release of next year 
Thanks for your patience! 
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Thanks!
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Thank you so much Dave! Took a lot of patience for this one!
Does the latest release include this fix?
Does not seem so 
Does the latest release include this fix?
It should do, yes. It fixed the issue in all the sample files we were provided with.
@DaveBinM Plex player version 8.11.0.22186 on Firestick 4k/Firestick 2nd Gen with Plex server version 1.21.2.3943 does not fix the issue with streaming HE-AAC audio. This issue is not present on the Android phone player.
It is fixed in 8.12
@DaveBinM 8.12 was released for Android on the Google Play store the other day. The video stuttering problem is still an issue on all HE-AAC audio streams as stated in the first post of this thread. Audio is working. The 8.12 beta for Firestick has the same issue. Reproducable on all HE-AAC media I have.
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@DaveBinM I have installed the latest beta for the Firestick (kepler-armv7a-amazon-fireExo-8.13.0.22880-abefdd9e) and the issue seems to be resolved.
Version 8.12.4.22902 has fixed it on my Android phone.
Thank you!
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I have updated server and Android device to newest release versions (not beta). The problem is still present on my OnePlus phone. It’s also present on my TV (Sony with Android TV OS). Both devices are on version 8.15
The video plays correctly on Web player in browser (Windows, Firefox).
As I mentioned previously, we fixed with all the sample files we’d been provided with. If you have some other files where it doesn’t work, could you please provide some samples please?
@DaveBinM @ljunkie @sixones The HE-AAC bug is back on Live TV & DVR on both Android AND Roku. The audio stutters and the picture stutters only on channels with HE-AAC audio. Using the latest PMS and latest PMP for Firestick/Roku.
Roku and Android are unrelated here. Do you have a sample file so we can try to reproduce this?
