Quick update: system restore back to a few days ago has fixed decker playing audio again (YAY), so as I expected it was something on my end. Only slight gripe is I still can't drag and drop .wav files (nothing happens), but can import them through the [file > import sound...] tab, so I'll continue to troubleshoot permissions for that. Thank you again for the reply ahmwma, it helped get my brain gears going for a system restore, lol.