I figured out that Network Manager is what causes the scanning, and that can be stopped by setting the BSSID of the connection in the Network Manager settings. (In KDE there's a "Select" button next to the BSSID field that fills this in automatically if you're already connected to your AP.) Since the BSSID is set, you won't be roaming from one AP to another, so NM doesn't scan for other APs with the same SSID.
So I set my BSSID and that has stopped the scans, which I think happened every 120 seconds (according to the NM source). That has nearly completely fixed the stuttering. Any stuttering that remains is much less frequent and less severe; I'm not sure if it's network-related. Here are some relevant bug reports: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/373680 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=490493 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=513820 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=490493 This could also help if you need to disable it but forcing the BSSID isn't an option: http://nilvec.com/disable-scanning-in-networkmanager-when-connected.html ** Bug watch added: Red Hat Bugzilla #490493 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=490493 ** Bug watch added: GNOME Bug Tracker #513820 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=513820 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/273742 Title: Pulseaudio over wifi stutters horribly To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/pulseaudio/+bug/273742/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs