Long delay after playing any audio

This bug report is based on the issue I asked at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10313065 but got no solution.

Whenever any command-line software plays something, the software stops and pauses for 2-3 seconds before exiting. This occurs with almost every program I've tried, for example play, aplay, mpg123, mpg321, ogg123, mplayer, festival. The only software I've noticed that doesn't show this behavior is espeak. For example:

$ time play sample-1s.wav

sample-1s.wav:

 File Size: 88.2k Bit Rate: 706k
  Encoding: Signed PCM
  Channels: 1 @ 16-bit
Samplerate: 44100Hz
Replaygain: off
  Duration: 00:00:01.00

In:100% 00:00:01.00 [00:00:00.00] Out:44.1k [======|======] Hd:1.9 Clip:0
Done.

real 0m3.361s
user 0m0.012s
sys 0m0.024s

$ time espeak f

real 0m0.623s
user 0m0.036s
sys 0m0.056s

When playing multiple files, it depends on the software does it pause between the files. mpg123 and ogg123 do not pause, but mplayer does.

My only idea is that there's some kind of bug that causes the pause when closing the audio device. This wouldn't be that much of a problem, but I'd like to use the "festival" synthesizer in a project of mine but the delays make it impossible to use it.

I haven't noticed anything similar before I upgraded to XUbuntu 10.10. I'm running it on a Thinkpad T60, which has an Intel HD Audio with AD1981HD codec (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/AD1981HD). I haven't noticed any other problems in the audio system.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: linux-image-2.6.35-24-generic 2.6.35-24.42
Regression: Yes
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-24.42-generic 2.6.35.8
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-24-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xee240000 irq 46'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1981'
   Components : 'HDA:11d41981,17aa2025,00100200'
   Controls : 20
   Simple ctrls : 11
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 79HT50WW-1.07'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC 79HT50WW-1.07'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 14
   Mono: Playback 3 [21%] [on]
Date: Thu Jan 13 21:38:51 2011
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=77c78e59-4dd0-41fc-8a0c-4adeeee3f5f6
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: LENOVO 1952cto
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic root=UUID=205f46c7-2f38-4313-85a8-ce48b8ddf273 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.38
SourcePackage: linux
dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 79ETE6WW (2.26 )
dmi.board.name: 1952cto
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr79ETE6WW(2.26):bd04/01/2010:svnLENOVO:pn1952cto:pvrThinkPadT60:rvnLENOVO:rn1952cto:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 1952cto
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T60
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO