18 Area-51 AA18250, headphone jack popping when audio starts/stops, faint hiss, Panasonic RP-HJE120 Earbuds

Apparently I'm not alone in having this problem, which is good to know but also frustrating!

Earlier this year, I bought a new Alienware 18 Area-51 AA18250 laptop, and I am loving everything about it except for the headphone jack because every time I play audio, I hear a significant pop followed by a faint but audible noise until the audio stops playing, at which point there is another pop.

Now, this is not the first time I have had this problem - another laptop I tried out just under three years ago also had a hiss problem whenever I tried to play audio on it (it was one of the Asus RoG models) - so I suspect it may be an issue with the headphones I am using (doubtful since they work fine without hissing on every other laptop I've tried plus all my mobile devices) or the audio hardware itself as both my current laptop AND the RoG one I tried have the so-called "Smart Amplifier" in them.

I chatted with Dell technicians for a bit about it and ran the diagnostics they recommended, but no faults were indicated.

Therefore, I am considering two options: get a replacement part from Dell and take my laptop down to the local computer store to have them fix it, or get an external USB DAC.  I would prefer to get the headphone jack fixed, but it is extremely annoying since this is a relatively new laptop model and I have used Dell laptops before without any issues at all (and it works wonderfully in every other way).

If it helps, I am using Panasonic RP-HJE120 earbuds.

Any advice/suggestions/proven fixes would be fantastic - thank you all so much and hopefully you're not having this issue as well.