I have this same exact issue on my PS4 Pro. I can confirm aswell it was the hotfix a bit ago. As playing without it fixes it completely. I’ve decided to play online, but turning off all sounds. This is nuts that we have to play like this. I hope they get it resolve soon.

I believe the new hotfix that came out yesterday may have fixed the audio issue somehow.
It’s not mentioned in fixes, but playing last night felt the sound was as it should be again.

I’d be curious to see if worked for others with the issue also.

The echo effect seems to have disappeared but the muffling is still there on certain maps. For me it seems to happen at certain distances from NPCs that talk to you. If you are in “hearing” range of them talking, and move just a little bit away, the muffling starts. If you are far enough away it switches to them talking to your through the echo device and the muffling goes away…

The whole audio thing is a head scratcher and very irritating it slipped through…