... I am trying to listen to it with VLC (on a MacBook M1Max) and it keeps bumping like there's an issue with buffer size.
This might be due to the 96 kHz sample rate ...
I've just made a few test runs with VLC and foobar2000 and different buffer size settings.
On Windows I'm having the same problem as you are with the VIO-66 album. VLC keeps skipping, even when I increase buffer size from the default 1000 ms to 5000 ms. (How to change buffer size? Go to Preferences > select "Show settings" -- "All" > select "Input / Codecs" > scroll down to section "Advanced".)
Foobar plays the files just fine, even with a buffer of 1000 ms.
When I play a standard CD file (16 bits, 44.1 kHz) with VLC I still get a skip now and then, but it isn't nearly as bad as with the 24/96 files.
When I check the codec info with VLC (Tools > Codec information) there is nothing (!) for the CD files, and for the VIO-66 the info states that the file has 96 kHz sampling rate (correct!) and 32 bits per sample (incorrect!).
FLAC does not encode 32 bits per sample.
I conclude that
VLC has bugs in the decoding process that cause the skipping.
What does this tell us?
(1) VLC is not a music player. It's a video player. As very few videos will have a 24/96 soundtrack, they did not test that use case.
(2) A dedicated music player should be used to play back audio files.
This "Music for recreation" album is quite lovely, TheRetroElevator!
