DFPlayer Mini - Grinding Audio

I need help before I pull out what little hair I have left. I cannot get normal audio playback from my DFMini player. Using the sample code and the wiring schematic from https://wiki.dfrobot.com/dfplayer_mini_sku_dfr0299 (also ensuring the SD card is Fat32, has an "mp3" folder with 3 tracks “0001.mp3, 0002.mp3, 0003.mp3) I get ”Time Out!" in the serial monitor.

When I test the code with a speaker I get a grinding sound that plays for 3 seconds, then pauses, then starts again. It is attempting to change tracks but produces a loud, digital grinding sound. If I pull the RX and TX pins I can hear the audio playing cleanly (quietly) and it stops chaning tracks, which is expected.

I have two DFMiniplayers and they exhibit the exact same issue, Ive also tried this with an Arduino Mega and Arduino Uno with the same result.

Can anyone help me? I tried using AI to help diagnose the issue and… it kept going in circles.