Ok gents,
I fixed my device. It was all fairly simple through the tear down, since i did'nt go into the lower half, and only took apart the screen/slider. Basically all that i did was take apart the slider and re-seat all the ribbon cable and make sure everything was snug, hand cleaned the connections/speaker and made sure i torqued down the screws appropriately.

The end result of this was that the sliding mechanism is now more snug and feels like new, and the phone works flawlessly, no more audio cutting out, and everything is hunky-dory.

In a nutshell something came loose either via sliding the devices screen up and down over time, or just randomly.
If you have a small amount of mechanical skill, steady hands, and a couple small screwdrivers you can most definitely do this.
note- i don't recommend you do this if you are unsure or unprepared to pay for a new device i YOU mess it up further.

-phreck