You mean this puppy dog, right? He's the little transistor next to the 5v pin on the Betz board right?

Willing to try it. Do you have a Digikey part number to recommend? Would the caps need to be replaced too? It would be a pain to have to replace it on every board (I have this idea of making this a kit) but if it's necessary to keep the I2S from failing then we should do it for sure.

Can you clarify your thinking as to why making the chip's voltage higher would increase its reliability? I'd think that, if the I2S lines are coming in with too much current to begin with, then increasing the overall current into the chip would just make things worse. This might be a place where I can learn more EE knowledge from you about that particular situation.