Chrome/Webkit audio tag bug?
Bug in Chrome, possibly Webkit as well: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=25972
Short audio files won't play.
Try to host your audio file somewhere and try this:
audio = new Audio('http://www.yourhosting.com/chat.ogg');audio.play();
Are you using the release version of Chrome? With the current dev build on Linux[1], I get the same behavior as FF 3.7 alpha (well, once I unblocked it with noscript) and SeaMonkey 2.0; that is, the Ogg file plays, although not even the default controls appear. If it is a bug in Chrome or Webkit, it is apparently fixed for the next version.
[1] Chrome: 5.0.342.1 (Official Build 40461) dev, Webkit: 533.2