I am unable to get sound to work in the current version of Minecraft. When the game loads the client gives "Exception in thread "Thread-6" org.lwjgl.openal.OpenALException: Invalid Device" and when I try F3 + S the client gives "Exception in thread "Thread-10" java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one OpenAL context may be instantiated at any one time.". I attached the client log as well.
Environment
[00:42:50 INFO]: System.getProperty('os.name') == 'Windows 8.1'
[00:42:50 INFO]: System.getProperty('os.version') == '6.3'
[00:42:50 INFO]: System.getProperty('os.arch') == 'amd64'
[00:42:50 INFO]: System.getProperty('java.version') == '1.8.0_25'
[00:42:50 INFO]: System.getProperty('java.vendor') == 'Oracle Corporation'
[00:42:50 INFO]: System.getProperty('sun.arch.data.model') == '64'
Full specs via CPUZ can be found here http://pastebin.com/nipKJFBG
I found a fix that works for me. In the sound panel right click on your device and click "Configure Speakers". I had to change my device from "Surround" to "5.1 Surround".