Disable sound?

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

Hey, all.  Is there a good way to entirely disable sound?  I'm running 
Ubuntu in a VM, and, for reasons I haven't entirely discerned (and don't 
have time to troubleshoot) Chrome + sound + HDMI-at-home = bad news.  
V-e-r-y slow response, etc., etc.  (Firefox works fine, but I'm already 
settled into Chrome.)  As it's running in a VM, I'm more than happy to 
use the host OS to do audio (a Mac).

So, anyway: maybe blacklist the audio kernel modules?  Or...?

Thanks!

-Ken