diff --git a/audio/audio.c b/audio/audio.c
index 73b65dc3b9..e9815d6812 100644
--- a/audio/audio.c
+++ b/audio/audio.c
@@ -1690,19 +1690,7 @@ static const VMStateDescription vmstate_audio = {
 
 void audio_create_default_audiodevs(void)
 {
-    const char *drvname = getenv("QEMU_AUDIO_DRV");
-
-    /* QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none is used by libqtest.  */
-    if (drvname && !g_str_equal(drvname, "none")) {
-        error_report("Please use -audiodev instead of QEMU_AUDIO_*");
-        exit(1);
-    }
-
     for (int i = 0; audio_prio_list[i]; i++) {
-        if (drvname && !g_str_equal(drvname, audio_prio_list[i])) {
-            continue;
-        }
-
         if (audio_driver_lookup(audio_prio_list[i])) {
             QDict *dict = qdict_new();
             Audiodev *dev = NULL;
diff --git a/tests/qtest/libqtest.c b/tests/qtest/libqtest.c
index b1eba71ffe..3f94a4f477 100644
--- a/tests/qtest/libqtest.c
+++ b/tests/qtest/libqtest.c
@@ -421,9 +421,6 @@ static QTestState *G_GNUC_PRINTF(1, 2) qtest_spawn_qemu(const char *fmt, ...)
         int sig = SIGKILL;
         procctl(P_PID, getpid(), PROC_PDEATHSIG_CTL, &sig);
 #endif /* __FreeBSD__ */
-        if (!g_setenv("QEMU_AUDIO_DRV", "none", true)) {
-            exit(1);
-        }
         execlp("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", command->str, NULL);
         exit(1);
     }
@@ -464,6 +461,7 @@ QTestState *qtest_init_without_qmp_handshake(const char *extra_args)
                          "-chardev socket,path=%s,id=char0 "
                          "-mon chardev=char0,mode=control "
                          "-display none "
+                         "-audio none "
                          "%s"
                          " -accel qtest",
                          socket_path,