[adrian_b]

That probably happens, but if it happens it is due to bad implementations.

USB is not like Ethernet, in USB it is possible to reserve an amount of data transfer capacity for latency-sensitive applications like audio and then none of the other users of the USB interface can use it during the reserved time intervals.

If a USB audio device does not use this kind of data transfers with reserved bandwidth (isochronous transfer), its designers have been incompetent.

If the audio is transferred over DisplayPort or over HDMI, then there the time intervals for transferring it are reserved too, so it must not be influenced by anything that is transferred at the same time.

Problems with audio being perturbed by other transfers over PCIe, before reaching the USB controller or the GPU for audio over DisplayPort or HDMI, are unlikely to be caused by hardware but by the operating system, which might not give adequate priority to the audio transfers.

[solardev]

Realistically though, isn't most of USB a race to the bottom with bad implementations being the norm, not the exception? USB-C is an especially tragic case of this, with shitty products outnumbering the good ones 100:1, fake reviews everywhere, insane standards with tiny differences, counterfeits, etc. Certifications like Thunderbolt can help but still aren't an absolute guarantee (like with my MacBook and expensive but buggy TB dock).

Anyone can make a USB-C peripheral. Very few companies can make a GOOD one.

It doesn't matter what the on-paper specs are if 95% of real world applications are crap... the UX for consumers sucks.

[bsder]

> (like with my MacBook and expensive but buggy TB dock)

Blame Apple, not the docks.

I couldn't keep any USB-A peripheral connected to my MacBook Pro through any dongle or dock alive for more than about 30 minutes. I must have tried 6 or 7 docks and a dozen dongles. All of them would fail and I would have to reboot to get it back.

I could pinpoint the OS version upgrade that broke everything as I managed to have two MacBook Pros with different OS versions. The bug followed the OS version on restore. The thread on Apple support for it is HUGE. I even tried paid escalation. Nope.

That was the final straw the drove me off of Apple and onto Linux for my laptop full-time. At least with Linux I can figure out what the hell is going wrong. Maybe Apple is nicer, but if you aren't on what Apple regards as the pure happy path--"Here be Dragons".

Maybe the docks are bad, but I would put way more blame on Apple. macOS simply isn't getting the resources it really needs.