Thank you for contacting us, I am sorry this is not working as expected and I am happy to help!
Unfortunately these audio issue listed did not appear to be from related causes. Most audio issues are caused by either out of date drivers or software configuration on the host computer, while some can be caused by connected devices interrupting the USB audio connection, or hardware failure.
I recommend we start by getting some additional details from the computer to check for any pending drivers or software updates. Windows Update ( and the Dell update utility are supposed to provide updates to the system, however we often see both Windows and system manufacturer update utility installing significantly out of date drivers, or failing to provide driver updates at all ).
Keep the docking station connected to the computer with the displays and devices connected to the docking station
Download and run our PlugDebug utility ( http://plugable.com/support/plugdebug )
2a) For Windows: Download the PlugDebug Utility, then Right-click on the PlugDebug application and run as administrator
2b) For macOS: Click on the red button “Generate PlugDebug Report (Deprecated Pending Update)” to expand the section, select the PlugDebug utility from the Downloads pop-up on the Dock, or double-click if saved to the Desktop
2c) Follow the on screen instructions to launch the application
Click the “Start” button to begin gathering logs from the system
When completed the application will pop-up a message with the name of the zip file containing the logs on the user desktop directory
Please attach this zip file to your reply email to ‘support@plugable.com’ with the subject line ‘Ticket #427803 - Attention Pat’
This will allow us to examine some log files from your system to help determine the next steps.
Additionally, please let me know in the email if the speakers are connected to the 3.5mm port on the front of the docking station, if they are integrated into one of the displays ( and which “Display #” output the display is connected to on the docking station ) or connected to the display’s 3.5mm audio port, or if they are USB or Bluetooth speakers.
I solved it by using a USBC port on my PC instead of USBA. Even though the USBA port was 3.1, I had audio dropouts (small hiccup every couple of minutes). When I use a usbc to usba adapter going to the usbc port on my PC, I get no dropouts.
ALTHOUGH! The exact USB adapter can matter. If I remember correctly, there might have been some adapters that still had dropouts.
My setup is:
AMD Threadripper PC USBC port → USBC-to-USBA adapter, USBA to USBB cable to plugable input switcher, USBA to USBB cable to Plugable dock → headphone jack of dock to my headphones