I recently purchased your USB-C 4K docking station for use with my live streaming setup (I use OBS Streamlabs). Everything seems to work great other than whenever I plug in the docking station to my Macbook Pro M1, what sounds like a static charge starts to build up and continuously passes through the soundcard (Scarlett i2i).
I can see the level meter constantly moving and if I start a stream live and listen It sound like loud static/feedback of sorts coming through the live Twitch feed.
This happens whether the soundcard is plugged directly into the computer or through the hub itself. I’ve tried removing everything else from the dock and no difference. If I run the stream with only the soundcard in, it sounds fine but as soon as I plug in the dock into another port, I hear the feedback start to build.
Any help is appreciated! It was an expensive purchase just for the use of video/audio streaming and with this happening it doesn’t seem possible.
Thank you for contacting us, I am sorry this is not working as expected.
Audio noise can be caused by a variety of sources, for example noise picked up on the USB port could be transferred to the USB Sound Card, or difference in device ground/power connections can cause noise on unfiltered or poorly filtered USB host controllers.
When the docking station is connected to the computer is the original Apple power supply also connected, or is the computer being powered from the docking station?
Does the external audio controller have it’s own power supply, an if so is it connected to the same power strip as the docking station?
May I ask you to try this setup:
Connect the audio controller directly to the laptop
Connect the docking station to the included power supply, unplug any USB devices from the docking station and disconnect the displays and network from the docking station ( there should be no devices connected to the docking station ).
Connect the docking station to the computer and check for the noise in the audio application
If there is no noise, start by connecting the displays to the docking station one at a time, then connect USB devices to see if a specific device is causing the noise
If there is noise with nothing connected to the docking station we can go from here.
I have the hub currently plugged into the comp with nothing attached to it and the noise persists. Currently the computer is only being powered by the dock power, the Mac charger is not plugged in either.
When I unplug it the noise stops and starts again as soon as I plug back in so I’d say I’ve got it isolated down to something with the hub itself interfering with the soundcard (which is directly plugged in to computer).
Thank you for testing with only the docking station connected. Based on this it sounds like the USB-C Host controller in the computer is not isolating noise picked up by the docking station and this is affecting the sound card. This noise could be picked up by radio interference on the USB-C cable, or through the power supply.
In either case I expect this will not be resolved by a replacement docking station and is likely a limitation of the computer not properly isolating the USB ports. I can help to return the docking station for a full refund. Please contact our support team directly through email at ‘support@plugable.com’ with the subject line ‘Ticket #336577 - Attention Pat’ and I can help to start the return process for this docking station.
We’re closing this thread due to inactivity, but if you have any further questions please feel free to contact support@plugable.com and we’ll be happy to help.