i'm a bit embarrassed how long i tolerated this. Audio crackles during music playback, and it gets worse when teh system is busy. Device Manager shows:

USB Audio Device Properties
Device status:
This device cannot start. (Code 10)
{Operation Failed}
The requested operation was unsuccessful.
ive updated Windows and reinstalled teh audio driver. no change. someone mentioned DPC latency, but I have no idea what that means. im willing to install diagnostic tools, I just need to know which ones are trustworthy. id really like to stop guessing and actually measure whats going on. seriously need help here 馃槶