I'm becoming really frustrated with an ongoing issue with my FiiO K7. It sounds great, but I'm frequently getting audio drops of 1/4 to 1/2 a second while listening to streaming services like Apple Music or Tidal.

I've tried a wide range of troubleshooting:

* changing the USB cable from the K7 to my laptop (using a direct USB A to USB C), plugging into powered USB hubs, docks, etc. 

* trying low and high bit rate and sampling in MacOS via the Audio Midi setup

* Trying to limit CPU usage of browsers (no change)

The issue isn't just with streaming. If I'm using Zoom or other apps the audio also cuts out, which makes it a real productivity problem for me!

I use the K7 while I'm working on this computer, so I usually have Chrome open (with multiple tabs) and a few other apps. The audio drops often seem to coincide with opening a new tab or otherwise triggering some minor increase in system resources, but the system report tab shows very little or no stress or pressure on the CPU or memory. 

From other research, I've learned it may have something to do with the M1, Apple Silicon on my MacBook, but I have this issue with no other audio devices so far.

Connection details:

* Primarily listening via 1/8" connectors, but also happens when using the 4.4mm balanced line. Boost is off. Output set to PO.

My MacOS/system details follow. My opinion of the K7 is dropping quickly and I'd really like to resolve this issue. Thank you in advance!

Ventura 13.2.1

  Model Name: MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier: MacBookPro18,3

  Model Number: MKGP3LL/A

  Chip: Apple M1 Pro

  Total Number of Cores: 8 (6 performance and 2 efficiency)

  Memory: 16 GB

  System Firmware Version: 8419.80.7

  OS Loader Version: 8419.80.7

  Hardware UUID: 9730FF4B-2FDA-5835-89B9-E7ADC93BF8B9

  Provisioning UDID: 00006000-001A10CE3A23801E

  Activation Lock Status: Enabled