Could you define ‘clunky’? One possible cause of audio hiccups is programs running in the background. For a quick test, download and run the free DPC Latency Checker. Let it run several minutes and look for red bars.

Note: it isn’t updated for Windows 10 or 11 but it works fine; just consider 1000 as zero.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.