XPS-13 9360 Latency Spikes

My problem became impossible to ignore with cumulative audio lag and drop-out in Zoom.  Until then I worked around crackling distortions that occurred most frequently when any EQ was applied .

LatencyMon was literally off-the-scale so I applied every solution I could find: disabling nearly every related driver; reinstalling W11; running Dell diagnostics; and disabling power-throttling.  It's still there.

A lot of people are talking about Dell latency spikes so I wonder if this is a common thing; and what I can do.  It is a 2017 model and I've been an XPS fan-boy until now.  I am reluctant to buy a replacement XPS if I can expect more latency problems down the road.

Solutions anyone?