One of the things about these sorts of article is that you have to interpret the results carefully for what they do say and what they don't say.
The USB/DAC measurements I have seen, [1] to [4] below, all measure two systems at once: A USB source plus a DAC. You can say little from the results about either system individually.
[1] For the quoted URL above, what you can say is that for the two USB sources and one DAC, the audio output of all combinations looks to be clear enough of noise across the audio band (to 48 kHz, and one plot to 192 kHz). That could be because (i) the USB sources are very quiet; or (ii) the DAC rejects USB noise very well; or (iii) both of these. You would hope especially for (ii). There are measurements of USB PSU noise in the audio band (
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/05/measurements-computer-usb-5v-power.html) suggesting (i) is generally not achieved, so (ii) must be true, but you can't say for sure.
[2] For more measurements of one DAC (a Benchmark DAC1) from four SBCs (Single Board Computers) and a laptop see:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ic-servers-end-points-are-they-any-good.5707/. All combinations are very clean and noise free except for one case where the author claims there is a ground loop. Even there the noise levels are very low and almost certainly inaudible but the result could be better investigated. There's a great summary:
‘Essentially no significant difference. Well designed DACs should not have a major issue with using SBCs, they work very well. Of course I cannot comment whether any particular DAC you might have will suffer problems, but I very much see this as a DAC design issue and NOT a "noisy computer USB" issue. DAC should be expected to work without issue with a huge variety of USB sources.’
[3] For further measurements of one laptop (EDIT: it's a laptop, not a SBC as I originally wrote) and several DACs see:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...battle-of-s-pdif-vs-usb-which-is-better.1943/. The conclusions are:
‘As seen from pure measurement point of view, there was no case where USB was worst than S/PDIF. Indeed the reverse was true in that S/PDIF was noisier in some DACs. So the default assumption that somehow S/PDIF has some advantage over USB is simply false.’
[4] There is one DAC that seems to be too sensitive to USB cables when used with a specified source (Sonore microRendu) but the noise levels are very low:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/do-usb-audio-cables-make-a-difference.1887/. In this case blaming the DAC is most likely to be correct but the effect is almost certainly inaudible.
The number of excellent measurements available certainly rejects the hypothesis that USB is a necessarily noisy interface to a DAC. While not fully proving the key point that DACs reject USB noise to the point of inaudibility the preponderance of evidence is beginning to suggest this conclusion.