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I've got a i9 32GB 2TB Radeon Pro 560X with pretty noticeable coil whine especially when connected to an eGPU. I can still hear it in the office while there are people talking around me. In a quiet room I can hear it from about 10 feet away. It's quite annoying!
I see... that sucks. So it's not simply the custom SSDs (larger than 512gb) which are free of coil whine. Can others please confirm whether their new Vega machines have coil whine or not, and whether it's standard SSD (256 or 512) or built to order?
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What size is your SSD? And I don't think you can determine this anymore, but by any chance does it say what the manufacturer of the SSD is in device info?
Sorry to be the one to break it to you guys, but ALL models have coil whine. All of you who are saying that your machines are 'dead silent', you either didn't listen carefully, or you don't have good ears 
Or you just want to convince yourselves that you have better model than other people here. Guys, it's just the way the physics work. Coil whine is normal.
Or you just want to convince yourselves that you have better model than other people here. Guys, it's just the way the physics work. Coil whine is normal.Sorry to be the one to break it to you guys, but ALL models have coil whine. All of you who are saying that your machines are 'dead silent', you either didn't listen carefully, or you don't have good ears
I will no longer say that my 2018 MacBook Pro doesn't have coil whine - I'll simply say that I don't hear it. I'm old and it is certainly possible that I don't hear that frequency and between the refrigerator and the heat pump running nearby, even someone with good ears may not hear it.
I have the 2018 15" i9 MBP, Vega 20, 1TB SSD, 32 GB RAM and I have pretty annoying coil whine in certain situations.
I don't think it's related to the SSD, but rather to CPU load.
It seems to be triggered by short spiky loads, eg. opening Apple Mail. It also seems to be worse when connected to an external screen, likely because the Intel GPU is not used in that case resulting in a different power draw.
It is very audible when the CPU usage fluctuates and the CPU package power draw is around 10-20 W in Intel Power Gadget.
(see Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8dcf7t8vvt1mta0/Screenshot 2019-01-02 12.32.50.png?dl=0)
At my normal idle draw of 5 W it is silent. Unfortunately those spiky loads are pretty common when the system isn't doing anything heavy.
Putting load on the SSD using Black Magic Disk Speed test did not have an effect on the wine.
Also it goes away when I put load on the CPUs using Prime95 and only comes back after the CPU has somewhat cooled down and the fans have spun down to low speed.
And the frequency of the whine is definitely much lower than my hearing cut-off. It sounds almost like the seeking noises of a 2.5" laptop drive.
Here's a short recording of the noises: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vskasto9s9vtqww/MBP2018CoilWhine.m4a?dl=0
I don't think it's related to the SSD, but rather to CPU load.
It seems to be triggered by short spiky loads, eg. opening Apple Mail. It also seems to be worse when connected to an external screen, likely because the Intel GPU is not used in that case resulting in a different power draw.
It is very audible when the CPU usage fluctuates and the CPU package power draw is around 10-20 W in Intel Power Gadget.
(see Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8dcf7t8vvt1mta0/Screenshot 2019-01-02 12.32.50.png?dl=0)
At my normal idle draw of 5 W it is silent. Unfortunately those spiky loads are pretty common when the system isn't doing anything heavy.
Putting load on the SSD using Black Magic Disk Speed test did not have an effect on the wine.
Also it goes away when I put load on the CPUs using Prime95 and only comes back after the CPU has somewhat cooled down and the fans have spun down to low speed.
And the frequency of the whine is definitely much lower than my hearing cut-off. It sounds almost like the seeking noises of a 2.5" laptop drive.
Here's a short recording of the noises: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vskasto9s9vtqww/MBP2018CoilWhine.m4a?dl=0
2018 13" i5 MBP, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM
Have been running my new MBP for almost two weeks now and haven't heard any coil whine at all! Actually surprised... I use to be very sensitive for these kind of sounds. I haven't run the Black Magic SSD test and I'm not going to.
Have been running my new MBP for almost two weeks now and haven't heard any coil whine at all! Actually surprised... I use to be very sensitive for these kind of sounds. I haven't run the Black Magic SSD test and I'm not going to.
I have returned mine and requested a replacement (and got issues one!)
i dont have a MacBook Pro 15" anymore, and havent recieved the 13" yet, but the replacement seems to be working fine on the Mini. They are aware of the issue
I also noticed this issue with my MBP 15" Vega 16 512GB 16GB RAM connected to my non TB cinema display. When I unplug my Hyperdrive USB-C dongle, it does not make the noise anymore. It probably has something to do with the power it needs to distribute between multiple I/O ports.
It's not coming from the dongle, but from below the keyboard. Anyway, the Vega 16 is a great GPU, almost no difference in speed with the Vega 20. Also, the Vega16 is way faster than the 560X and has better thermals. Saving a little bit of money for accessories was nice, so I'm happy with this setup!
Okay, so I had a little chat with Apple about this issue and the employee told me they are aware of this issue but it's not affecting a lot of macs apparently. So he advised me to go to the Apple store to get it fixed. Not sure if this will be a complete new Macbook or a logic board swap. Sure it will take a while if it's a new Macbook since the vega cards are not in stock, at least where I live (Amsterdam).
Hi. I also live in the Netherlands (Eindhoven). Apple changed the motherboard of my macbook but the annoying scratching noise is still there so I returned it again (for 4th time).
I can confirm coil whine on 2018 MBP 32GB/1TB/Vega20
Purchased December 2018
Exchanged January 2019
Returned 2019
Won't be purchasing until resolved.
Submitted feedback to Apple
#disappointed
Purchased December 2018
Exchanged January 2019
Returned 2019
Won't be purchasing until resolved.
Submitted feedback to Apple
#disappointed
That sucks! I think this is just a bad design and probably all 2018 Macbooks have it, even the ones where people happily say they don't have it (probably just not loud enough).
Not sure what to do though, I really need a computer for my work as a Graphic Design professional. If I keep it until the next release, will I be able to swap it for a new model and pay a little bit extra?
I'm facing the same dilemmas as you @Meter
Most concerning (at least for me) is this issue MacBook Pro 2018 - Speakers Crackling
Think I will replace it with an iMac till the next Macbook update will be released if this problem continues to exist. Also get the impression that the 2018 Macbooks are really bad designed engineering wise. It's not fun, I'm not really enjoying this €3700 Macbook anymore.
So far the consensus seems to be either the T2 or bridgeOS as the culprit. The problem with that is that the T2's now in the Air and Mini as well so it's pretty safe to assume it's going to eventually wind up in all Mac models... I.e. until they actually fix the real underlying issue in bridgeOS all machines would be vulnerable to developing it. :/
Don't think so, I never experienced this speaker issue....
Edit: Is there actually anybody that does not experience coil whine on a 2018 MBP?
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Unfortunately I have... For me it showed up after installing two Apple Security Updates. One of the updates was packed with a ton of bridgeOS files. After rolling back to a clone I made before the updates the issue went away.
The issue also doesn't seem to show up unless playing sound for extended periods of time. (For me it would kick in after running iTunes for more than an hour.) Once it started it wouldn't go away unless I quit everything including finder. An hour later it would come back again, rinse and repeat.
The issue also isn't isolated to the speakers, it happened in headphones frequently...
All in all it amounted to days on the phone wasted with Apple, only to be solved by restoring from a clone...
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I think you are referring to the speaker hissing/cracking issue, which is more of a software bug. This coil whine is not really something a software patch can fix, since this is a vibration between the coils when a lot of electricity passes through. Purely hardware
Update:
@zedsdeadbaby please use https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-2018-speakers-crackling.2128234/page-51 to talk about this problem. This topic is purely about coil whine, so it's quite confusing if we start talking about speaker issues here.
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