Brand New M1 MBA - speaker issue/defect - crunchy and distorted sound at max volume in some audio content

[dave_kor]

Hello,
I have just received my brand new M1 MBA 16/7/256. I am a lifelong Windows user and have been genuinely surprised by this machine. However, after a few hours of use, I noticed a possible defect or issue with the speakers of my Mac. Whenever I play sound on Youtube, Spotify, or from my FLAC files at maximum volume, it often sounds distorted and crunchy, closer to my Google Pixel 3 speakers (at max volume) than anything else. In some songs, it's extremely prominent and annoying while in some it's not noticeable. I tried recording it with my headset microphone, but the mic won't pick up the distortion. I have asked other people who have an M1 Air and one had the same issue and one didn't.
I used to test with mainly these 3 youtube videos:

This crackles mainly at the start (max vol)

This (yes I'm serious) crackles also a lot at max volume, just click somewhere in the middle of it, the vocals are the worst there
I use these tracks on most of my audio equipment to test for codec quality etc. and they sound pretty awful on my Mac at max volume.
I also tried this one

which sounds really distorted in some parts.
One of the M1 Air owners made this video for me in which it seems to sound fine:

What do you guys think? Is this normal or a hardware defect and should I return it?
I tried uninstalling homebrew and all components to see whether that helps, it didn't, I tried SMC reset (turn off mac, close lid and wait a few minutes). None of those helped

Thanks for any help

 

[Quackers]

If you bought it from Apple directly I'd speak to Apple Support - or Applecare, if you have that.

 

[dave_kor]

If you bought it from Apple directly I'd speak to Apple Support - or Applecare, if you have that.

Where I live there are no Apple Stores or Applecare, I bought it from an Apple reseller. My options are RMA (30 days) and return (14days).

 

[brandoman]

Tried this on my M1 MBA (base model) and there was no distortion. My guess is it's a defect.

 

[dave_kor]

Tried this on my M1 MBA (base model) and there was no distortion. My guess is it's a defect.

I just found out the real cause. It's the keys next to the speaker. They resonate at high volumes with sounds in the 500-700Hz range. It's likely a design issue and I'd say it comes down to keyboard variation between individual units, so it's a lottery whether the next unit will have the same issue or not. I'll keep using it for a week and if it bothers me a lot I'll return it and buy a different laptop.

 

[jerryk]

You might consider external speaker(s) that get louder. A lot cheaper than having to having to repair the unit.

 

[dave_kor]

You might consider external speaker(s) that get louder. A lot cheaper than having to having to repair the unit.

Ill just use headphones. The speakers still sound great with some content

 

[G5isAlive]

I just found out the real cause. It's the keys next to the speaker. They resonate at high volumes with sounds in the 500-700Hz range. It's likely a design issue and I'd say it comes down to keyboard variation between individual units, so it's a lottery whether the next unit will have the same issue or not. I'll keep using it for a week and if it bothers me a lot I'll return it and buy a different laptop.

I am impressed. Someone that understands these are machined devices that come with real world physics. You aren't from these parts are you? (bad joke). Thanks for figuring this out, makes a lot of sense. Have to confess, even at their best the MBA M1 speakers, or even the 16" Mac Pro, are not good enough for me to want to listen to, prefer my headphones. Thats not a ding on them, thats just real life expectations.

 

[dave_kor]

I am impressed. Someone that understands these are machined devices that come with real world physics. You aren't from these parts are you? (bad joke). Thanks for figuring this out, makes a lot of sense. Have to confess, even at their best the MBA M1 speakers, or even the 16" Mac Pro, are not good enough for me to want to listen to, prefer my headphones. Thats not a ding on them, thats just real life expectations.

I come from an audiophile background and know my audio science and math pretty well, I also have a more sensitive and quite good musical hearing (I'm 19). I had my parents listen to the laptop (both 50+) and they didn't hear anything, so I would say that is why most people on here don't suffer from the same issue. The harmonics from the resonance are probably in the high KHz range. The other guy who had this issue and confirmed the same conclusion is an audio engineer or something field-related, so he likely has an above-average hearing as well.

 

[ljabuka]

Exactly same for me when listening beautiful piano music (bought the Macbook Air M1 few weeks ago), it really annoys and make me mad (especially I am hobby musician/play keyboards and most of any sound like clean piano sound which I can not really enjoy with this machine). I am new MacBook user btw and not expected issues like that on this pricey machine.

 

[dave_kor]

Exactly same for me when listening beautiful piano music (bought the Macbook Air M1 few weeks ago), it really annoys and make me mad (especially I am hobby musician/play keyboards and most of any sound like clean piano sound which I can not really enjoy with this machine). I am new MacBook user btw and not expected issues like that on this pricey machine.

It seems to be an issue only for us with superhuman and musical hearing. I regularly hear 20KHz noises coming from switched power supplies and electronics. Most people are quite badly deaf at those frequencies.
The key rattling seems to be in these high frequency regions where people just can't hear it.

 

[ljabuka]

It seems to be an issue only for us with superhuman and musical hearing. I regularly hear 20KHz noises coming from switched power supplies and electronics. Most people are quite badly deaf at those frequencies.
The key rattling seems to be in these high frequency regions where people just can't hear

My friend this is an issue which bother me a lot because I cannot enjoy it fully when listening beautiful piano music. This must be solved by Apple. I am going to return it, hopefully it will be painless (considering place where I live 🙁). Will request refund because replacement is lotterry he he [as far as I noticed from forums], who knows, I might get same and I will definitely not be able to live with it [especialy due to price I paid]. Regarding this defect,looks like general manufacturing defect and, by reading some older posts, Apple had already issues in past with keybord on MacBook Air. Furthermore, besides this I am also “lucky” to have another issue with my MBA M1 (wobble on table [also reported by many people on this and some other forums] which seems general manufacturing issue [laptop seems slightly bent ] and I think that issue we are experiencing with rattle sound [keyboard resonate at some frequencies and high volume] can be related to the same root cause). I hope you and others do not have the another issue, maybe have, but not noticable by everyone? (wobble on table, can you check?), But already the sound issue is not convinient.

 

[wheeeeee]

Having the same issue on my new m1 purchased last week -- it crackles mainly around the left speaker. If I place my iPhone on the keys next to the speaker, the crackling stops/decreases, so it seems like a design issue with the keys. Not sure what to do at this point. This crackling persists with piano music.

 

[catarinambs]

My friend this is an issue which bother me a lot because I cannot enjoy it fully when listening beautiful piano music. This must be solved by Apple. I am going to return it, hopefully it will be painless (considering place where I live 🙁). Will request refund because replacement is lotterry he he [as far as I noticed from forums], who knows, I might get same and I will definitely not be able to live with it [especialy due to price I paid]. Regarding this defect,looks like general manufacturing defect and, by reading some older posts, Apple had already issues in past with keybord on MacBook Air. Furthermore, besides this I am also “lucky” to have another issue with my MBA M1 (wobble on table [also reported by many people on this and some other forums] which seems general manufacturing issue [laptop seems slightly bent ] and I think that issue we are experiencing with rattle sound [keyboard resonate at some frequencies and high volume] can be related to the same root cause). I hope you and others do not have the another issue, maybe have, but not noticable by everyone? (wobble on table, can you check?), But already the sound issue is not convinient.

Well I guess we are lucky! I bought my MBA M1 on the 26th of April.. I'm now on my 2nd replacement. yes you read that right, second (3 computers in total). First one, came bent like you described AND with the left speaker disruption. Double whammy. Second computer (1st replacement) wasn't bent and speakers worked great but another issue: tried to run diagnostics and the computer froze before it even started. I sent it back and got the third computer: first test was to try and run diagnostics and it failed again so I contacted apple support: their answer is that the macOS Big Sur 11.4 was causing issues on the software but its an issue apple is fixing so nothing to worry about, they said. Gave me a 100€ gift card to apologise. well, 4 days later and the right speaker is acting up and having the same issues you guys describe. at this point im DONE with apple and want a full refund

 

[Allyance]

You are obviously over driving the amp and speakers, when amplifiers are driven beyond their limits, they clip, that is, there is a maximum voltage they can produce, so they produce a steady voltage at that limit. During that time they producing a DC constant voltage which means the voice coils will not move and cool them selves off. Maybe not a big issue with the small amps and speakers in a laptop, but definitely sound bad. When I was in retail audio for about 15 years, we replaced more tweeters from people with too small an amplifier when they tried to turn it up too loud. Our demonstration amplifier was a 300 watt per channel McIntosh, and never blew a speaker or tweeter.

 

[mishkamess420]

Hi Everyone, I have same problem on my m1 MBA. Today i was in four stores and checked more than 10 macs on m1 and one MBA Air i3, everyone has this problem. Now I texting with Apple Support, they said that this is a characteristic sound for this device, it's ridiculous, what should we do ??

 

[KaliYoni]

This issue wouldn't bother me that much–and the horrible sound iMac speakers have always had doesn't either–because I don't expect small speakers that are driven by cheap amplifiers and stuffed into thin-thinner-thinnest enclosures to have decent sound. That's why external speakers or headphones are a must for anything beyond system alert sounds and YouTube streams.

In any case, I think focused or serious listening is best done on a proper stereo system.

 

[PaladinGuy]

It’s definitely being caused by certain keys that are looser than others. If you feel along the keyboard, you’ll notice that some keys are firmer than others. The worst ones are the shift key or others that are longer. It absolutely occurs at higher frequencies, and I’ve noticed it particularly with piano music. I am guessing most will show this with maybe a very small number that don’t. Total guess though.

This and battery life are the only two things that almost make me think I should have stuck with the M1 MBP that I started off with initially. Granted, MBA M1 battery life is very good. The M1 MBP was just amazing with battery.

 

[developeralioz]

I have similar problem to. Do you think Apple is worth dealing with service?

 

[PaladinGuy]

I have similar problem to. Do you think Apple is worth dealing with service?

Yours sounds slightly worse than mine, but not much. I have a feeling they’ll tell you it’s normal. I’m almost positive the keyboard is the issue. High frequencies cause vibration in looser keys. I also suspect you’ll have it in most of the MBAs to some degree.

I actually have a genius appointment tomorrow for battery concerns on my Apple Watch. Got an appointment right after and figured I’d get them to look at this speaker issue. I’m not expecting that they’ll do anything, but I figured I might as well see what they say while I’m there.

 

[developeralioz]

Yours sounds slightly worse than mine, but not much. I have a feeling they’ll tell you it’s normal. I’m almost positive the keyboard is the issue. High frequencies cause vibration in looser keys. I also suspect you’ll have it in most of the MBAs to some degree.

I actually have a genius appointment tomorrow for battery concerns on my Apple Watch. Got an appointment right after and figured I’d get them to look at this speaker issue. I’m not expecting that they’ll do anything, but I figured I might as well see what they say while I’m there.

Even if I hold the keys on the keyboard with my hand, this sound problem does not go away. Is this normal?

 

[PaladinGuy]

Even if I hold the keys on the keyboard with my hand, this sound problem does not go away. Is this normal?

No. Mine improves by holding the left side of the keyboard. If yours is doing it still when you place your hand on the keys, I’d say it’s probably an actual speaker/internal issue.

 

[PaladinGuy]

So, I took mine in today while I was getting my watch looked at. They determined that the speaker was defective. They ordered me a replacement speaker and are going to repair in store for me, so that I don’t have to be without my computer for a week. I still think the keyboard is the issue, but we’ll see. I just really hope they don’t screw something up by opening the computer. I’ve not had a great experience with Mac repairs.

That said, if you are experiencing rattling noises from your speakers, get it looked at by the Genius Bar.

 

[G5isAlive]

It seems to be an issue only for us with superhuman and musical hearing. I regularly hear 20KHz noises coming from switched power supplies and electronics. Most people are quite badly deaf at those frequencies.
The key rattling seems to be in these high frequency regions where people just can't hear it.

Superhuman? Keep looking for /s

 

[PaladinGuy]

Ok. So, I had my speakers replaced today because the Genius said that it sounded like a defect in the speaker. Just as an FYI, it still makes the small rattling noise at high pitches in piano music. It's not terrible, but it's there. I think it's just the speakers or something about the design of the computer.

I have heard one person show a recording with theirs and it was VERY bad, but in terms of a little bit of rattling at high pitches, I think it's just normal. I'm just not going to worry about that at all anymore. I'm convinced that they would all do it. The MBP does not, but the speakers and sound are both very different for it compared to the Air.