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M1 Mac mini Volume Drops After 3 Seconds

barry.pearson

barry.pearson

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2016
86
29
England
I picked up a M1 Mac mini about a month ago now. I've only recently set it up in place of my old desktop with my monitor and speakers. However, I've noticed an issue when listening to music through Apple Music.

When I start playing music the volume will be set as normal, but within around 3 seconds will drop significantly - possibly to about half it's original volume. Pausing the music and skipping backwards/forwards or changing song will cause the music to go back to it's original volume for 3 seconds before dropping once again.

This seems isolated to the Music app, I've not noticed it when watching video on YouTube or in the Photos app. My speakers were initially connected to my monitor with the monitor connected to my Mac mini by USB-C. I then connected the speakers to the earphone jack on the rear of the Mac. Both have the same issue.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, or is there some sort of volume limiter within the Music app? I keep raising the volume to compensate, then forget and change track and nearly blow myself off of my seat when it blares out for a few seconds.
 
z3an

z3an

macrumors newbie
Nov 10, 2020
15
41
Cincinnati
barry.pearson said:
I picked up a M1 Mac mini about a month ago now. I've only recently set it up in place of my old desktop with my monitor and speakers. However, I've noticed an issue when listening to music through Apple Music.

When I start playing music the volume will be set as normal, but within around 3 seconds will drop significantly - possibly to about half it's original volume. Pausing the music and skipping backwards/forwards or changing song will cause the music to go back to it's original volume for 3 seconds before dropping once again.

This seems isolated to the Music app, I've not noticed it when watching video on YouTube or in the Photos app. My speakers were initially connected to my monitor with the monitor connected to my Mac mini by USB-C. I then connected the speakers to the earphone jack on the rear of the Mac. Both have the same issue.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, or is there some sort of volume limiter within the Music app? I keep raising the volume to compensate, then forget and change track and nearly blow myself off of my seat when it blares out for a few seconds.
Click to expand...
I have this exact issue on my M1 MBA, but it only started within the past month or two. It is so distracting.
 
symphony

symphony

macrumors 68020
Aug 25, 2016
2,232
2,641
I have this issue as well. My other devices are louder than my iMac.
 
satcomer

satcomer

Suspended
Feb 19, 2008
9,115
1,977
The Finger Lakes Region
MrTSolar said:
This started about a month ago on my 2020 Intel MacBook Air with AirPods Max. Disabling Sound Check seems to stop the behavior. My guess is that Sound Check is messed up in Monterey.

With Sound check enabled, I have the exact same symptoms as OP. Volume level is good for about 3 seconds, and then drops off. Pausing the music for a few seconds restores the volume level, but 3 seconds later, it drops again.
Click to expand...

As a former DJ in younger years I know NEVER use SoundCheck on ANY software!
 
academyspatula

academyspatula

macrumors newbie
Jul 28, 2010
3
0
Camas, WA
barry.pearson said:
I picked up a M1 Mac mini about a month ago now. I've only recently set it up in place of my old desktop with my monitor and speakers. However, I've noticed an issue when listening to music through Apple Music.

When I start playing music the volume will be set as normal, but within around 3 seconds will drop significantly - possibly to about half it's original volume. Pausing the music and skipping backwards/forwards or changing song will cause the music to go back to it's original volume for 3 seconds before dropping once again.

This seems isolated to the Music app, I've not noticed it when watching video on YouTube or in the Photos app. My speakers were initially connected to my monitor with the monitor connected to my Mac mini by USB-C. I then connected the speakers to the earphone jack on the rear of the Mac. Both have the same issue.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, or is there some sort of volume limiter within the Music app? I keep raising the volume to compensate, then forget and change track and nearly blow myself off of my seat when it blares out for a few seconds.
Click to expand...
I’m having the same exact problem! I’ve been on the phone with apple tech support twice and they can’t figure it out either. At least I’m not alone. I just wish apple recognizes that this glitch is affecting lots of users and they need to fix it. I’ve had to stop all my music projects because of this issue. Someone on the apple discussion board even posted about it but no one has offered a solution yet.
 
AAPLGeek

AAPLGeek

macrumors 6502a
Nov 12, 2009
729
2,271
Disabling the sound check in Music.app preferences fixed it for me.

sound bug.png
 
MajorFubar

MajorFubar

macrumors 68020
Oct 27, 2021
2,174
3,825
Lancashire UK
It's best to never ever use Sound Check, or any other audio-levelling tomfoolery settings. Engineers go to great lengths to give you access to the sound they crafted in the studio or mastering-suite. Stop ticking boxes that basically f__k with it.
 
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MajorFubar

MajorFubar

macrumors 68020
Oct 27, 2021
2,174
3,825
Lancashire UK
MrTSolar said:
Kinda hard to not use it when you have the volume correct on one song but then the next one blows you out of the room. As for an equalizer, I don't have the exact same studio setup at home, so an equalizer is needed to correct for the environment. I ended up buying a cheap stereo amp with bass/treble knobs years ago because all the high-end stuff wouldn't allow any changes, and they all sounded flat, shallow, and weak.

Apple needs to spend the next couple years bug hunting. Their software fell apart in the last two years.
Click to expand...
I guess we all have different needs and expectations. It's impossible for a computer algorithm which literally just has one tickbox to efficiently standardise the average volume level of everything you play. Maybe it just got 'more broke' after Big Sur, but from my experience it's never worked correctly and consistently, nor can it. It would need to scan your whole library of however many thousand songs, determine how the average volume of each song compares to some kind of preset target, and adjust it. With streams and internet radio it of course has no chance because it doesn't know what's round the corner.

Radio stations get round this by using a broadcast limiter. But that one tickbox is of course not a broadcast limiter.

That's why I find it's best just to leave it switched off. That and the fact I don't want iTunes / Music f__king with the bits in my audio files.
 
MajorFubar

MajorFubar

macrumors 68020
Oct 27, 2021
2,174
3,825
Lancashire UK
MrTSolar said:
[snip] nearly every song had volume decreased, while the minority had volume increased. [/snip]
Click to expand...
Very conscious I'm going off topic (though I think the OP's question has been answered), but it would be interesting to know how iTunes 'got away with' raising the average volume of tracks without causing clipping. Nearly all tracks are normalised to either 0dB or fractionally below (e.g. -0.5dB), it's just their average volume which differs (which crept higher and higher due to the loudness war), so you can't just go whacking-up the volume without causing clipping unless you use a limiter. I'd be very surprised if iTunes had a built-in limiter.
 
symphony

symphony

macrumors 68020
Aug 25, 2016
2,232
2,641
It turned out to be Sound Check for me.

WTF, I never enabled this before. Nor have I entered settings for Apple Music since Spatial Audio was released, and even then I never turned it on.

It's suddenly on for both my Macs. I wonder if Apple made this the default setting to match the volume of Spatial Audio, as it is one of their work around fixes on their support document. Sound Check is very buggy, it would play loud then suddenly drop.
 
N

name99

macrumors 68020
Jun 21, 2004
2,410
2,318
barry.pearson said:
I picked up a M1 Mac mini about a month ago now. I've only recently set it up in place of my old desktop with my monitor and speakers. However, I've noticed an issue when listening to music through Apple Music.

When I start playing music the volume will be set as normal, but within around 3 seconds will drop significantly - possibly to about half it's original volume. Pausing the music and skipping backwards/forwards or changing song will cause the music to go back to it's original volume for 3 seconds before dropping once again.

This seems isolated to the Music app, I've not noticed it when watching video on YouTube or in the Photos app. My speakers were initially connected to my monitor with the monitor connected to my Mac mini by USB-C. I then connected the speakers to the earphone jack on the rear of the Mac. Both have the same issue.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, or is there some sort of volume limiter within the Music app? I keep raising the volume to compensate, then forget and change track and nearly blow myself off of my seat when it blares out for a few seconds.
Click to expand...
This has been present, in my experience for YEARS.
It's not unique to Apple Silicon or to macOS12, it's just one of the thousands of stupid bugs that Apple never fixes because they've pivoted from hiring a few, really good people intensely proud of what they do to huge masses who have never been proud of anything in their lives and don't intend to start now.
 
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