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Mac studio v1 fan noise - it's going to be one of the loudest Macs at idle.

Motion_Perpetual said:
Just to add a different perspective, when I called back Apple back in May and asked for a replacement I was told that I had to send it in or take it to an Apple Store for diagnosis. When I took it to the Apple Store (which was too loud to do any kind of diagnosis), I asked for a replacement and was told they couldn’t do a replacement for a unit that has replaceable parts. Since they didn’t know what parts to replace or how long they would take to arrive I opted to return it on the spot as it was still in the 14 day window.

I’m just one data point, but getting a replacement seems to be more dependent on a generous customer service rep than a universal policy (unless things have changed since May). I had a BTO Studio Max.
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Replacements are only available for custom units, that said I might understand the ambiguity of some people not having been made aware of this possibility; it seems not many people ask for replacements (instead of normal returns), therefore it could be that some less experienced support agents are not familiar with such a workflow.

In my case it was a godsend, as I wouldn't have been able to work if I couldn't have kept the mac I was replacing.
At a lower cost, I might have tolerated the whine, but at 5600€ I demanded a perfect unit.

If you purchase one of the standard configurations you find on the apple store you can only return it within 14 days and order a new unit alltogether (with all the trouble that comes with).

I'm now in the rather funny situation of having 11200€ worth of mac studios in my house, which feels weird.
Won't last long, though, as I'm sending my previous unit back this monday.
 
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Motion_Perpetual said:
Can anyone else confirm this works? Someone on Reddit claims they eliminated the whine on their machine by utilizing all the ports on the back of their machine.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacStudio/comments/vx8u1m

I returned a noisy unit earlier in the summer and was going to give it another go soon. I was only using two TB4 ports on my machine because I was using a hub, but if this works I might try eliminating the hub. (Don’t know what I would plug into the HDMI port, though.)
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Responded in the Reddit thread also, but no difference here.
He went in pretty hard and confident with the title 'The Whine Solution' hahaha.
 
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anticipate said:
I have has a 24C Max model and now a 48C Ultra model. The fan is silent on both. Truly. Bad batch maybe?
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Congrats, you don't have the problem.

It's not a bad batch, the noisy ones weren't all built in the same timeframe, I got one of the early ones and some people are still getting new ones with the problem.
 
southerndude39 said:
Apparently there are 3 different types of power supplies. It'd be nice to finally figure out the answer.
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I don't think it's the power supply, it's something to do with the airflow, but who knows. It would definitely nice to find the answer, but that's above my level of knowledge. Is there even some kind of microphone array that can localize exactly where sound is coming from inside the Studio? Like passive sonar maybe...
 
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bobcomer said:
I don't think it's the power supply, it's something to do with the airflow, but who knows. It would definitely nice to find the answer, but that's above my level of knowledge. Is there even some kind of microphone array that can localize exactly where sound is coming from inside the Studio? Like passive sonar maybe...
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Home — SoundCam

soundcam.com soundcam.com

we were using one of these at work before i retired
 
Has anyone purchased a studio from the refurbished store? Would be interesting to see if they have the issue as well
 
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JippaLippa said:
Replacements are only available for custom units, that said I might understand the ambiguity of some people not having been made aware of this possibility; it seems not many people ask for replacements (instead of normal returns), therefore it could be that some less experienced support agents are not familiar with such a workflow.

In my case it was a godsend, as I wouldn't have been able to work if I couldn't have kept the mac I was replacing.
At a lower cost, I might have tolerated the whine, but at 5600€ I demanded a perfect unit.

If you purchase one of the standard configurations you find on the apple store you can only return it within 14 days and order a new unit alltogether (with all the trouble that comes with).

I'm now in the rather funny situation of having 11200€ worth of mac studios in my house, which feels weird.
Won't last long, though, as I'm sending my previous unit back this monday.
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Gosh... really happy to hear your replacement did the trick!
With that wait time... I am thinking of just sending mine back and trying one from the refurbished store (my student discount gives me some benefits but if the refurbished got checked beforehand... maybe worth a shot.
 
MarckyG said:
Gosh... really happy to hear your replacement did the trick!
With that wait time... I am thinking of just sending mine back and trying one from the refurbished store (my student discount gives me some benefits but if the refurbished got
checked beforehand... maybe worth a shot.
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Considering refurbished macs have the same return policy, you have nothing to lose (except time); best of luck! :)
 
bobcomer said:
Congrats, you don't have the problem.

It's not a bad batch, the noisy ones weren't all built in the same timeframe, I got one of the early ones and some people are still getting new ones with the problem.
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Lucky I guess.

I’ve heard recordings of the sound online though, and I can’t even hear it in the recording, so maybe it’s just my ears
 
ufomism said:
Has anyone purchased a studio from the refurbished store? Would be interesting to see if they have the issue as well
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No issued with two units. Both whisper quiet. I even put my ear up to them.

I will say if I manually crank the fans they get loud (obviously) and there’s maybe a resonant frequency in there? But it isn’t any different than anything else I’ve heard.
 
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JippaLippa said:
As stated before, if you got a customised model (like I did) you can ask for a replacement and keep the current unit while you wait.
I did that and after 3 months my replacement arrived.

This one doesn't have the high-pitched noise, maybe only a little whistle, but I cannot hear it at all (unlike the original unit), therefore I'm pleased.

I'd strongly recommend going this route if you have a noisy unit.

Bot my units were made in China, instead of Malaysia, so the issues still appears to pop up randomly in the supply chain.
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Hi, how did you go about organising a "replacement"...I just got mine (custom) and it's a tad irritating...

Did you have them both "on" side by side...was there really that much of a difference with a replacement?

Thanks.
 
anticipate said:
Lucky I guess.

I’ve heard recordings of the sound online though, and I can’t even hear it in the recording, so maybe it’s just my ears
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There could be other reasons to not hear it other than your ears, but the most common is probably it blending in to the background noise. Hearing it in recordings is hard, speakers make more of a difference there.

It's at a frequency (2.2KHz and 2.6 KHz if I remember correctly) that most people can hear. I can just barely hear it, but it's kind of annoying. But not annoying enough to wait months for a replacement. I'll probably just trade it in on something newer eventually. It really is a nice machine otherwise.
 
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simacc said:
Hi, how did you go about organising a "replacement"...I just got mine (custom) and it's a tad irritating...

Did you have them both "on" side by side...was there really that much of a difference with a replacement?

Thanks.
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I called the apple support by phone to arrange the replacement.

With regards to the new unit it was pretty easy.
I stood in front of it as I did with the previous one, and I couldnmt hear anything, unlike with my previous unit.
Now if I go on the back of the computer and put my hair 5cm from the exhaust, I can still hear a little whistle, but it's completely unnoticeable from any normal use situation.
My previous unit had a very noticeable high pitch noise that could be easily heared from a normal distance.
 
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JippaLippa said:
I called the apple support by phone to arrange the replacement.

With regards to the new unit it was pretty easy.
I stood in front of it as I did with the previous one, and I couldnmt hear anything, unlike with my previous unit.
Now if I go on the back of the computer and put my hair 5cm from the exhaust, I can still hear a little whistle, but it's completely unnoticeable from any normal use situation.
My previous unit had a very noticeable high pitch noise that could be easily heared from a normal distance.
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Cheers!

Yeah I'm on the fence whether mine is off-spec TBH...I can hear the high pitched noise from a metre away, but only at night when the room is silent...

I've a feeling if I end up replacing it, it's just going to be the same thing...a few days to decide, might return it and settle for a Mac Mini...

If I clock the fans down to 1100rpm it's totally fine, but I'm really not mad on doing that long term, the only way to justify this purchase is that I keep it for at least 3-5 years...and I've a feeling they're at 1350 for a reason, most likely some PSU parts...
 
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simacc said:
Cheers!

Yeah I'm on the fence whether mine is off-spec TBH...I can hear the high pitched noise from a metre away, but only at night when the room is silent...

I've a feeling if I end up replacing it, it's just going to be the same thing...a few days to decide, might return it and settle for a Mac Mini...

If I clock the fans down to 1100rpm it's totally fine, but I'm really not mad on doing that long term, the only way to justify this purchase is that I keep it for at least 3-5 years...and I've a feeling they're at 1350 for a reason, most likely some PSU parts...
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Don’t worry, Apple would not allow you to set your fans to something below minimum required for the system to work. 250rpm will not make a gigantic difference. In fact, maxing your fan to 3000+rpm and making it sound like a jet engine will make nearly 0% difference in temperature… At least in my whiny instance… Maybe they are the problem after all…
 
Out of curiosity, are there any specific workloads people experiencing the noise issue perform that exacerbates it? Or is it just an all the time type thing?
 
random-uk said:
Out of curiosity, are there any specific workloads people experiencing the noise issue perform that exacerbates it? Or is it just an all the time type thing?
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For me, it's an all random type thing, it ranges from no whine to whistle sound... Usually after having it on for some time. Restart doesn't help, but if it's off for a few hours, the whine usually stops after turning it on after that time and starts again randomly after.
 
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