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There are tons of posts in this 79-page-thread reporting coil whine not being there at first but appearing after a while (perhaps due to dust buildup).

2 weeks after purchase you can’t return your Mac Studio anymore and you could be stuck in an endless faulty-and-repair-cycle just like with the butterfly keyboards (I returned 4 in the 5 years it took Apple to acknowledge the problem).

Most people don’t take chances with hefty purchases like this - it should be flawless out of the box (like, arguably, the M1 Max laptop, which to me is perfection).
Well said. I don't have the time or patience to deal with faulty units developing after the 2 week return period.
 
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Can you prove the opposite? If a majority of users had significant issues Apple would be overwhelmed by RMAs, and they aren’t.

Seems like you already had that discussion earlier and lost.
 
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Well said. I don't have the time or patience to deal with faulty units developing after the 2 week return period.
Me neither, especially given that the Mac Studio is Apple's most expensive Silicon device topping out at $7999 - it should be flawless.

I'll save the coil whine lottery and pray-coil-whine-does-not-happen-after-return-period for the cheap Lenovo devices.
 
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Can you prove the opposite? If a majority of users had significant issues Apple would be overwhelmed by RMAs, and they aren’t.
No, I can't, but I never claimed I could, unlike yourself.

Prove by providing data about RMA's. I don't think you can do that either. There's a difference between fact and opinion.
As for RMA's themselves, I kept mine, even though it has the whine, so I wouldn't show up on any statistics for returns. I expect there were a lot of us that did, but, of course, I have no proof of that.

LOL, As for losing that argument, nope, not even close.
 
You did Bob. We all saw it, we all know it. That you'd disagree is no surprise.

My roommate happens to work in an Apple Store, and based on her, albeit anecdotal information, they don't see many people returning Mac Studios because of noise. The returns are mainly because they bought a smaller storage package and want more speed and storage, because they have a problem with the ports, or because they tried it out and realized they don't need the power. Less than 1-in-20 is because of noise concerns.

By now I don't think anyone is saying there are no units with noise problems. Most people agree there is coil whine in some units, and the Mac Studio has significant fan noise if you ramp up the RPMs to 2000, and don't even try 3000+.
 
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You did Bob. We all saw it, we all know it. That you'd disagree is no surprise.
Nope.

My roommate happens to work in an Apple Store, and based on her, albeit anecdotal information, they don't see many people returning Mac Studios because of noise. The returns are mainly because they bought a smaller storage package and want more speed and storage, because they have a problem with the ports, or because they tried it out and realized they don't need the power. Less than 1-in-20 is because of noise concerns.
That's called anecdotal evidence, not proof.

By now I don't think anyone is saying there are no units with noise problems.
I would hope nobody is that lacking in evidence!

Most people agree there is coil whine in some units, and the Mac Studio has significant fan noise if you ramp up the RPMs to 2000, and don't even try 3000+.
I don't think it's coil whine. Fan noise doesn't bother me at all, I have lots of computers, including an i9 Workstation that I run without any throttling. The high pitched Studio noise, that's something different. It's barely audible, but it's annoying nonetheless. Think of fingernail on chalkboard type of noise. I kept mine because it functions as it should and there is still no guarantee I'd get a silent one now, much less when I first got the machine. My computer environment is not at all noise critical and I actually like the machine quite a lot. (M1 Max, 64GB RAM, 1TB internal Disk) It just is annoying to sit at my computer desk at home and it eventually does give me a headache if I sit here too long so I have to shut it down and use one of my other computers. While I do some work here at home, it's not my primary workspace.
 
That's a fantastic argument you got there.

That's called anecdotal evidence, not proof.
Whatever Bob - it's still more proof than "I think". I've asked her if she can share actual numbers, and without jeopardizing her job, this is as much as she's sharing; 1-in-20 - 5% - of returns are caused by noise issues with the units.
 
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Whatever Bob - it's still more proof than "I think".
No.
I've asked her if she can share actual numbers, and without jeopardizing her job, this is as much as she's sharing; 1-in-20 - 5% - of returns are caused by noise issues with the units.
Interesting, but still no proof. 5% of machine being returned for this problem is pretty high, and we know some people don't return the machine because of the whine. (I'm an example of that)

Look, if you were to ask me what my opinion was, I'd probably say I suspect most Studios don't have the problem. I'm only complaining about what you said because you stated something as fact that you cannot possibly know as fact. Apple doesn't release numbers like that. (I wish they did!) Apple hasn't even acknowledged this problem.

If you'd have said "I think", we wouldn't be talking about this still as I'd have never posted back to you in the first place.
 
@bobcomer, don't even bother.
Really :) ... there is no point.

Every new reporting of a whine case will trigger defensiveness, trolling, "my Mac Studio came straight from God" type of reaction. ✌️

I feel you man, i had 3 units so far with almost the same behavior (2 already returned).
Yeah, this is much more widespread issue than the minimization some are trying to enforce around here.

So, don't play into this debate ... you will loose your time and energy, get frustrated, it's not worth it.
 
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@bobcomer, don't even bother.
Really :) ... there is no point.

Every new reporting of a whine case will trigger defensiveness, trolling, "my Mac Studio came straight from God" type of reaction. ✌️

I feel you man, i had 3 units so far with almost the same behavior (2 already returned).
Yeah, this is much more widespread issue than the minimization some are trying to enforce around here.

So, don't play into this debate ... you will loose your time and energy, get frustrated, it's not worth it.
If you read back the threads on the butterfly keyboards you see the same phenomenon of denying at-all-cost there could be a problem with an Apple product.

It's interesting that some people really identify themselves with the brand.

Even more interesting is that even today - although Apple has now officially identified the butterfly keyboards as being problematic - some of the same people are still arguing - now against Apple - that there actually is no problem with them.
 
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It's interesting that some people really identify themselves with the brand.

Until reaching this forum and having to deal with the Mac Studio situation, i didn't understand fully what a die-hard "fanboy" really means. Now i get it, seriously ...

This cult-like vibe creeps me out, like people identifying themselves .... their inner core, with one particular brand.

I felt the same thing within the entire Apple "network", being the store employees, support people over the phone, tech support at their "genius bar" ... and so on.

It's really puzzling to see this and for me it's a new thing, haven't experienced it before.

Also, it kinda felt super narcissistic, dismissive and arrogant.

Although i was using a Mac and being within the "ecosystem" for the past 6-7 years (life long PC user before that) i didn't come in touch with the "culture" until now.

It's really interesting, like you said, from a psychological point of view, how brands can inject themselves into people's DNA 🙂
 
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Outside of the coil whine defect has anyone determined why the Studio fans are almost always on and always at the same speed? Seems like a very odd design choice.
 
The 1330 RPMs aren't enough to be audible in a normal office setting, and only if the fans speed up will you actually hear them - YMMV.
 
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I'm going to ignore 80 pages of bickering and order up a new studio this week.
Yup this tread is giving new meaning to beating a dead horse. I got my Studio Ultra and it has been quiet since I got the machine which was the 3/18 the first day they shipped. I have been told in this and other treads that my hearing is faulty, that the noise is there, but I can't hear it which is B/S my hearing is good up to about 14 kHz and the whine is from what I have seen here is at around 2.2 kHz. The fact is there is no whining noise coming from my machine neither myself or my kids or grandkids hear any noise. I believe that the vast majority of Mac Studio buyers are happy with their purchase and that most/majority of the machines are quiet.
 
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Outside of the coil whine defect has anyone determined why the Studio fans are almost always on and always at the same speed? Seems like a very odd design choice.
The fan is always on. I expect it's just the design of the cooling system coupled with the Studio case size. Simple answer is they designed it that way.
 
The fan is always on. I expect it's just the design of the cooling system coupled with the Studio case size. Simple answer is they designed it that way.
Has anyone tried turning the fans off (I don't know if you even can)? Just wondering how much the temps would increase.
 
Outside of the coil whine defect has anyone determined why the Studio fans are almost always on and always at the same speed? Seems like a very odd design choice.
I think they have to do it because of the integrated PSU that needs constant air flow / cooling in this small form factor.

The M1Max can "survive" with less thermal "capacity" (ex Macbook Pro) but the integrated PSU changes the story when you put it in a small footprint like the Mac Studio.

Maybe in future iteration they can figure out something a little bit more "passive".
 
I've asked her if she can share actual numbers, and without jeopardizing her job, this is as much as she's sharing; 1-in-20 - 5% - of returns are caused by noise issues with the units.

Whoa, that's an incredibly high number, way more than I would have thought. The number in the forum will be higher because people here are far more switched on and enthusiast than the general mac population. Still, 5% - That's a serious problem for any product, especially for Macs. Thanks for sharing.

One thing is for sure, the next release of the Mac Studio all these problems will magically disappear. No more whine and potentially lower idle speed.
 
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