MacBook Pro 2018 - Speakers Crackling

[tehStickMan]

Your issue here is a subset of audio issues.

Non-exhaustive list:

• Speaker hiss - probably hardware, it's known problem for years
• Distortion/jitter, like above
• Audio stream crackling

You say your distortion problem appeared after update. Crackling people say it's been there whole time. Speaker hiss whole time.

This 'audio problem' isn't basic nor small, by any means.

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

Your issue here is a subset of audio issues.

Non-exhaustive list:

• Speaker hiss - probably hardware, it's known problem for years
• Distortion/jitter, like above
• Audio stream crackling

You say your distortion problem appeared after update. Crackling people say it's been there whole time. Speaker hiss whole time.

This 'audio problem' isn't basic nor small, by any means.

I definitely did not imply the issue is small. Maybe it read that way, but no implication like that was made.

The issue did in fact start immediately after installing the update. I've used this machine daily for 3 months for heavy duty audio work. I would have noticed it immediately. There was no distortion on my machine until immediately after the update. That means that something deployed in the update introduced the issue on my machine. It may be different for other machines, that's the way it has been for me.

The crackling is jitter. When it begins is when Logic reports an incorrect sample rate. Logic will not recognize an incorrect sample rate unless something indeed is attempting to set one. (Live also spits out the same exact error in Console that Logic does when the issue begins.) And again, as you introduce more audio streams the jitter increases, the same way introducing multiple audio interfaces with no wordclock creates jitter. The hissing I haven't experienced but I'm sure it's just as bad. I'd be surprised if they're not part of the same overall issue.

And as I mentioned, I get the same behavior in headphones so for me the issue is not isolated to the speakers, it's a system-wide issue.

The main point of the post is that Apple will keep getting away with band aid fixes like telling you to reinstall your OS, upgrade to 10.14, reset NVRAM & SMC, delete useless plists etc unless more people aggressively report the issue and continue calling until they escalate the issue to engineering. Instead, most people call a few times, and after the band aids Apple Care advisors are trained to try don't actually work, they shrug their shoulders and take it to a forum and complain or leave feedback instead of continuing to push them to escalate it.

 

[tehStickMan]

Yeah, I agree with your post.

Also, sorry, to clarify I wasn't saying anything bad about your post - only my first sentence was in direct reply to you

My apple suppers engineers haven't replied to him (or he hasn't passed info to me) for 2-3wks now, so I'm going to prod again.

I agree, no fixes for 6 months now, this is getting ridiculous.

 

[soiramk]

I can not understand one thing ...
From what has been written here, it seems that the subject is not under what circumstances happen, since any form of sound (youtube under Chrome or Safari, iTunes etc) causes it. And with any form of sound output (speakers, headphones, etc.).
So I find it inconceivable that some people have not notice it, even if they do not make a professional use.
Is it safe to say that it is just a matter of hardware that exists in some units of what has been sold and those users (rightly) are coming here and write about them? Can the issue be general and not become even bigger?

 

[8SlaiN8]

I can not understand one thing ...
From what has been written here, it seems that the subject is not under what circumstances happen, since any form of sound (youtube under Chrome or Safari, iTunes etc) causes it. And with any form of sound output (speakers, headphones, etc.).
So I find it inconceivable that some people have not notice it, even if they do not make a professional use.
Is it safe to say that it is just a matter of hardware that exists in some units of what has been sold and those users (rightly) are coming here and write about them? Can the issue be general and not become even bigger?

it's software related and there is smth in system that causes cpu spike, during this spike everything shuts down so cpu skips several cycles of audio, here you have your jitter/noise/crackling in speakers/headphones/external ad/da converter/amp

 

[Duncan68]

it's software related and there is smth in system that causes cpu spike, during this spike everything shuts down so cpu skips several cycles of audio, here you have your jitter/noise/crackling in speakers/headphones/external ad/da converter/amp

But why is it that some people don't seem to have the problem? (I'm one that does have the problem, on a 2018 mini.)

 

[8SlaiN8]

But why is it that some people don't seem to have the problem? (I'm one that does have the problem, on a 2018 mini.)

because each one has different use of current machine, someone doesn't work constantly with music or listens to it, just occasionally and/or quiet

 

[tehStickMan]

If it's purely software problem, when why is there an easy to follow set of instructions that causes it to trigger, yet some people can't get it to trigger (apparently) ?

 

[anpaman]

It was hardware problem. If it was software problem, there would be easly for apple to fix it.

Apple would not admit it was hardware problem. If they admit it. There would be many of macbook pro be recalled, it would mean lost profit.

 

[soiramk]

because each one has different use of current machine, someone doesn't work constantly with music or listens to it, just occasionally and/or quiet

I can't thought of a simple user never ever needs to hear something from his laptop. Professional or not user. A movie, a song, a youtube video... anything..

If it's purely software problem, when why is there an easy to follow set of instructions that causes it to trigger, yet some people can't get it to trigger (apparently) ?

Exactly

 

[8SlaiN8]

Guys, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend Apple, as musician and producers I'm the user category that suffers probably the most, and believe me, I've spent my hours with'em on the phone already, though, it's just my own observation not pretending to be absolute.

I don't know which exact process make it trigger but what I CAN tell you is that it can be noticed while working in Logic and having CPU/HD monitor constantly open with console open in the background. When this "crack/noise/distortion" happens meter breaks the sealing and I get a crack. I can see it because after sound it's still there for a second. and instantly after that, just scrolling some events in console you can find some errors in console.

BTW. Before there were a couple of processes which were triggering it on a stable basis, and it appears to me that they've ironed them out somehow. but there are some, still, which can cause it.

p.s. all of that happens on a system which isn't perfectly clean and sterile, in my case, because I'm not their beta tester or whatever, so it might be that with clean install the latest mojave update actually solved it but who know. I can't wipe everything right now for that sake because I actually have some work to do.

All the best
Peace✌

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

Guys, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend Apple, as musician and producers I'm the user category that suffers probably the most, and believe me, I've spent my hours with'em on the phone already, though, it's just my own observation not pretending to be absolute.

I don't know which exact process make it trigger but what I CAN tell you is that it can be noticed while working in Logic and having CPU/HD monitor constantly open with console open in the background. When this "crack/noise/distortion" happens meter breaks the sealing and I get a crack. I can see it because after sound it's still there for a second. and instantly after that, just scrolling some events in console you can find some errors in console.

BTW. Before there were a couple of processes which were triggering it on a stable basis, and it appears to me that they've ironed them out somehow. but there are some, still, which can cause it.

p.s. all of that happens on a system which isn't perfectly clean and sterile, in my case, because I'm not their beta tester or whatever, so it might be that with clean install the latest mojave update actually solved it but who know. I can't wipe everything right now for that sake because I actually have some work to do.

All the best
Peace✌

Hey 8SlaiN,
Just curious... Are you getting Sample Rate Errors in Logic?
And, do you see any of the following messages in Console when the issue happens in Logic?



23:47:51.531293 -0500 launchservicesd CHECKIN:0x0-0x15c15c 7490 com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup

error 23:47:51.686156 -0500 Audio MIDI Setup AEGetDescData of non-desc type 'reco' not a good idea

(^ Pretty damn sure this is the message "Error while trying to synchronize Audio and MIDI. Sample Rate "X" recognized.")

23:47:51.854687 -0500 coreaudiod HALS_UCPlugIn.cpp:1009:ObjectGetPropertyData: HALS_UCPlugIn::ObjectGetPropertyData: ['lchn', 'inpt', 1] failed: 1464353108

23:47:51.860089 -0500 coreaudiod HALS_UCPlugIn.cpp:1009:ObjectGetPropertyData: HALS_UCPlugIn::ObjectGetPropertyData: ['lchn', 'inpt', 1] failed: 1464353108

23:48:02.490031 -0500 Audio MIDI Setup LSExceptions shared instance invalidated for timeout.

[doublepost=1545540245][/doublepost]

If it's purely software problem, when why is there an easy to follow set of instructions that causes it to trigger, yet some people can't get it to trigger (apparently) ?

Because as soon as you quit all apps, (at least on my machine), the problem goes away for a little while. It might go away for 15 mins, it might go away for an hour. Depends on whatever is kicking the issue off.

And again, I used my machine for 3 months with no distortion. I used it daily for many hours in a row with high end closed back headphones, plenty loud... Some days Logic or Live were open almost beginning to end of day. No distortion ever in the first 3 months.

As soon as I installed Security Update 2018-002 and Security Update 2018-003 on Dec. 9th distortion began within 15 mins after restart. (I noticed it on the speakers while watching Hulu at a really quiet level.) I restarted the machine again and it seemed like it went away.

The next day the issue started within an hour of using Logic, in headphones, and continued even if I unplugged and used the speakers. The issue stuck around as long as Logic was open. I also noticed sometime that first full day that the distortion got worse if I had iTunes, or anything else playing audio at the same time. As soon as I quit Logic it got better, when I quit anything else running the problem went away completely for an hour or so...

It's been like that every day since installing these two updates. Only the issue can take an hour, or 15 minutes to start, no set amount of time I can find yet. It just starts when whatever kicks it off triggers it, and it starts in any application playing audio for extended periods of time... iTunes, Chrome, Logic, even Finder.

But again, no set pattern or amount of time it takes, it just starts when it starts...

I've also been keeping Console open. The issue isn't displayed in Console by iTunes, Chrome or Finder. (Doubt iMovie or Quicktime will either). The only two apps I've found that print an error that looks like it refers to the issue are Logic and Ableton Live. (Probably part of why Apple hasn't done anything about it yet. Unless the Logic team were to devote some real time to this it seems like people developing the OS could easily miss it if they're not looking for it...)

At this point I'm pretty sure they need to be forced to look for it... After the past couple weeks of going back and forth, Engineering blew off my case and said they can't do anything until I upgrade to Mojave...

 

[limo79]

It was hardware problem. If it was software problem, there would be easly for apple to fix it.

Apple would not admit it was hardware problem. If they admit it. There would be many of macbook pro be recalled, it would mean lost profit.

Depends on how complicated software bug is. Sometimes SW problems cannot be fixed so companies suggest "workaround" as a solution. In case of audio problems we touch also core audio on the system level which might be hard to change because it can generate other problems after patching reported issue. Also you assume that hardware companies manufacture 100% bug free chip which is not true because almost all chips I know have a hardware anomaly list and revisions. So when you buy first batch of any chip you can be sure that it will be first revision more or less problematic. That is how important is co operation between engineers and generally technical support between companies to solve a problem. If the problem is in hardware Apple possibly will make some minor changes on hardware level (they can update a chip with new silicon revision if the problem is addressed) or redesign slightly board or populate / depopulate some additional components). However if the noise is related to eg interferation of SSD drive or CPU Apple cannot change a Toshiba supplier or Intel so easy due to cost and current orders. Even if they will fix it in the next Whiskey Lake refresh in Mid 2019 all situation is next sign that something wrong is going with Apple engineering or to be precise with management. Apple was famous from excellent noise free audio mainboard design which was not so obvious in the past. They also take a much attention to chip selection eg Realtek ALC 885 has much better parameters than other low cost Realtek ALC201 and silimar like ALC650.

 

[EEzycade]

still happening with mine, wonder when it will stop... or break something

 

[anpaman]

still happening with mine, wonder when it will stop or break something

When you purchased it ?

Why not asking for replace ?

 

[fokmik]

replace doesn't resolve the speakers issue but a soft update specifically for this issue

 

[tehStickMan]

I’m waiting on details of a device capture, cos I’m gonna get a third machine now haha..

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

On my machine it appears to be Core Audio related... (Consistent with people getting distortion to go away for a couple of hours when they force quit coreaudiod from Activity Monitor.)

I've been booted from a clone I made in CCC on Dec 9, right before installing updates 2018-002 & 2018-003. I haven't experienced distortion since Sunday. Last night I decided to start stress testing the clone to see if this isn't wishful thinking...

I've had Ableton Live open since 11 PM last night, (currently 12:00 AM here.) Live's been running almost the entire 25 hours despite a few short breaks. So far no distortion since Saturday night, nothing weird during the stress test either.

For the test I've been leaving Live running on a MIDI loop with sound routed out of the headphone jack, (Phones plugged in but isolated so I can play other things on the speakers... I tired Chrome/Netflix streaming video sound all last night with Live Running. When I went to bed I left iTunes playing overnight while Live playing the same loop out of the cans. Today I left Live playing, and had iTunes playing music and Chrome streaming video all day. Many periodic checks, no distortion so far.

Previously this would break Core Audio within 15-45 mins. Once audio broke it stayed broken until quitting everything or restarting the machine. So far so good.

I'm still remaining skeptical. That said, this is the first time I've seen the original behavior I had for the first 3 months of use...

Tonight I'm going to do the same thing, only I'll be leaving Logic playing overnight, with iTunes playing and video streaming simultaneously.

The beauty of using Logic is if there's a single error overnight, Logic will stop playback and leave the sample rate error on screen until I check it in the morning... If I get up tomorrow and Logic is still playing with no error message and iTunes and Chrome sound clean then that should confirm there was no distortion overnight.

Skeptical for sure, but so far I've seen no indication that I should see the error and find audio distorted when I get up.

I'm curious curious if anyone else with the issue does, or does not see Security updates 2018-002 and 2018-003 either installed, or available for install... Although I doubt this is the only source of the issue, it would be interesting to see if it might be a source for some, as it does seem to be the thing that broke sound on my machine.

For any one who hasn't had distortion from the first day onward, would also be interesting to see what happens if you boot from clone made before the distortion started... Or see if things change if you create a partition or container with a fresh install of your OS and set that as your startup disc to see if you still get distortion after a day or two of use. (On my machine I had the factory 10.13.6, and installed only the supplemental updates from July and August. That configuration worked for me for those solid first 3 months...)

Anyway, will update tomorrow...

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

Wanted to post an update... Left Logic playing a simple midi loop all night with a couple AUs inserted. Also left iTunes playing... Woke up, checked both... iTunes was playing clean audio. Logic played through the night with no errors. Left it running a couple more hours, about 10 in total... No issues. So far I'm seeing the original behavior before my issue started and will be cloning back to the internal this weekend.

I've also had a bunch of phone calls with Apple between Sunday and this evening. Learned quite a bit about the support hierarchy... It took a few phone calls but eventually I got someone who was willing to be straight forward about the best way to get an issue actually resolved...

Anyone experiencing the issue should call up and file a complaint about your existing case with Customer Relations ASAP... (Don't file a complaint unless it corresponds to an unresolved issue... Just filing a complaint without a previous case or documentation won't get you much, you need to give CR some leverage to work with...)

Support and Engineering basically answer to Customer Relations. Once an unresolved issue is escalated to a compliant it's Customer Relations job to do some arm twisting so that issues like this, (widespread well known issues that potentially hurt Apple's image), get some actual resolution. The more complaints about the same issue the more pressure applied down the ladder on support/engineering...

In my case they've coordinated follow ups with every agent involved in my cases, (more than one issue), and Engineering dropped the 'update to Mojave before we can go any further' act and requested more diagnostics... They also advised me to simultaneously submit separate feedback forms for each case/complaint... (Explained below.)

Customer Relations are also the department that processes "Apple Feedback". They actually do keep track of feedback submitted, registered complaints take priority, and there's a process and an order Relations advised me to follow to get unresolved issues addressed sooner than later...

You open a support case, if the issue isn't resolved via support, (i.e. this one...) you then file a complaint. CR steps in and handles your complaint by attempting to reach out to anyone assigned to previous cases associated with your complaint. While you continue to work through the complaint issues you submit separate feedback comments for each issue, being sure to reference each case and the corresponding complaint in the feedback form...

Since feedback goes to the entire CR department, and complaints take priority, this puts the issue in front of the entire Customer Relations staff, giving it priority over things like feature requests... The more registered complaints referencing the same issue the more pressure CR can apply down the chain to actually get issues resolved.

Anyway... If you have unresolved support cases call support and have them log a complaint about your case. They'll probably ask you for more info, what you'd expect as a resolution, (e.g. for me it's about fixing the issue under HS so HS isn't left broken on these machines...) Follow through with corresponding feedback referencing each case and complaint so more eyes get on your issue, and the issue overall...

 

[8SlaiN8]

Hey 8SlaiN,
Just curious... Are you getting Sample Rate Errors in Logic?
And, do you see any of the following messages in Console when the issue happens in Logic?



23:47:51.531293 -0500 launchservicesd CHECKIN:0x0-0x15c15c 7490 com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup

error 23:47:51.686156 -0500 Audio MIDI Setup AEGetDescData of non-desc type 'reco' not a good idea

(^ Pretty damn sure this is the message "Error while trying to synchronize Audio and MIDI. Sample Rate "X" recognized.")

23:47:51.854687 -0500 coreaudiod HALS_UCPlugIn.cpp:1009:ObjectGetPropertyData: HALS_UCPlugIn::ObjectGetPropertyData: ['lchn', 'inpt', 1] failed: 1464353108

23:47:51.860089 -0500 coreaudiod HALS_UCPlugIn.cpp:1009:ObjectGetPropertyData: HALS_UCPlugIn::ObjectGetPropertyData: ['lchn', 'inpt', 1] failed: 1464353108

23:48:02.490031 -0500 Audio MIDI Setup LSExceptions shared instance invalidated for timeout.

[doublepost=1545540245][/doublepost]

Because as soon as you quit all apps, (at least on my machine), the problem goes away for a little while. It might go away for 15 mins, it might go away for an hour. Depends on whatever is kicking the issue off.

And again, I used my machine for 3 months with no distortion. I used it daily for many hours in a row with high end closed back headphones, plenty loud... Some days Logic or Live were open almost beginning to end of day. No distortion ever in the first 3 months.

As soon as I installed Security Update 2018-002 and Security Update 2018-003 on Dec. 9th distortion began within 15 mins after restart. (I noticed it on the speakers while watching Hulu at a really quiet level.) I restarted the machine again and it seemed like it went away.

The next day the issue started within an hour of using Logic, in headphones, and continued even if I unplugged and used the speakers. The issue stuck around as long as Logic was open. I also noticed sometime that first full day that the distortion got worse if I had iTunes, or anything else playing audio at the same time. As soon as I quit Logic it got better, when I quit anything else running the problem went away completely for an hour or so...

It's been like that every day since installing these two updates. Only the issue can take an hour, or 15 minutes to start, no set amount of time I can find yet. It just starts when whatever kicks it off triggers it, and it starts in any application playing audio for extended periods of time... iTunes, Chrome, Logic, even Finder.

But again, no set pattern or amount of time it takes, it just starts when it starts...

I've also been keeping Console open. The issue isn't displayed in Console by iTunes, Chrome or Finder. (Doubt iMovie or Quicktime will either). The only two apps I've found that print an error that looks like it refers to the issue are Logic and Ableton Live. (Probably part of why Apple hasn't done anything about it yet. Unless the Logic team were to devote some real time to this it seems like people developing the OS could easily miss it if they're not looking for it...)

At this point I'm pretty sure they need to be forced to look for it... After the past couple weeks of going back and forth, Engineering blew off my case and said they can't do anything until I upgrade to Mojave...

Hello. Good job on this research mate I think we should definitely exchange contacts in pm and try to find a solution together maybe, also, your posts are very long and it's kinda hard to understand the whole system, anyways
I don't usually get these codes, I mean midi and audio sync errors, but I certainly can tell you that it's happening because of overload. 100%. Because I do get this engine error when it's heavily overloaded like with crazy low sample rate and lotsa stuff.
I usually get just crackles with all cores load spike for a sec (rarely) and it results in different error, now don't remember the code tbh.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Does anyone ever hear a distortion in Skype?

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

Hello. Good job on this research mate I think we should definitely exchange contacts in pm and try to find a solution together maybe, also, your posts are very long and it's kinda hard to understand the whole system, anyways
I don't usually get these codes, I mean midi and audio sync errors, but I certainly can tell you that it's happening because of overload. 100%. Because I do get this engine error when it's heavily overloaded like with crazy low sample rate and lotsa stuff.
I usually get just crackles with all cores load spike for a sec (rarely) and it results in different error, now don't remember the code tbh.

Thanks mate. Pm sent!

Yeah, my posts are long. Sorry lol. This ****s made me kind of neurotic. Can't get anything done

Does anyone ever hear a distortion in Skype?

Don't use Skype unfortunately, but video calls and conference apps are tricky because clipping is pretty common. Could be clipping due to low bitrate and data compression, or someone's mic is too loud. Could be crackle if the levels are ok.
(I've heard it in badly recorded youtube videos...)

Does it sound like the two videos below?

Macbook speaker crackling:

 

[giffut]

I don´t think Apple is really in it for fixing this. These are all errors related to the T2 bridge processor/os controlling core audio and all other I/O. Those errors consistently happen since the introduction if the iMac Pro and no software/firmware fix has improved anything. You can utilize an external thunderbolt based audio interface, but other T2 related crashes catch up on you and annoy/destroy your work schedule.

Core audio was rock solid for me before the introduction of the 2016 line of macbooks. That´s when annoyances started. The T2 based macs, though, are just broken beyond repair. The T2 bridge concept is seriously failing on the hardware level, that´s a fact now.

Return your machines, don´t accept workarounds you have to pay for with your own time and money - they only strip Apple of their real responsibility: Fixing their expensive hardware, which should work out of the box with stuff that did perform without a hitch for years and years. A software fix is much cheaper and I suspect they calculated down to the cent what is saving their profits for sure.

 

[motomotomoto]

Hello, wanted to share a related thread on the Gearslutz audio forum. There is some good info here from an audio interface manufacturer RME, who claims that the audio is unreliable on T2 using machines if a USB 1-2-3 device is connected anywhere in the system (even through an adapter). Just thought that it might be helpful for people still troubleshooting!

https://www.gearspace.com/board/mus...h-sierra-mojave-coreaudio-overload-bug-6.html

 

[Howard2k]

Hello, wanted to share a related thread on the Gearslutz audio forum. There is some good info here from an audio interface manufacturer RME, who claims that the audio is unreliable on T2 using machines if a USB 1-2-3 device is connected anywhere in the system (even through an adapter). Just thought that it might be helpful for people still troubleshooting!

https://www.gearspace.com/board/mus...h-sierra-mojave-coreaudio-overload-bug-6.html

That’s pretty shocking.