MBP left speaker suddenly crackling really bad

[Pilot Jones]

The left speaker on my Early 2015 13" Retina MBP very suddenly started crackling & rattling pretty bad.

I was wearing my AirPods for a while, watching videos on the MacBook. I disconnected my AirPods and tried to play sound through the speaker, but the left side sounded completely blown out. It was completely fine before I connected my AirPods.

It sounds like the kind of damage you could do if you jacked up your speakers to 500% with a volume booster while playing super bass-heavy tunes. It can do treble, but it can't handle any bass at all (even a deep voice).

I restarted the laptop + opened it up to check for any foreign particles that may have entered but no luck. I suspect some kind of software thing since this happened right after I took off my AirPods.

Not sure what happened since one moment it was fine and next it was off the cliff. Any advice would be much appreciated ?‍♂️

 

[Adarna]

Have the same problem with my 2012 iMac. Solution is to replace the speaker.

 

[Pilot Jones]

Have the same problem with my 2012 iMac. Solution is to replace the speaker.

Thanks for this.

What were you doing around when your iMac speaker got blown? Were you using it or did it just randomly go bad?

I'm really confused about how this happened, because I'm a heavy headphone user and barely ever play anything loud from my speakers other the occasional podcast or YouTube video. Plus the fact that the speaker seems to have quietly blown out while I was not using it at all is strange.

 

[Adarna]

Thanks for this.

What were you doing around when your iMac speaker got blown? Were you using it or did it just randomly go bad?

I'm really confused about how this happened, because I'm a heavy headphone user and barely ever play anything loud from my speakers other the occasional podcast or YouTube video. Plus the fact that the speaker seems to have quietly blown out while I was not using it at all is strange.

After 7+ years of 16hrs/day of use it broke down due to wear and tear.

Humidity and internal temp may break down the speaker

 

[Pilot Jones]

After 7+ years of 16hrs/day of use it broke down due to wear and tear.

Humidity and internal temp may break down the speaker

My MacBook is also coming up on 7 years in April, seems like that's the magic number lol

For now, I've just shifted the audio completely to my right speaker with System Preferences. Unless I find some other solution, I'll probably just have to switch out the left speaker unit like you've suggested.