New 16" Speakers Popping

[alifuu]

UPDATE - it is a hell of a lot better but still 1-3 pop snap sounds here and there. But again way way way better than before. I think they are working on a fix based on the result I've just witnessed. Hopefully the next update makes it 100% fixed

 

[MacFrom92]

Only my left speaker pops, sort of an electric rumbling. Purchased MacBook pro 16" in 10/2021 and problem started just last week. Thinking back, I recalled that just a day or two before I updated MacOS maverick to 12.3.1. So, I reinstalled it. Problem persisted. I reinstalled again and the sound resolved for a couple days. Today, it's back again.

 

[MichalB]

I will return mine tomorrow. It happens to me when there is a high cpu load when using photoshop. I tested it with Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music. Same problem. I can replicate it every time within 5/10 min.
Many people have replaced theirs but still get the same problem. Not sure what to do
View attachment 1959360

Hello, I have exactly same issue. Did returning the macbook and got a new model help to you? Thank you

 

[BroCraig]

So tired of the popping!!!

 

[Kola91]

Yep, I still have it too. I got used to just frequently delete these two files in the audio folder (I set up a permanent shortcut to that folder in my Finder) and running the terminal command.

At least there’s some coverage on Apple News pages now. I hope this will lead to a fix eventually.

But I must say it again: It’s extremely baffling how Apple apparently thinks this is okay and tells Users that they detected no issues / couldn’t reproduce the problem (yeah right). I didn’t sign up to pay almost 3000$ for beta testing their software/hardware!

 

[Livestep]

Yes it is certainly baffling. I can't seem to find anyone who it DOESN'T affect, which i would think it is a very widespread problem. It looked at some stage that it may be a s/w issue, but recent updates, whilst seemed to have an effect - have not made the issue go away. I am assuming the Apple software engineers are struggling to contain the issue with s/w. There seems to be a common pattern of people experiencing it under load which makes me think it is a h/w issue - maybe something difficult to resolve, for instance, EM interference on the audio chips/speakers when under load. I think it may be time for Apple to get to grips with the issue (like i mentioned, I have not heard anyone who has not got the issue on the new m1 machines esp. 16") and fast forward a fix. Certainly it is stopping me procuring a new m1 max at this present time.

 

[seadragon]

Does this affect just the speakers or headphones out also? If headphones, is there a difference between using the audio out jack vs Bluetooth? What about using an audio interface such as Focusrite Scarlett?

 

[Livestep]

Internal speakers only apparently. External audio devices doesn't seem to be affected (anecdotally). Members on audio production forums have reported no issues with external audio devices. Headphones I am unsure - doesn't seem to be many people complaining about the issue whilst using headphones (in fact, i cannot recollect any one complaining about it).

 

[HeraFlight]

Internal speakers only apparently. External audio devices doesn't seem to be affected (anecdotally). Members on audio production forums have reported no issues with external audio devices. Headphones I am unsure - doesn't seem to be many people complaining about the issue whilst using headphones (in fact, i cannot recollect any one complaining about it).

I have seen some people complaining about pops on bluetooth and jack headphones as well but it could have been the headphones, idk.

 

[ChildOfTheWW]

I have some sort of popup on the the speakers of the USB-C Monitor and an external Audio Interface as well, however its very subtle.

 

[peter.boling]

My speakers have been popping since I got the 16" MB Pro in 11/2021. No popping when using headphones, only the built-in speakers pop. I haven't found any permanent solutions, only tried things that seemed to work briefly, but it always comes back.

 

[pendragon1984]

My MacBook Pro 14" has the crackle. I just noticed it the first time last night. Ram pressure is moderate with quite a few tabs and google maps street view and various apps open. It has now randomly stopped doing it.

So far it's not been a problem that's happened often or been a big deal. Hopefully though we can get a fix from Apple.

 

[Dopestar]

My speakers have been popping since I got the 16" MB Pro in 11/2021. No popping when using headphones, only the built-in speakers pop. I haven't found any permanent solutions, only tried things that seemed to work briefly, but it always comes back.

the popping sounds worse now on my MBP 16 . Has anyone been successful to resolve this issue with Apple?

 

[alifuu]

it got worse for me too...last apple product for me...can't even sell this to someone

 

[vintimus]

Lack of acknowledgement from Apple on this is incredibly frustrating. It's the one issue I have with mine, but it's a pretty big one.

 

[Alex W.]

sounds like a Hardware issue, Doesnt look good for the m1 pro, what has the apple Store said?
Its probably some resonance issue or cwaveform issue with the speaker spartial audio.
If this hasnt been fixed by now, assume hardware issue.

Get an offical statement from apple and post it here.

 

[Kola91]

I have some sort of popup on the the speakers of the USB-C Monitor and an external Audio Interface as well, however its very subtle.

Yep I have that with my Focusrite Scarlett 4i4. But it’s way better than with the Behringer UMC404HD.

I hope this will just be fixed along with the speaker issue. Even if these pops are subtle, it’s a no go for any professional audio production to not having a constant audio stream. People should really reconsider buying these laptops if they haven’t already.

 

[dudup]

Whoa, happy and sad to find this thread!

Have my 16" M1 Pro for 4 months now, and I've started noticing this in only the last 2 weeks.

Why just now? Well, I do a bunch of calls everyday but using headphones (wired and bluetooth) all the time, so I don't annoy my wife. But she's visiting her mother over the past couple of weeks, and I'm doing all my calls using the internal speakers, since I'm home alone. So I finally noticed the popping sounds.

In my case, it definitely happens on the left speaker alone.

 

[seadragon]

Sounds like potentially different issues. Some have mentioned the physical speaker only, others have mentioned with audio interfaces.

 

[qqfans369]

12.4 doesn't seem to solve this problem? Is it a hardware problem or a software problem? At present, it is found that if the memory is occupied by a large amount, the probability of popping sound is very high.

 

[qqfans369]

Sounds like potentially different issues. Some have mentioned the physical speaker only, others have mentioned with audio interfaces.

This will happen to 3.5 external and native speakers!

 

[Kola91]

I can report & confirm that two things worked for me now:

1. Killing the CoreAudio Process with Terminal: sudo kill -9 `ps ax|grep 'coreaudio[a-z]' | awk '{print $1}'`
2. Deleting these files in Computer/Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/Audio: com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist & com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist, empty trash can & restart the computer

This is not a new revelation, but it once again confirms that this is a software issue. I expect the problems to come back, but at least there's that. I think I will write a program in Automator, so that I can quickly get rid of these once they come back.

edit: It lasted for about 4 hours, then I heard the first pop again.

This also fixed another baffling issue (temporarily probably) a few of you maybe encountered:

I wanted to watch a video from a streaming page on my TV, which I connected with my MacBook Pro 16" (2021) through HDMI. Weirdly enough, there was no sound from that video. I checked it on YouTube and discovered that every video (if it played any sounds) was just speed scrolling, so that it was finished in 1-2 seconds.

This is yet another issue that was reported for these machines:

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/renvbh

Is this related? Maybe. Maybe it was just the restart that fixed it (it seems to be software wise once again), but what the hell, Apple?

And I'm sorry to go offtrack, but today, I also received a battery warning. Great!:

I know the latter seems to be a different thing, but where is this going? I'm honestly wondering if Apple needs to be threatened by a law suit in order to finally fix all these things for their customers...

 

[Blue0990]

I wanna buy a 16 inch MacBook Pro but for this I’m waiting until a fix comes out or new model.

 

[TheRdungeon]

For me I can say it's only occasionally happened on the built in speakers, I have 3 Apogee Duets and have never encountered it with them, which probably shows it's not a CoreAudio issue? Maybe some software thing with how the speakers are driven, given it usually comes with high CPU use

 

[qqfans369]

After installing boom 3D, it has been 3 days, and there is no popping problem! If you have a try, please report back!Seems to be related to the audio processing driver?