Just read that the idle fan speed has been significantly lowered on the new models, damn. How about an update for the M1 Max versions Apple? 25 decibels at idle is a hideous experience, although you do habituate eventually. Coil whine will likely still be there though, do not see Apple upping that quality control.
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Poll: Mac Studio M2 whine noise?
- Thread starter Think77
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Depends if it is coil whine (PSU, there are two models) or fan air flowing through the tiny holes. All three I have owned have coil whine, except the one I have currently is less annoying. It is still there though, it is what it is.
That is the issue I had with M1. And with M2 I do NOT want to go through 5 return agains. Potentially more. I gave up/stopped after 5 returns because I needed to get back to work, not return Macs all day every day.
No matter where I put my unit, I can hear the whine all throughout my office.
You could try one M2 unit just to see? But that must be a nightmare to live through. I think I was blessed with my M1 bought in November that is completely silent. Even tested it after seeing M2 specs by bringing the rpm down to below factory setting and still no noise or whine. The only time I can hear the fans ramp up is if I set them to full blast on the Macs Fan Control app.
It is. Even at idle, when it's doing nothing sitting at the desktop with nothing open, I hear the whine all throughout the office. It is su extremely painful. Even changing the fan speeds didn't help.
And what if the M2 unit has the same issue? I was hoping for confirmation that this was addressed, but looks like it hasn't. I mean it is so annoying to the point where its not worth it anymore, and now I am back to having an inferior Mac mini or an overpriced Mac Pro as options.
Again, there are two issues here. Loud fans and whine. I would MUCH prefer a loud fan over the very faint whine my Studio produces. So a reduction in decibels doesn't mean anything. Which is why I would prefer a louder Mac Pro fan system, but that is $3,000 more.
I would have gone with the Pro too if I could have justified the cost -- instead I moved down. (A Mini Pro)
Have you checked out my thread on Mac Studio 2023 fan noise? Read the first post for all the important info. There’s no whine at the 2.2khz range been recorded by anyone on the m2 yet. It’s likely fixed and sonically is a significant improvement on the m1.
Yes I know, but a lot of people said they did not experience any whine with the M1 model too. The fact that Luke Miani got something similar tells me it was not fixed, and it is just a random chance again. I am not going through repeated returns again for a $5,000 product.
Luke’s problem is unrelated to the original whine. The original whine was around 2.2khz, that isn’t it. The original whine seems fixed.
I’m not saying there couldn’t be other problems that appear down the line - but thousands of people are already in possession of the new m2. There were problems reported straight away with the first one, there’s been no problems reported yet with the new one…
I think it would be interesting if M2 Studio owners set their fans to 1330 - I'd bet we'd see a lot of 'whiners'.
Of course, nobody is going to do that because, why bother.
But if taking a whining M1 Studio down to 1000 or 1100 'cures' the noise, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the reason there's no whining.
There’s no whine on mine at 1300. It was very hard to get the fans to go above 1200 when pushing it to max load on its default fan curve.
Possible it still exists, but people would need to test it.
There was 2 frequencies for the original whine, so maybe two causes. My M1 Studio Max had it's whine at 2.6KHz, and nothing at 2.2KHz. (Bought mine the first day the studio was up for pre-order, and it had the whine to begin with)
Take one for the team. Get a new one and let us know. I don't trust anyone who said their M1 Studio was silent, they either have a loud room or are physically incapable of hearing the annoying whine frequency. I returned 2 and kept the 3rd, I'm using it in a loud room and not my main office. If they whine is gone, I will trade this one in for a new one.
So you refuse to believe that there is a variance between each unit and its possible that some units might not have it? Wow, so naive
Way to insult the silent [no pun intended] majority.
How do you address those of us who can hear the whine quite clearly in videos and audio clips that have been post but where our Studios don't exhibit the same noise?
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The M2 Mac is significantly quieter and there has been no reports of the same whine. Get it if you want it, or if you are happier with the potentially whiney and louder M1, stick with it... My work here is done, good luck guys.
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Many people claim the Studio is completely silent even though it has always-on fans. Those people need to be ignored. My opinion is based on the fact that many of us have tried multiple, in some cases 5 or more, and we are able to hear the whine on all. You would think that one of them would be like what the majority claims.
I'm not sure ignored so much as understanding that their environment probably washes it out. But, it's definitely audible with a moderately quiet space (probably most home offices and somewhat fewer workplaces).
In my home office (tends to be in the low 20s dbA) background noise, the M1 Studio was always audible from a normal operator position, and from further, too. The whine was audible until about 50 dbA background noise, which was very rare here. Under more normal background noise, it was immediately noticeable from the hallway (with the door open).
I never cared about the fan noise (excluding the whine). It was on the loud side, but pleasant enough (I tested that by using a recording to drop out the whine and listening to what was left). But, the whine was very disruptive. I returned it, got an equally-specced MBP14 (probably should have gone 16) as a desktop laptop (M1 Max/32 GPU/64GB RAM/2TB SSD, and carried on.
I'm interested to see how the M2 Studio experience shakes out for people who buy it. The studio design (without the whine) is pretty much exactly what I want in a Mac.
You must have missed the crucial part. Some people reported that the sound developed later (way past the return period)
Hence why this is a big issue for some. Having an irritating sounds that your brain can't white noise is not something most people want to deal with.
Hence why this is a big issue for some. Having an irritating sounds that your brain can't white noise is not something most people want to deal with.
If "some people" have reported that and if that's a risk you're unwilling to take, don't buy the Studio.
Wow, didn't expect that at all. So you are saying that a customer should be 'willing' to take the risk on a product from Apple for that price point? I guess we have different standards because to me this is not something a customer should be willing to do. When you pay this much you expect 'just works' system