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PSA: Coil Whine on MBP 16
- Thread starter milhous
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I have never heard coil whine in my life. I imagine this is yet another Mac Derangement Syndrome case. We should have a psychological study done on us Mac users to once and for all confirm or deny we're all delusional maniacs.
The coil whine was picked up by speakers and amplified actually, so I heard it very loudly. Its also common on XPS computers. Vtudio also recorded it in the video posted in this thread on the 16 in model. To everyone else who isn't in denial, is it worth it trying to play lottery and exchange this or no? It doesn't bother me that much.
How exactly did your speakers amplify the coil whine, slugger? This is very precious to hear. Please tell me more.
Not sure exactly, but I started hearing coil whine coming from my speaker even when the laptop was near silent. So I looked it up and someone with the same speakers had experienced coil whine being amplified due to a grounding issue https://www.overclock.net/forum/18-...ga-56-coil-whine-through-jbl-lsr-305-a-2.html. I messed around with where everything was plugged in and got rid of the coil whine sound and now all I hear is a little bit of the fans which isn't a big issue because the speakers already hiss since they're active. I'd like to take it back and exchange it to play lottery since time machine is so easy to backup from but I'd like to hear some units without coil whine first. Mine isn't really noticeable till it's under load e.g. while I run Geekbench 5 cpu benchmark.
EDIT: Also how old are you? We get natural hearing loss as we age. How well can you hear a 15Khz sine wave?
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I dunno. That man bought a Vega 56. He actually went to a website or to a Micro Center/Fry's Electronics and willfully purchased a Vega 56 video card for usage in his computer. And that is a clear indicator that he is not of sound mind and should not be taken at his word. Even more damnable is that numerous users on that forum are alluding to being audiophiles, which means, "crazy person who puts magic rocks on their magic audio cables to improve audio quality of their 5,000 USD headphones" to any laymen reading this.. I dunno! Your post seems to corroborate my thesis on Mac Derangement Syndrome, and suggests comorbidity among the audiophile community.
His speakers are less than $200 a monitor. They're budget monitors with good, flat frequency response, pretty popular which is why I bought them too. Do you have anything else to add besides ad hominem attacks? I'm sorry but apple doesn't have perfect qc control.
EDIT: Would a recording of my computer during geek bench 5 convince you?
Late to the party but spot on for me as well. Disabling Turbo Boost drastically reduces coil whine. There still is a very subtle noise sometimes, but it doesn't bother me at all.
Or you just don't have it
I've owned macs that were dead silent and others that had it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My third unit is definitely more silent than the two previous ones, but not completely silent... The power brick is also a big source of noise, but I’m really only talking about the noise emitted by the laptop here.
You’re tempting me to replace it once more!
I feel like I got pretty lucky with this one. The first copy had a bum arrow key, and the Gods rewarded me with this gem. 2.3 that returns 7150 in Geekbench. Runs super cool - have yet to hear a fan spin up. No coil whine. Insane battery life - last night when using approx 10 tabs in Chrome, VS Code, running a Vue/Python project locally, as well as running Outlook AND a Parallels Windows 10 VM, I signed off after nearly 6 hours of constant use with over 60% of battery life remaining. I'm extremely happy with this machine, even if the screen response times are a bit pokey.
I believe that you will notice the sound during the second half duration of geekbench 5 cpu test. I will make definition but i am not sure you will try or not. There is a noise in the video at 4:10 / 4:30 period. First listen that. After this open geekbench 5 cpu test ( not gpu ) and wait... when bar loads half of the test (also the duration) you will start to hear the noise a little bit like click and a little bit water drop on hot surface. The mixture of these 2... just turn your ear to keyboard.
ıf you record it by phone With putting the microphone 2-3 cm over the laptop and share with us, everyone can notice it.
happy new year
As I have said, I have to literally put my ear up to my keyboard during the Geekbench 5 test to hear anything - and even then, it's only the faintest of sounds similar to water from a faucet or white noise.
Edit -- just tried again. Ran the entire benchmark with my ear against the keyboard. At about the 1:30 mark, I begin to hear extremely faint mechanical sounds or, as you'd describe, water hitting a hot surface. But they're entirely inaudible the second I remove my ear from contact with the keyboard. Maybe I no longer hear sounds from the frequency range that coil whine is emitted. Who knows. But for me, I hear absolutely nothing in actual use, no matter how intensive the task.
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Yeah, I wanna revise now that I ran this test. I CAN hear the coil whine when running Geekbench and only when I am running Geekbench and its very faint. Unlike the previous two 2.3ghz variants that I can hear during Geekbench AND almost any daily usage (it was very loud).
I would say that the 2.4ghz version is so far worlds better then the 2.3ghz versions that I played around with.
With that said, I did include an attachment of my recording. It's 1cm away from the MacBook Pro text on the bottom of the screen. I think you can hear the whine clearly in the recording. I dunno if I would consider this a fair representation of the noise considering how close I am. But if its helpful, so be it.
Or you just don't have it
I've owned macs that were dead silent and others that had it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Agreed - Ive had my ear right next to the keyboard and cant hear a thing.....
That’s probably a ground loop
Either way mine has no ‘coil whine’ or ghosting little UFOs (I refuse to check) or inconsistent keyboard click sounds or popping YouTube audio either. Lol the stuff people find to complain about... I thought I was bad for returning two MacBook pros with lids that didn’t seat evenly years ago.
It might not have coil whine, it almost certainly is ghosting because the response time is very slow. It’s only noticeable in dark mode. Have you checked this site in dark mode?
Barley notice any SSD whine (the high pitched one) however the GPU whine is a different story. Photoshop file with 200 layers 7000x7000 pixels. Everytime I move a layer in the canvas it sounds like gears inside the machine are moving the layer. In a silent room or even a one with music playing it's slightly noticeable. The exact sound from that video labelled "GPU whine". I can only really hear it at normal distance if I turn my head to the machine which I wouldn't do when using the latop anyway. No noticable whines any other time, just in really large photoshop files. The faster I move a layer the faster the clicking sound gets. It literally sounds like i moving the layer like winding a watch. But with that said its by no means on the level of my pc or razer laptop coil whine
Update: Received replacement at the Apple Store yesterday (last day for holiday returns), and immediately listened to the machine as soon as soon as the lid was opened and started booting. Sadly there's coil whine on this one too. coconutBattery says the unit was manufactured 10/17/2019 and had hoped to get a more recently manufactured system. Will be opening another case with Apple so they're aware of the situation, but will keep using it as it's my primary computer. At this point, I'm not sure if it's worth attempting another replacement within the 14-day return policy because getting another one will likely have coil whine as well.
This is the first disappointing out-of-the-box experience I've had with Apple in over 20 years.
This is the first disappointing out-of-the-box experience I've had with Apple in over 20 years.
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How bad is it really? Are you having to put your ear closer to the computer to hear it? If so who cares?
I ask because I’m on my third (two returned for other reasons - one cosmetic blemish and one a ram upgrade) and none of the three have had any noticeable coil whine
Also, how old are you? I’m mid thirties and a musician who I guess may have diminished upper high frequency hearing from playing loud guitar and from shows. I feel my hearing is pretty good but it’s a possibility. Maybe younger people or people who haven’t been exposed to as many loud noises are more sensitive.
I ask because I’m on my third (two returned for other reasons - one cosmetic blemish and one a ram upgrade) and none of the three have had any noticeable coil whine
Also, how old are you? I’m mid thirties and a musician who I guess may have diminished upper high frequency hearing from playing loud guitar and from shows. I feel my hearing is pretty good but it’s a possibility. Maybe younger people or people who haven’t been exposed to as many loud noises are more sensitive.