Some 2018 MacBook Pro Owners Experiencing Crackling Speakers

[AnneMichaelCologne]

Hi from Germany. Same here with my four days old MB Pro. I just had a call with the Apple support. My impression is that they know the issue very well, because I explained my problem and was immediately strongly recommended to go to the Apple Store and replace the macbook, because it supposed to be a hardware problem. However, after I have been reading all the posts here I am skeptical if this will help (I have more than a week left to decide whether to replace the mac or wait for Mojave).

My experience: When listening to music just on iTunes (on 48.000 Hz) everything is ok, for many hours. But when I start Logic Pro, the audio format switches to 44.100 automatically (and cannot be changed back to 48.000) and the problem starts after an hour or so. I could not find any possibility to change that in the Logic settings. Maybe the same with Garage Band, Blender oder any other apps? Seems like there is something, whatever, not adjusted correctly.

 

[Abumuslim]

Hi from Germany. Same here with my four days old MB Pro. I just had a call with the Apple support. My impression is that they know the issue very well, because I explained my problem and was immediately strongly recommended to go to the Apple Store and replace the macbook, because it supposed to be a hardware problem. However, after I have been reading all the posts here I am skeptical if this will help (I have more than a week left to decide whether to replace the mac or wait for Mojave).

My experience: When listening to music just on iTunes (on 48.000 Hz) everything is ok, for many hours. But when I start Logic Pro, the audio format switches to 44.100 automatically (and cannot be changed back to 48.000) and the problem starts after an hour or so. I could not find any possibility to change that in the Logic settings. Maybe the same with Garage Band, Blender oder any other apps? Seems like there is something, whatever, not adjusted correctly.

your issue same as mine, mojave fixed it totally (i installed it yesterday), it will switch to 44,100 but without crackling>
I did stress test for 5 hours continues playing with no issue.

 

[Maceo]

This just happened to my mac, the crackling got so loud that it damaged my speakers and now i cant play music withouth distortion.... It was ultra loud and i was suprised that volume could come out of a mac, sounded like sawing with a chainsaw on metal. Imagine this happening for a DJ on stage. It would blow the entire system and damage ears. Shame on apple for not testing this. Cant believe i spent 4k euro on a computer i have to get replaced in after 2 weeks...

 

[tgressly]

Changing the audio output to any other speaker, be it AirPlay, bluetooth, USB-attached etc. and back to the internal speakers “fixes” the problem for some time. No reboot is needed. Still annoying, I know.

 

[pr_namal]

I owned MacBook pro 13 inch retina Early 2015. Recently I upgraded to High Sierra 2 weeks ago. Last week I faced such issue. It occurs when start up the mac. And sometimes while working as well as not playing any music. It sounds like sparking inside. I haven't AppleCare either.

 

[AnneMichaelCologne]

I have installed the supplement update yesterday on my MB Pro. I tested playing music on iTunes and Logic Pro (at 44.100 Hz) für 8 hours so far. No Crackling.

 

[tgressly]

I have installed the supplement update yesterday on my MB Pro. I tested playing music on iTunes and Logic Pro (at 44.100 Hz) für 8 hours so far. No Crackling.

Great news. Mine is playing for 2 hours, also no crackling. Seems to be solved. Someone reported that after this update he is observing screen flickering when playing videos in iTunes. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[mario.jr]

Well...
I was just watching an interview on youtube, no boot camp.. plain High Sierra, and there was an awful sound, like the computer was struck by a lighting and my speakers now sound like an AM radio, Crackling like hell, no treble whatsoever, this is insane!!!
How can a 2 month computer, just blew its own speakers out of nowhere. This is a ridiculous nonsense..

Macbook Pro mid 2018

 

[Peperino]

Well...
I was just watching an interview on youtube, no boot camp.. plain High Sierra, and there was an awful sound, like the computer was struck by a lighting and my speakers now sound like an AM radio, Crackling like hell, no treble whatsoever, this is insane!!!
How can a 2 month computer, just blew its own speakers out of nowhere. This is a ridiculous nonsense..

Macbook Pro mid 2018

Welcome to the new Apple "Pro" Quality products...

Both the Macbook Pro 2016 and 18 are overpriced disasters waiting to happen.
AKA the soldered donglebooks.
In addition, Apple has a class action lawsuits due to the poor design of the Macbook Pro keyboard.

I was waiting to upgrade my old Macbook Pro, but I will not buy another Macbook until Apple decides to design Macbooks that are better designed (Not soldered to the motherboard, that areupgradable, etc.).

 

[john123]

Welcome to the new Apple "Pro" Quality products...

Both the Macbook Pro 2016 and 18 are overpriced disasters waiting to happen.
AKA the soldered donglebooks.
In addition, Apple has a class action lawsuits due to the poor design of the Macbook Pro keyboard.

I was waiting to upgrade my old Macbook Pro, but I will not buy another Macbook until Apple decides to design Macbooks that are better designed (Not soldered to the motherboard, that areupgradable, etc.).

Then you'll probably never buy another MacBook.

 

[MobyDills]

Anyone else still having this problem?

My MB Pro 2018 (Mojave) speakers will crackle and often the sound will go out completely afterwards or sometimes it just goes way way down, so to hear anything I have to turn the speakers to max volume and it's still pretty low. Restarting fixes the problem, but it seems to be happening more and more often.

 

[afas]

MacBook Pro 2018 i7 15", every time I play any type of sound the crackle starts a split second before and a stops a split second after. Talked to support and they pretend they don't know, not sure what is their policy here speaking to someone who just gave them 5k$ for a computer.
Anyways, the only thing that (temporarily) solves the issue for me is running:

sudo pkill coreaudio
​

Resetting SMC and VRAM did not help at all. This means the problem is software related for sure. Currently running High Sierra with Supplemental Update 2 installed.

 

[Peperino]

MacBook Pro 2018 i7 15", every time I play any type of sound the crackle starts a split second before and a stops a split second after. Talked to support and they pretend they don't know, not sure what is their policy here speaking to someone who just gave them 5k$ for a computer.
Anyways, the only thing that (temporarily) solves the issue for me is running:

sudo pkill coreaudio
​

Resetting SMC and VRAM did not help at all. This means the problem is software related for sure. Currently running High Sierra with Supplemental Update 2 installed.

If under warranty I would return it

 

[soiramk]

If under warranty I would return it

I can't believe this is happening and Apple still remain silent. And it must be in a very wide scale, since the MacBooks that has been replaced, face the same issues all over again.
I want to buy one and I don't know what to do anymore... Three years and three models (2016-2017-2018) and problems keep coming...

 

[afas]

Since it is a software issue (demonstrated by the fact that killing the core audio driver solves the issue), what would be the point in returning it? I will just wait for the update to solve it.

 

[Peperino]

Since it is a software issue (demonstrated by the fact that killing the core audio driver solves the issue), what would be the point in returning it? I will just wait for the update to solve it.

If you want to spend 3k for an overpriced, underperformings Laptop by all means keep it.
Both 2016 and 2018 Macbooks models has been one of the worst products Apple ever put out.

 

[afas]

If you want to spend 3k for an overpriced, underperformings Laptop by all means keep it.
Both 2016 and 2018 Macbooks models has been one of the worst products Apple ever put out.

Thanks for granting me the permission to keep my laptop, I will.

 

[davidec]

If you want to spend 3k for an overpriced, underperformings Laptop by all means keep it.
Both 2016 and 2018 Macbooks models has been one of the worst products Apple ever put out.

I actually think the 2018 is their best laptop ever. Super fast, super light and super gorgeous. It has as many teething issues as any other laptop Apple have ever put out. People forget what it was like to own an original MacBooks. Logic board faults were fatal and not uncommon.

 

[Peperino]

I actually think the 2018 is their best laptop ever. Super fast, super light and super gorgeous. It has as many teething issues as any other laptop Apple have ever put out. People forget what it was like to own an original MacBooks. Logic board faults were fatal and not uncommon.

You might be one of the very few that think that, which speaks how bad Apple standards have become. But again, everybody has different standards.
-When other Laptops are already looking to have 64gbram, Apple is barely catching to 32gb
-Base model specs are a joke. Ships with 256gb HD... really? We are in 2018.
-Problems with speakers
-Problems with keyboard (bad fix to a bad design of 2016, Class Action lawsuit)
-Soldered components makes computer more prone to failure.
-Non upgradable
-No Mag-safe (remove of one of the best features)
-No compatible ports (HDMI, etc)
-Useless touchbar
-Way Overpriced.
-XLarge touchpad gets in the way for typing.
-No option without Touchbar.

 

[davidec]

You might be one of the very few that think that, which speaks how bad Apple standards have become. But again, everybody has different standards.
-When other Laptops are already looking to have 64gbram, Apple is barely catching to 32gb
-Base model specs are a joke. Ships with 256gb HD... really? We are in 2018.
-Problems with speakers
-Problems with keyboard (bad fix to a bad design of 2016, Class Action lawsuit)
-Soldered components makes computer more prone to failure.
-Non upgradable
-No Mag-safe (remove of one of the best features)
-No compatible ports (HDMI, etc)
-Useless touchbar
-Way Overpriced.
-XLarge touchpad gets in the way for typing.
-No option without Touchbar.

I get that and totally agree with all your points, but when I am tied in to the Apple Ecosystem and I need to make heavy composition using grossly HD dependent sample libraries with CPU hogging monster softy synths then this laptop does it all, better than anything that came before it, in a smaller and nicer package. Your points don't come in to play.

 

[saxman211]

Mine is still crackiling... Anyone one else still having this problem? What's the fix?

 

[trimmers91]

I am still experiencing sound crackling/latency on 2018 MBP Intel i9..
OS is Mojave 10.14.2

 

[skitidetdu]

I have a friend that experienced this, took it to a 3rd party service place that didn't find anything wrong. He then went to apple and they found a hardware error causing it (don't remember exactly what) but it will be fixed on warranty.

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

EDIT: My reply intended for the other thread below... Moved my post there.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-2018-speakers-crackling.2128234/page-50

 

[tehStickMan]

Bump.

Issue still happening.