Some 2018 MacBook Pro Owners Experiencing Crackling Speakers

[kemal]

After reading a bit, it appears the solution is to wait for the laptop to kernel panic and restart.

 

[forerunnerg34]

Please remind me why do we pay extra money for Apple products ?

 

[AmazingRobie]

Timothy Crook and Jony Conn-Ive-ing at work making sure Apple makes its quarterly profits. Your laptop's too old, buy a newer one.
[doublepost=1533822614][/doublepost]

Please remind me why do we pay extra money for Apple products ?

So smart people know to avoid you and dishonest people know where to find you.

By hook or by Timothy Crook, Apple's gonna getcha...

 

[AZMecha]

Sounds like it's another Gate : Cracklegate

You're listening to the speakers WRONG!!!!

 

[brdeveloper]

My early-2013 15" rMBP had its top case recently replaced. I've noted (perhaps just impression?) that the new speakers lacks some bass response that the older ones had.

 

[SoN1NjA]

I think this probably pales in comparison to the number of people that died due to GM's bad ignition design or nearly all cars using defective air bag that caused severe injuries or death. The price of these are $30,000 to $90,000.
[doublepost=1533794035][/doublepost]If all these Apple laptops are so bad why do I see half of all laptops in major airports MacBooks or MacBook Pros? Its like a sea of Apple products everywhere you look.

Because people are stupid and will buy garbage regardless (comment not specific to MacBook Pro)

The MBP is a nice laptop, one of the finest, but I can’t recommend a product that has a new issue every month

Also, I bet most of those are the 2015 or below models

 

[CharlieBoyWoof]

Following the release of 2018 MacBook Pro models last month, some customers have turned to the MacRumors Forums, Apple Support Communities, Reddit, and YouTube to report intermittent crackling from the built-in speakers.

The crackling appears to occur spontaneously during audio playback on both 13-inch and 15-inch models, based on a handful of videos shared by customers. As with many crowdsourced issues, there are a lot of variables involved, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly what may be causing the problem.

Some customers appear to experience the issue while playing music in iTunes, while others are affected when using GarageBand, or playing a YouTube video. Some users also hear the crackling when running Windows via Boot Camp. It's unclear if the crackling is limited to specific volumes or frequencies.

MacRumors forum members have speculated about possible causes, including radio interference due to a lack of shielding, audio drivers, and the T2 chip.

A few years ago, some customers experienced similar crackling from the built-in speakers on the 2016 MacBook Pro, oftentimes when running Windows via Boot Camp. The crackling was so loud that it often permanently damaged the speakers, resulting in the MacBook Pro needing to be repaired or replaced.

Within days, Apple acknowledged the issues in a support document, and released updated audio drivers for Boot Camp with a fix:The speaker issues with the 2018 MacBook Pro don't appear to be as dire, or nearly as widespread, but enough complaints have surfaced that we wanted to bring some attention to the matter in the interest of those affected.

At least one user claims the issue may have been fixed in the latest macOS Mojave betas, which is unconfirmed. Another user claimed that Apple engineers are looking into the matter. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Of course, in a production run of millions of new MacBook Pro units, a small percentage may have defective speakers, but this does appear to be an actual issue that hopefully can be or has been addressed in a future software update.

If you are affected by this issue, we recommend contacting Apple Support. In the meantime, some users have shared potential workarounds, such as resetting the System Management Controller and NVRAM, disabling Hey Siri, or simply rebooting, but these solutions may not be ideal or work for everyone.

Article Link: Some 2018 MacBook Pro Owners Experiencing Crackling Speakers

Fist throttle book, now crackle book lol

 

[justperry]

Apparently there is. My Acer laptop just runs and runs. No problem.

You didn't get the point, it's not about a single computer, it's about all the product a manufacturer built, so if a company sells 100.000 items, some of them fail.

 

[patent10021]

What's crackalackin'? Oh nothin' much, just my speakers in my $8K MBP.

Crack whore MBP.

Crackgate.

Mac crackle pop.

 

[Falhófnir]

In and of itself this doesn’t seem like a big or widespread issue, but it’s yet another problem adding in to a wider perception these MBPs are a step down in quality from what’s gone before. I’d love to know if it’s true Apple deliberately cut back on quality this cycle to push up profit margins... I’ve heard it a couple of times on these forums but unfortunately I don’t think anyone who truly knows is likely to ever say anything about it.

 

[G5isAlive]

It is a trillion dollar company! This is unacceptable. You could buy nearly seven international space stations ($150b each) for that, or seven entire Apollo mission, totalling in ~42 landings.

Why does Apple still make garbage hardware? They keep using capacitors which are not up to the task year after year despite knowing they fail, their flex damage is still a real problem in their smartphones with circuits popping off the motherboard. They still can't get a graphics card that doesn't die just after warranty. The list goes on.

Instead, we get excuses from the community instead of anger. Your iPhone 4 signal dies? "You are holding it wrong". Your MacBook PRO graphics card dies and throttles when you export video? "You idiot you should use a desktop for that". Your iPhone bends? "You are carrying it wrong". Your keyboard stops working? "You are typing wrong".

Now we have throttling AND crackling speakers on the new computer. None of these was picked up in QA? What else is wrong with them? it's not that they are losing their build quality but the components are now mid-range or less. That's even WORSE! All the while they are getting more expensive. The deltas on Apple products are getting worse for the consumer each and every year. But because it's happened over a decade we (some of us) haven't noticed.

Its time the community demands better, rather than make excuses for them. The people demanding better quality are also Apple fans, not your enemy. Apple has become garbage, its time for the community to stop making excuses for Apple and hold them to account. That way we ALL get better products.

Stop complaining about your mouth and agreeing with your wallet. Stop buying garbage.

I absolutely vote with my wallet. I hope you are doing so as well. But thats the thing about a democracy. We get to make up our own minds when we vote.

As long as my good luck continues, and it has over dozens of apple products, including the 15" 2018 MBP, then I will likely keep voting yes.
[doublepost=1533827419][/doublepost]

My early-2013 15" rMBP had its top case recently replaced. I've noted (perhaps just impression?) that the new speakers lacks some bass response that the older ones had.

If I understand correctly, you are comparing new 2018 speakers in a 2013 model to what you recall of 5 year old speakers (2018) in a 2013 housing.

Speakers take time to wear in, especially the base frequencies, it may be the sound better to you in a few months or year.

 

[Markoth]

If you cannot create a perfection, then do not price it like it is.


And, that argument is not 100% valid, because macOS have became severely restrictive and limited OS in the past several years. In such limited and closed OS, you would expect to have a greater control over anything that can go wrong.

If you think maintaining the macOS is hard(which is), then what shall we say about the Windows?

That may sound good in your head, but to a developer, that's total nonsense. There is no way to make a bug-free operating system. Even slow-moving operating systems like RHEL or CentOS, have bugs. No fast-moving operating system could ever bug-free, in reality. Why? Because humans write the code. Humans are imperfect, and operating systems are incredibly complex, obviously far more complex than you're aware. It's almost impossible for a human to manage that complexity without something going wrong.

 

[ksec]

Just WTF has happen to Apple's QA.......

 

[Bacillus]

Just WTF has happen to Apple's QA.......

You are all holding this wrong.
I know Apple, and this can’t be their error - as they have been engineering MacBooks since long before most of you were born. Their quality is proverbial.
They do everything on purpose.
So maybe Eddy is trying out a new form of caraoke - as a free gift to Mac users.
Congrats - your AppleMusic trial has begun !!

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

Sure the throttling is a problem, the sound crackles and that rubber mesh under the keyboard is a quick fix if ever I saw one. But look at what you are getting. Take the 13" MBP. You could spec that out to $3699 USD, and it will still come with an intel integrated graphics card. That ranks in the lowest 10th percentile of all GPUs! You know it will be the lowest 10%, because I can't think of a single graphics card Apple has ever run at near peak clock speed. I am so sick of this.

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compar...is-Plus-650-Mobile-Kaby-Lake/m395529vsm367939


That's if you get a computer release this year at all.

 

[princ2]

Still waiting for Apple reaction... god, they are awfully slow when it comes to those. I bet there are rooms full of people at Apple (mostly PR guys) debating how to react and how to cover that they simply didn't do any testing prior to releasing those MBPs.

 

[curtvaughan]

I think this probably pales in comparison to the number of people that died due to GM's bad ignition design or nearly all cars using defective air bag that caused severe injuries or death. The price of these are $30,000 to $90,000.
[doublepost=1533794035][/doublepost]If all these Apple laptops are so bad why do I see half of all laptops in major airports MacBooks or MacBook Pros? Its like a sea of Apple products everywhere you look.

I still see a lot of Apple laptops, but the overwhelming majority of them still have the glowing Apple logo and several different ports. I'm seeing far more new Dell XPS 13/15's and HP laptops than the latest couple of Apple models. Lack of ports and QC issues are having an affect on customers' decisions when purchasing new laptops. This is very much the case with college students and faculty of late (I live in a college town and frequent the campus, where I worked for 35 years prior to retiring). With the advent of the internet, dispersal of problems (and good things) with any brand become common knowledge fairly quickly. If the problems persist with a product for multiple years, the brand reputation will begin to suffer, which will drive customers to look for other alternatives, and which will eventually affect resale value. Many PCs over the last several years have become much higher in quality than they were in the past, and are slowly losing their traditional reputation for mediocrity compared to the Apple Mac line. Many longtime Mac customers are looking elsewhere, and new customers are starting to do the same. Apple phones and tablets still retain their reputations as being of highest quality, at least for people who don't prefer wired headphones.

 

[lec0rsaire]

Last few years there's a huge markup on MBP's, in most countries in Europe they are €500-600 more than about 4 years ago, so yes, they got a substantial price increase.

And it doesn't stop there, for instance, iPhone got a substantial price increase as well amongst other products.

Sorry, I always forget about the rest of the world. It is all to easy to do for Americans. Nearly every aspect of our lives in domestic centric. Prices in Europe and Australia are really outrageous. A lot of premium American goods cost a fortune abroad.

Another anecdote: My Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amp. $1799 over here and €3000 in Germany. Many people import them and either use step down transformers or swap the amp’s transformer which is expensive itself.

 

[acangiano]

I published one of the videos listed in this post, and I can add a couple more details:

1. All the workarounds are temporary. The problem comes back after a few hours of listening.
2. I think it's related to the T2 coprocessor, as there is a clear correlation between using the touch bar and the problem presenting itself shortly thereafter.
3. If you just let it play, the kernel will eventually panic and crash your laptop. I tried to record a screencast after the crackling started and the laptop crashed in less than a minute.

I still love the laptop a lot and I won't be returning. However, I hope Apple fixes the issue soon as it is quite annoying.

 

[justperry]

Sorry, I always forget about the rest of the world. It is all to easy to do for Americans. Nearly every aspect of our lives in domestic centric. Prices in Europe and Australia are really outrageous. A lot of premium American goods cost a fortune abroad.

Another anecdote: My Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amp. $1799 over here and €3000 in Germany. Many people import them and either use step down transformers or swap the amp’s transformer which is expensive itself.

No worries.
Apple stuff got more expensive in the States as well, 15" MBP's started at just under $2000, they start at $2800 now just because they think the OLED TouchBar is worth it, OLED is expensive but not that expensive.

 

[avkills]

Speakers take time to wear in, especially the base frequencies, it may be the sound better to you in a few months or year.

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've heard from these forums in a long time. Hate to break it to you, but quality audio speakers sound kick ass straight out of the box.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've heard from these forums in a long time. Hate to break it to you, but quality audio speakers sound kick ass straight out of the box.

Dream on. Even high end speakers need a break in of a couple of weeks/ months. They sound good in the beginning but even better after break-in.

 

[lazard]

Please remind me why do we pay extra money for Apple products ?

So that they can amass over $250B in cash reserves and achieve a $1T market cap.

 

[avkills]

Dream on. Even high end speakers need a break in of a couple of weeks/ months. They sound good in the beginning but even better after break-in.

My quick 5 minutes of research says it is negligible and unless you are an audio engineer; the chances that you will be able to tell are probably zero.

But then again, we probably ought to visit exactly what "high-end" means for both of us.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

My quick 5 minutes of research says it is negligible and unless you are an audio engineer; the chances that you will be able to tell are probably zero.

But then again, we probably ought to visit exactly what "high-end" means for both of us.

I am not going to start that discussion here. There are plenty of audio forums discussing this subject. Here it is completely off topic.
Suffice to say that every descent speaker manufacturer recommends breaking in the speakers. It takes more than 5 minutes research to cover this subject.