Any one notices the cracking/popping sound of new 16 inch MBP?

[dmstasinos]

Thats nice, at least this issue is fixed for the new macs

This is good news indeed for new owners but bad news for everyone who purchased their laptop until recently. If new units don’t introduce popping this means that the problem was resolved on hardware level so it’s not a software issue and thus won’t be resolved on affected units.

The only solution then for us is a repair program which would be quite problematic as every single component is soldered on the logic board.

 

[Maddcow]

I have a 16" MacBook Pro and have just updated to 10.15.5.....and this 44.1kHz speaker issue is still there. I even specifically signed up to this forum in order to keep in touch with other affected users and to find out if/when a solution may become available.

 

[sakagura]

I have a 16" MacBook Pro and have just updated to 10.15.5.....and this 44.1kHz speaker issue is still there. I even specifically signed up to this forum in order to keep in touch with other affected users and to find out if/when a solution may become available.

Jonathan Morrison, iJustine etc said everything is awesome. They never complained about these things. Therefore we real users are just imagining things. Youtubers are more important and wiser than us. They are gods, remember that.

 

[Maddcow]

Jonathan Morrison, iJustine etc said everything is awesome. They never complained about these things. Therefore we real users are just imagining things. Youtubers are more important and wiser than us. They are gods, remember that.

I call BS

 

[aizarged]

Was the issue fixed with 10.15.5?

 

[Maddcow]

Was the issue fixed with 10.15.5?

No

 

[dmstasinos]

I am really surprised that after 10 months this issue is still a mystery. Some fresh reports on FB are indicating that the latest units (purchased after March) are totally fine.

I am now pretty sure that Apple has identified the cause and is purposely keeping us in the dark (cause apparently the issue can’t be resolved in silence with just a software update). I believe that every single user who paid to get one of these units has the right to know what went wrong.

They have a ton of statistics about this and one of the best R&D departments in the industry and here we are, googling and guessing, after almost 10 months.

 

[Maddcow]

I've been working directly with an Apple support tech and supplying diagnostics, videos and audio of the issue. To my knowledge, Apple is still stumped as to whether the issue is hardware or software.

 

[morze]

I am really surprised that after 10 months this issue is still a mystery. Some fresh reports on FB are indicating that the latest units (purchased after March) are totally fine.

I am now pretty sure that Apple has identified the cause and is purposely keeping us in the dark (cause apparently the issue can’t be resolved in silence with just a software update). I believe that every single user who paid to get one of these units has the right to know what went wrong.

They have a ton of statistics about this and one of the best R&D departments in the industry and here we are, googling and guessing, after almost 10 months.

Sounds like the Apple memo sent to repair centers last year claiming it was a software issue and not to repair/ issue refunds was just to reassure owners and potential buyers after the press picked up on it. If they can't fix it with software, they should fix it with hardware if owners choose to do so.

 

[mouthster]

It happens a lot less now, never hear it anymore with normal usage (Spotify, YouTube, etc.). But if I start using a CPU heavy VST in Logic or Ableton it still happens.

 

[fij993881a]

Some fresh reports on FB are indicating that the latest units (purchased after March) are totally fine.

Audio engineer here. Just received a brand new 16" MBP purchased a week ago. Updated to 10.15.5. Can confirm that the crackling is happening. It occurs on both internal speakers and headphones. Adjusting the sample rate makes no difference. High/low CPU load makes no difference.

Can't speak to whether it's any better or worse than previous OS versions or earlier hardware runs because this was my first experience with a 16".

It's possible Apple is sourcing multiple sets of audio hardware and some people actually do have functional machines. But many people are also incapable of critical listening, so who knows.

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but a workaround is to use headphones with Apple's USB-C to 3.5mm adapter instead of the built-in 3.5mm port. The adapter has its own DAC, so it bypasses whatever garbage is happening with the internal audio hardware/software.

That's right... the DAC in an $8 dongle succeeds where the internals of a $3000 machine fail. What a joke.

 

[aizarged]

Audio engineer here. Just received a brand new 16" MBP purchased a week ago. Updated to 10.15.5. Can confirm that the crackling is happening. It occurs on both internal speakers and headphones. Adjusting the sample rate makes no difference. High/low CPU load makes no difference.

Can't speak to whether it's any better or worse than previous OS versions or earlier hardware runs because this was my first experience with a 16".

It's possible Apple is sourcing multiple sets of audio hardware and some people actually do have functional machines. But many people are also incapable of critical listening, so who knows.

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but a workaround is to use headphones with Apple's USB-C to 3.5mm adapter instead of the built-in 3.5mm port. The adapter has its own DAC, so it bypasses whatever garbage is happening with the internal audio hardware/software.

That's right... the DAC in an $8 dongle succeeds where the internals of a $3000 machine fail. What a joke.

So you think that the problem is hardware and not software?

 

[fij993881a]

So you think that the problem is hardware and not software?

Not necessarily. I can't say for sure without diving in and dismantling things, which is hopefully what Apple is doing right now..

Even if it turns out to be a hardware issue, it's possible Apple could solve it with a software workaround.

 

[jgorman]

Even on Mac OS 10.15.5, I found there is an intermittent pop that happens at the start of video and audio tracks.

It happens with both the internal speakers and when using headphones connected via the 3.5mm port. It seems to come from the left audio channel generally. Sometimes the pop is very loud, but sometimes it is muffled.

 

[mac.ross]

It's still happening constantly for me too.

Anything involving scrubbing a track or starting/stopping an audio/video track whether it's on Final Cut or YouTube and it will snap, crackle and pop.

I think it's a shame, I really like the machine other than that but I find it so distracting and irritating while trying to study that I find myself avoiding using it because I know it will just get on my nerves.

 

[Falcon80]

This issue has been around for way too long for Apple to ignore.

 

[robes1]

Was thinking of grabbing a new Macbook for audio production, will probably hold off for a while. For such an expensive item, these sorts of problems are unacceptable.

 

[HarryPot]

For me it is strange.
It only happens when playing Music and using Cities Skylines (a Steam game).

But the popping sound is almost constant when playing.

 

[mac.ross]

This issue has been around for way too long for Apple to ignore.

You'd think so but unfortunately here we still are.

They've already acknowledged that it exists, they just aren't doing anything about it other than telling Apple Stores to refuse service based on the crackling/popping noises because it's allegedly going to be fixed via software yet here we are months later with the same frankly embarrassing issue.

 

[adeelrahman]

You'd think so but unfortunately here we still are.

They've already acknowledged that it exists, they just aren't doing anything about it other than telling Apple Stores to refuse service based on the crackling/popping noises because it's allegedly going to be fixed via software yet here we are months later with the same frankly embarrassing issue.

It’s fixed on the 5600M

 

[dmstasinos]

It’s fixed on the 5600M

Is this a fact?

 

[Tarek S. Abdelhamed]

This is resolved on latest beta for me, I no longer experience any popping
10.15.6

 

[Falcon80]

I have been using the MacBook Pro 16" for 4 weeks and no popping sound thus far. Running 10.15.5.

 

[Tarek S. Abdelhamed]

False alarm, this is back lol.
I think at this point my macbook is malfunctioning

 

[dmstasinos]

False alarm, this is back lol.
I think at this point my macbook is malfunctioning

Lol i was expecting you to come back. Thanks for reporting this.