Why use an old iPhone? It's easy just to connect my current one with the Belkin MagSafe mount.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Studio Display - Owners Thread
- Thread starter KPOM
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Why use an old iPhone? It's easy just to connect my current one with the Belkin MagSafe mount.
I'll also throw in the nano-texture as a rational reason to buy one. It's an edge case, I literally couldn't work at my desk until noon before this thing.
… but speaking of those USB ports on the back of the Studio Display, I wasn't actually aware that they were slow. I moved my backup drives from the display to the Thunderbolt KVM, 4x faster. Dang.
… but speaking of those USB ports on the back of the Studio Display, I wasn't actually aware that they were slow. I moved my backup drives from the display to the Thunderbolt KVM, 4x faster. Dang.
For me, it’s because I like to have something always-connected/dedicated, especially at my desk, and this way I can use my phone while on Zoom calls or another use of the web camera (which is an absolutely common use case for me). I kept my iPhone 12 Pro Max around because it’s good as basically an always-on webcam. (Nevermind the DSLR I also have, this one I can use without having to mess with my tripod setup; as with the decision to buy an ASD, choosing to keep a phone around as a webcam for your overpriced monitor, this isn’t about rationality.)
ha ha! Good point. At least the speakers sound great though. Imagine having to use another solution for that also. What a train wreck that would be.
I have an ASD as my main monitor on my 2019 Mac Pro with a 27" NEC monitor on either side of my ASD. I am considering replacing my two NEC's with two more ASDs.
My question its "How do you control brightness on a 3 ASD set-up?" Does the keyboard brightness control all three displays at the same level or just the primary monitor? If just the primary monitor, how do you adjust brightness on the other two?
I also assume you can only designate sound to only one monitor?
The keyboard controls follow the currently active monitor, so you can fairly easily sync them up.
Infuriatingly, TrueTone only works on the primary monitor, and auto-brightness either only works on the primary monitor or is set independently per monitor (at least the last time I checked) which means that the only way to retain your sanity is to turn TrueTone and auto-brightness off and control all aspects manually.
Incorrect, although it is not as straightforward to set up as you would expect it to be. ("It just works" is not applicable in this case.)
Play audio through multiple devices at once in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac
In Audio MIDI Setup on your Mac, you can use more than one device to play audio at the same time.
support.apple.com
Last edited:
The A13 in the ASD is really underappreciated. I replaced an expensive LG gaming monitor with an ASD on my Windows PC and I am still astonished at how the display wakeup time went from 5 seconds to instant. All this time, I thought it was a Mac thing.
GitHub - waydabber/BetterDisplay: Unlock your displays on your Mac! Flexible HiDPI scaling, XDR/HDR extra brightness, virtual screens, DDC control, extra dimming, PIP/streaming, EDID override and lots more!
Unlock your displays on your Mac! Flexible HiDPI scaling, XDR/HDR extra brightness, virtual screens, DDC control, extra dimming, PIP/streaming, EDID override and lots more! - waydabber/BetterDisplay
github.com
(Not an endorsement, have never used it.)
I use a small app called Monitor Control. It'll control the brightness of all three of my ASDs simultaneously from the keyboard brightness controls. And it'll even maintain a manually-set brightness offset (I like my center display a little brighter than the ones on the sides). Works great.
Just received/installed my second ASD and Monitor Control looks like it will do all that I need (except allow sound to be played from both monitors together).
I am in Ventura and do not see Audio MIDI Setup in my apps to control sound (as explained in Post #406)?
Try /System/Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup.app (Or search for "midi setup" in Spotlight.)
Thanks. Found it, but not able to get it set-up to control both sets of speakers? I checked some YouTube videos, but did not find anything for exactly what I am trying to do?
Also started having issues with Monitor Control not maintaining the brightness on the new (secondary) ASD I swapped in yesterday. If I set the brightness to 62% on both ASDs, sometimes after a minute or so, the second ASD drops to 22%? Sometimes it holds the settings until sleep. Other times it survives a restart, then drops? I have the two ASDs set to adjust their brightness together from the keyboard (which works perfectly). Unfortunately, once the second monitors drops to 22% they no longer match (although changing brightness from the keyboard affects both monitors still). Any ideas?
Note: I never turn on TrueTone or Auto-brightness.
CORRECTION 4/18:
The problem I reported in the second paragraph above turned out to be 100% my failure (not a problem with Monitor Control). I thought setting the Auto-Brightness in the Display Prefs applied to all attached monitors... wrong. It is monitor-specific. Display Prefs is not real clear as to which monitor is selected at top and the two ASD settings are very similar. Turns out that Auto-Brightness WAS turned on for the second ASD (which caused my issue). Monitor Control now working perfectly to control brightness on both monitors.
As punishment, I am out over $150 in additional TB cables trying to solve a software problem I was responsible for.
Last edited:
I know this display is super expensive but I can’t imagine using anything else!
Click the plus at the bottom left, and choose "Create Multi-Output Device". In the resulting panel, check both displays and check drift correction. Then highlight each display in turn and click "Configure Speakers" to set both left and right speakers of the left display to the left channel, and both left and right speakers of the right speaker to the right channel.
It's not really expensive. Now you can build a $3600 27" iMac Pro with a superior display (the newer panel in the ASD does 600 nits) while the Intel based 27" iMac Pro had a starting price of $5000.
And this is despite inflation being super high.
Last edited:
With my M2 Pro Mac mini mounted out of the way behind my desk, it is about as close to a 27" iMac with Apple silicon you can get. I have had my setup for just over a year and so far I am extremely happy with both the Apple Studio Display and the Mac mini. Would be nice to have an SD card reader built into the either the Mac mini or ASD, but not a big deal.
I finally gave up on trying to combine the speakers on the two ASDs via Audio MIDI Setup. I was able to get them to combine finally, but could not control volume - sounded great when it worked and unchecking "drift" even made it sound better - but I can live with sound on just one monitor if I have to.
Last edited:
You must not have used an oled before. I can't watch any movies or shows on my ASD, the black levels are so bad.
OBSERVATION: Since installing my new second ASD side-by-side next to my first ASD (which I purchased in December of 2022) - I notice that if I set both screens to black, the older ASD has a slight amount of light-leak around the perimeter, but the new one shows virtually none. Is that a QC issue or have they improved the design in 2023-24?
The ASD is my biggest disappointment so far – I love everything about the design and built quality, but can't find a uniform enough screen (which is, well, the most important part of a monitor).
I went through 5 displays in a month and all are bad. Some had a pinkish tint on the sides that was too visible to be ignored. Others had a pretty bad dirty screen effect. All are worse than my 5k iMac from 2019.
Considering the price, I can't understand how Apple can ship monitors with such poor-quality panels. I even talked to Apple on the phone, and they just suggested I try ordering again and hopefully get a better panel.
I went through 5 displays in a month and all are bad. Some had a pinkish tint on the sides that was too visible to be ignored. Others had a pretty bad dirty screen effect. All are worse than my 5k iMac from 2019.
Considering the price, I can't understand how Apple can ship monitors with such poor-quality panels. I even talked to Apple on the phone, and they just suggested I try ordering again and hopefully get a better panel.
