mdalegre

Q: Macbook Air Microphone Volume Very Low

I've had a few Facetime, Google+ Hangout, and Skype sessions with verious people and a common complaint is that the mic volume on my 2011 Macbook Air 13 is very low despite the gain being turned all the way up.  I found a thread where other people are experiencing this same issue.  I was hoping to get some feedback from others to see how common this issue is.  It would be interesting to see if it is in fact an issue with all Macbook Air's and could possibly be a driver or design issue.

 

Other Thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1204830

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 4, 2011 6:39 PM

Close

Q: Macbook Air Microphone Volume Very Low

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 3
  • by rzeus,

    rzeus rzeus Dec 29, 2014 4:52 PM in response to Igor Tiago
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 29, 2014 4:52 PM in response to Igor Tiago

    Thanks!!

     

    This solution worked great for me!

  • by CompaqMac,

    CompaqMac CompaqMac Apr 9, 2015 8:39 AM in response to GBJerry
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 8:39 AM in response to GBJerry

    You just ended six months of frustration.  

    Many thanks.

  • by KateMrg,

    KateMrg KateMrg Oct 21, 2015 10:40 AM in response to GBJerry
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 10:40 AM in response to GBJerry

    Thank you very much for the idea! Worked like a charm.

  • by M N B,

    M N B M N B Dec 1, 2015 1:18 PM in response to GBJerry
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Dec 1, 2015 1:18 PM in response to GBJerry

    I did this and it helped somewhat, but the audio is still too low to be useful.  Speaking very loudly, the level never goes above halfway.  Using Garage Band to record audio, it's muffled and very low in volume.

     

    Since I'm not sure I've ever used the internal mic in the 5 years I've had this MBA, it's quite likely it's always been like this.

     

    It seems, from the response in system prefs, to tapping on the keyboard area that the mic works great.  You can peg the meter easily.  But the pickup port is to the side (wrong facing) and even putting my mouth 2" from the pickup holes results in poor sound quality and weak level (although improved).

     

    I think the mic placement inside the MBA is fundamentally flawed.  I doubt the mic is even facing towards the pickup holes.  Engineering fail.

  • by Daaaaaaaan,

    Daaaaaaaan Daaaaaaaan Jun 11, 2016 6:58 PM in response to mdalegre
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 11, 2016 6:58 PM in response to mdalegre

    Hi all,

     

    The Macbook Air microphone port can get clogged.

     

    If you do a Skype test call, and you can hear music playing from your MBA clearly, and you can hear tapping on the laptop clearly, it's probably clogged. That's because the speaker is on the unclogged side (inside your laptop).

     

    You can clean it with an old toothbrush.

     

    Watch my tutorial here:

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aWpC8N8W08

  • by ericcartman,

    ericcartman ericcartman Sep 21, 2016 10:15 AM in response to Daaaaaaaan
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Quicktime
    Sep 21, 2016 10:15 AM in response to Daaaaaaaan

    @Daniel Son dude this is too awesome to be true. I had given up the internal mic for dead and it didn't much bother me until I heard that Sierra comes with Siri, so I thought I'd have one last try and then resign myself to using headphones. Because ifixit says replaces the mic on a Macbook Air 2010 is neither easy nor cheap. I had blown canned air into the holes and that hadn't worked so I thought it was surely a hardware fault. And of course apple hardware test on my machine doesn't work if you don't have the original usb drive with the OS X, and who the **** can ever find a USB they haven't seen in years? The one thing that perplexed me though was that when I TAPPED the keyboard the bars on the mic in system preferences would move ! I thought it if it was broken, why would it detect those sounds? Anyway, I tried the toothbrush never thinking it would work and OMG. Wish I could buy you a beer bro !!!! It's siri time

first Previous Page 3 of 3