Headphone noise,oscillation.beeping, and other distracting garbage

Welcome to Apple Discussions, davidhermiston!

So when can we expect a fix?

This is a user-to-user discussion board. And even if a user knew the answer to your question, they would almost certainly have signed a non-disclosure agreement and couldn't post what they knew. I know this is frustrating for you, but you might do better at a different, non-Apple owned site. Maybe here:

http://macfixit.com/

I don't see why it would really matter. If you were a pro audio user you would have your external soundcard anyway to bypass the onboard version.

It matters. Apple headphone/line out quality matters. Just one of the things that made the Mac what it is today.

Your also telling me also that nobody from apple browses these forums?

I'm sure they browse. Every once in a while they even post, but I have never seen them comment on ongoing problems. I understand your frustration, and I hope someone from Apple does get in touch with you. However, I'm trying to let you know, as someone who has been here for a while, that I'll be surprised if it happens.

Thank you for the "Thank you." 🙂

Hi

When I plug in my headphones I keep some white noise interference. If I play a song it disappears because the music is too loud but I hear some high pitched clicking sometimes. I am a musician and it would be nice to get rid of these bugs.

Thank you

I too use my Macbook Pro for this same purpose and have the same issue.

Whats your email address ? I can send you some info that may help you.

Message was edited by: appleairman

I got the same issue, even with the ipod touch(just a giss noise), I think Apple get a cheaper audio system since use intel, even G5 has some audio issues but not as annoying the Intel based ones have, I remember the PowerMac G4, G3 and 7xxx,8xxx,and 9xxx series never has these kind of problems. I have a Bose Around-Ear Headphones and are very High Quality sound with other outputs, but in the MacBook Pro I got a lot of noise, it's annoying, I hope Apple can fix that soon.

I purchased a brand new Penryn 2.5ghz Macbook Pro to replace a Powerbook 12" and have been saving for a long, long time for this. I work with Ableton Live and have a recording studio to use professionally for post-production in audio and video. Today while listening to my headphones I was hearing all sorts of glitches and it sounded like as soon as audio would trigger, that a hissing would start, the sound would play, and after a few seconds, it would fade to silence again. I could not believe the bleeping artifacts and started browsing around online and lo and behold I discover an entire world of audio issues from the headphone jack of the Macbook Pros! Why did I not hear this before? The Macbook Pro is the highest end audio machine out there, what is going on, what is the fix to this solution? My computer is less than a month old, I will be calling Applecare immediately, however I will also be monitoring this thread for any replies, bugfixes or software workarounds. This has been an absolutely stellar month for me for electronic issues, this one follows the notorious 'wake-from-sleep' issue.

I have a brand new Penryn MBP 17" (April 2008) and exactly the same issues. To be precise: I am using Sennheiser PX 200 headphones on the headphone out. If I do not use audio for a while, the audio circuitry seems to shut off and there is no sound whatsoever on the headphones (as should be the case). When the audio circuits seem to power on, due to a system beep for instance, I have a constant white background noise. Additionally, I am getting mid-range pitched 'bleeps' and 'beeps' after any audio out, like a system sound for example, in the background. Occasionally, I am getting constant high pitched sounds that last for several seconds. The most obnoxious, however, is that while playing sounds, in particular music, I get an oscillating, 'swirling' kind of interference with the music, which makes listening to any sort of music a pain.

(Just for reference, plugging in the same pair of headphones into my iPod and playing exactly the same music synchronized by iTunes has none of these issues whatsoever).

I mirror the problems expressed here. A brand new laptop with serious audio issues. Does anybody know what is going on?

It's pathetic, and I am so angry at Apple about the numerous glitches in the latest (Penryn/2008) MacBook Pros. I am also getting audio on/off pops, constant hiss when the audio is on, and unbelievably clear R2D2-style random beeps at the end of sounds.

I've always liked the fact that Apple hardware has had good sound output that is clear of the sorts of sound corruption you commonly hear on cheaply made PCs. Now, I can't actually bear to listen to music or videos with headphones through my MacBook Pro, because the sound quality is so bad. And I am in no way an audiophile, or audio professional, or anything like that -- I'm just a regular guy who uses an iPod and MacBook Pro to watch videos and listen to music. It's THAT BAD.

My advice: if anyone is considering buying a MacBook Pro, definitely DO NOT BUY ONE until Apple fixes this audio problem, as well as the terrible graphics corruption problem they have as well. For the graphics corruption problem, see http://acpmag.com/appleslatest_notebooks_plagued_with_graphicsglitches.htm

I don't think it's just a laptop issue, i have a 1st gen Mac Pro that when there isn't any audio present i get a high pitched squeal that jumps around between left and right, but as soon as you play anything it goes away. including a blank audio/video project.