There is a cracking/popping sound when I play music/video using the mbp speakers, and jump to next song/video

It seems that they confirmed that is a software issue: https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/12/06/apple-confirms-16-inch-macbook-pro-popping-sound-is-software-issue

Do you have Apple Music ? Can you try to play the song "The Big Unknown" from "Elder island".

And then tap the Touch Bar where you can scroll through the number.

No issues there ?

I'll return my MBP 16 back to the store. Let's do it all !!!!!!!!

They said it another hardware issue, shame really.

Does the cracking continue when other sounds are played?

Because it is constant on mine -- I had a similar issue on my hi-fi a few years ago when we discovered that a tweeter in the front left speaker had developed a rattle. We ended up having to replace the tweeter.

Give the depth and extent of coverage on the issue of Crackling from the speakers on the bran new 16"MBP - I am surprised that there has been NO OFFICIAL COMMENT from APPLE --- perhaps they are working up to a product recall/hardware fix 2 months in.

Hi,

I don't think it's an hardware issue, because I heard it also happened in the past with other Mac Os X versions (solved in the end by update), i mean it's just a bad software management of audio.

At the end, down to me it's not so loud to be annoy, and to be honest my Mac running smooth at all with Catalina 10.15.3

I have the same issue with my MBP 16” especially when composing in Logic Pro. Any time an audio source goes quiet immediately it pops - on speakers and headphones. And when you switch between audio track or skip through YouTube videos.

apple admitted a problem 2 months ago and I have yet to hear an official response since December.

I have a 15" 2018 MBP bought from the official apple website with better cpu, gpu etc. Price was around 4k euro's and I have been having lots and lots of these crackling noise issues with this mb. I have had it happen about 100 times since I bought it that the speakers started doing it at random intervals, not only when stopping and starting music in iTunes etc. because that also always happens. Sometimes it would just start doing random crackling noises etc every couple of seconds forcing me to reboot because it sounded damaging to the speakers and to my brain. After rebooting sometimes I didn't experience it for a couple of days and sometimes I experienced it again short after reboot so I can never pin point what causes it. I have called time and time again but Apple support always blames it on my software and they tell me to reinstall MacOS, send movies made with a camera, do system checks, don't use time machine backups, don't use developer updates, etc. etc. It has driven me nuts and iv'e lost so many hours with the rebooting reinstalling and hopelessly searching.

Finally Apple support told me to bring it in for repair so I did. The shop replaced the entire top-case, gave it back to me and a day later I was forced to reboot again because of completely random popping and crackling every couple seconds!!..Once it really starts I always need to reboot and then it works for a while (except for the crackling when skipping music etc).

I returned it again a second time for repair because apple doesn't want to replace it for me before it had two repair attempts. Second repair attempt, they can't find the issue for two weeks, blame it on YouTube when I desperately try to let them hear the issue in the shop on a clean install..Now apple support says it still doesn't count as a second repair because they couldn't find the issue the second time. So now I'm back to one year ago and I have to prove it all over again. They say that I have to prove it with video's of it happening again so I have been recording my mbp for about a week now constantly listening to music, hoping I starts doing it at random intervals again so I can prove it is a hardware issue and maybe then I can get a replacement if I beg hard enough. Now I'm hoping for it to happen and now it doesn't happen at random (still hear it when skipping music) so FML..

I really had it with this MBP, Apple, and Apple support.. I just don't want to spend the next couple years with an expensive investment that sticks needles in my ears whenever it feels like it.

Don't think I will ever again buy another MacBook if I don't get a replacement for this machine because I never experienced anything like this on the three other MacBooks that I've used in the past so I know it shouldn't happen.

Apple please start a recall for this hardware issue!!!

You have to check within 14 days of purchase whether or not you have the issue. Should your machine be affected, return it and wait another 6 to 12 months before buying a new one. That is the only proper approach in my opinion. Looking at Apple's track record, chances are they will never fix it. I do not believe this is a pure software issue., at least in part I think there is some hardware problem involved. Otherwise Apple would have fixed it long ago. Apple might try to work around the broken hardware with some software tricks, but obviously it is not easy. The high price you pay does not guarantee quality, it only guarantees high margins for Apple.

that is weird ... I never had the issue in Music and it always goes away in Safari/Yt once set to 48/96kHz.

I would speak with Apple support about it!

After updating to 10.15.5, I have not heard the cracking/popping sounds. I will let you know if it does come back.

-Nick

I think the update worked for me. I haven't heard it since. Will update if it does come back.

Yep, I have 7 machine replacements, all the same, so I gave up and got a refund.

The issue for me an only affects the rear left side speaker/output -- it is a volume related rattle. I wonder if something loose is inside -- I have tried various media and playback options both in OS (and played through Parallels Window 10 ) the same issue continues. I am running 10.15.2

No they didn’t. They just did their standard checks (I even had to boot in safe mode to see if the cracking happened there and in safe mode the sound drivers are disabled). Looked to me as well as their shift was over and the support guy wanted to go home. So for the support, no thinking out of the box there.

It seems to me the issue happens mainly in Apple Music as the music starts and stops immediately when pressing the buttons. In Spotify I don’t have the issue but there is a small delay after play, stop or skipping actions.

So I think the root cause is a hw issue (maybe it’s just normal behavior like @verstaerker2 mentioned ), but with smart programming it can be hidden.