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

just to repeat it because it might easily be over-read:

here 10.15.2 didn't help with the issue - the plops just sound a little different.

It helped setting the Audio-samplerate to 96 kHz in the Audio-Midi-Settings App.

I've had the same mpb speaker pops with my MacBook Pro 16 (OS 10.15.3) and since I've upgraded it to the newest OS version 10.15.4 that was just released I no longer have the issue. It appears Apple may have fixed the issue with the latest version of Mac OS.

Try upgrading to 10.15.4 and see if the problem is fixed.

I have to strongly disagree. 10.15.4 fixed the popping issue in my 16" MBP. I can now scrub YouTube videos, Final Cut Pro editing time lines, Quicktime videos and everything else. Not a single popping sound anymore after the update.

The issue is fixed in 10.15.2, check for updates in system preferences to upgrade.

I am happy to report that after updating my 16-inch MacBook Pro to macOS 10.15.2 and Final Cut Pro X 10.4.8 the popping sound when editing in FCPX is gone. I did both updates before testing so unfortunately I can't say if just doing one of the updates would also have worked.

Well it's understandable that you would feel apprehensive but ignoring updates is also risky as you're forfeiting security updates as well. I would recommend giving it a try. My MacBook is working great now. I bought it in late January and the popping sound was driving me nuts. I mean, not all the time because I don't always scrub through videos but I use my MacBook Pro for editing in Final Cut Pro and the popping was making me feel like it would blow the speakers. This latest 10.15.4 fixed everything. Haven't had a single popping sound since.

I wiped my entire system, repartitioned a new volume, and installed the latest MacOs Catalina and tried to reproduce the popping sound. 100% producible.

I’m going to initiate a return tomorrow.

Search for Audio MIDI and then change the format to 48000. See if that helps. I changed mine and don't hear the crackling sound. Try it.

it is indeed not limited to the new 16 inch. I can reproduce the same problem with a 2013 Macbook Pro 13 retina, albeit at a lower volume level. I believe it's more noticeable with the new 16 inch model just because it can produce more volume and more low end.

having said that, please add a tiny lag before the power circuit is shut down. I can imitate that by running Spotify in the background at zero volume, and popping issue can no longer be reproducing on Youtube.

Just chatted with Apple support and seems they are aware of the issue. Support person said there will soon be a patch for this issue. No use returning this as many of us are having the issues so I doubt this is a hardware related issue.

I fixed it.

I have owned a 2014 MacBook Pro 15 and bought a new MacBook Pro 16 today (2.3ghz I9, 16GB RAM). I run Ableton Live 10 for professional music production.

First Attempt (brand new laptop, failed): Used Migration Assistant to restore data from Time Machine. Sound was terrible - I had the clicking issues as well as other dropouts in Ableton Live.

Second Attempt (success): Factory Reset - which is a two step process. First delete your data (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496) and then reinstall Catalina (https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/reinstall-macos-mchlp1599/mac).

If you used Migration Assistant / used an older mac backup on your new laptop, maybe this method will work for you too.

What you describe sound again totally different to what this thread is about.

There is currently no solution that works for everybody. For me it only appears when scrubbing through a YouTube video.

If find it a bit disturbing but it’s no major issue for me. And it’s fixed when setting samplingrate to 48 or 96 kHz

I can only recommend writing feedback to apple and contact the support. The more people doing this the better.

10.15.4 fixed most of the popping sound issues but in some rare scenarios like playing high bass YouTube video and you quit Safari during playback it appears in my case. I reached out to Apple again and they acknowledged the issue and said to wait for a future update. So it’s not entirely fixed.

No it is not fully fixed. It seems for some people it's fixed. For me it's not fixed.

Except when I set my system-audio-rate to 96kHz I don't get any popping.

I think I found a possible solution to this problem. I had to change my midi settings to 48kHz. I've added a video to show you how to do it.

Edit: DUPLICATE POST