Macbook Pro 16 inch speaker pulsating noise?

I can work round the issue by outputting audio to external speakers but for 2400 quid this is definitely not something I'll be doing for the long run.

Took another read of the thread; intend to have same conversation with Apple that another poster here suggested earlier if/when the issue appears on the replacement machine, i.e. in 12 months time it's money back or new machine if fault hasn't been resolved.

I have an ongoing case number: 101169148237. Please feel free to quote it if you're still in touch with them :)

Cheers

Just a reminder to anyone here who might not be aware:

We are ALL entitled to a hefty gesture of good will from Apple if it is fixed. Don’t seal a victory when it is fixed, provide evidence for how long this issue has been there and push for as much compensation as you can.

Apple support have told me that I can’t be compensated until the issue is fixed. At first, I didn’t understand this.. and in my “3 hour wait on the phone speaking to 5 different people” rage replied with “you’re telling me if you were in the Apple office and a ceiling fan fell off and chopped your leg off you’d be happy with Tim Cook saying “we’ll compensate you when it grows back”.

However, when he explained that they need the issue to be resolved so they can take in to account how long it has taken.. I understood.

Long story short. They made a dodgy product, a dodgy supposed high end ultra high performance product. If they do fix it before our warranties are out (which is looking like a miracle at this stage) squeeze them dry of compensation!

Thanks for flagging 10.15.7

Unfortunately the update hasn't made a stitch of difference. Here is the process I undertook this evening:

1. Downloaded the update
2. Rebooted
3. Launched Logic Pro X - mids/bass seem OK. Good start...
4. Launched Firefox and played this song (referenced on my support call with Apple) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe3CQamF8
5. Issue is there (bass sounds like horses hooves galloping over it)

As mentioned prior, I've been using external speakers to work with and this seems OK, which would indicate the issue is related to some aspect of how OS X is processing sound to the internal speaker system.

Will telephone Apple support again tomorrow and update my ticket No.

Still experiencing this issue with 10.15.7

After 'escalating my case', I was told by Apple that 'as this is not a serious issue, I am ineligible for a refund.'

I was then told that they 'hope to resolve the issue in time for Big Sur.'

The words serious and hope are doing a lot of work there.

The other day when I updated my call number (101169148237) Apple told me:

1. Issue is with Logic Pro X
2. Big Sur will probably solve it

I have to say this statement seems contradictory. If the issue lies with Logic I can't see how an update to OS X is going to solve it. Also, this doesn't account for Garage Band users who've reported the same issue, which ironically would suggest the problem does lie with some shared part of the audio engine, i.e. OS X. In trying to give them the benefit of the doubt one might interpret this as the problem being experienced in Logic/Garage Band but originating in OS X.

I've tried all tests others (including Apple) have suggested and none of them have worked unfortunately - the 44.1 KHz conversion to 48 KHz sample rate in Logic may help with new projects but as a bandaid for old projects it's not practical.

Going to wait for an update to Logic and possibly Big Sur, but not having a fully functioning audio system on a £2.4K computer is a very serious issue in my view. Going to have a further think about what to do going forward.

If I remember rightly there was a user here who reported Big Sur had not solved this problem.

Just tried to download Big Sur today and got an error message so haven't even been able to complete that. Apparently Apple is aware of this particular issue too...

There's also recent updates to Garage Band and Logic that might fix the speaker issue.

If these updates don't solve the problem then I don't believe Apple are taking it seriously. I initially had big hopes. Not so sure now...

Is THIS your sound? if it is, it is considered "normal". Turn the sound up and play this video and listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS-BHI667po

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTSdtJJJcxc&feature=youtu.be

Found this link on a thread below.

"Galloping" is a great explanation of the sound.

Same here ! but it is only from the low mids and down.... The speakers can not handle any bass at all.

So only when you open the DAW is the system somehow destabilized...that's interesting.

There's a Garageband specialist on the webs named Patrick who has that red circle with a line

running through it about Catalina. He says it's essentially anathema to DAWs and to avoid it

at all costs. (i.e. stay in Mojave for now). But I know that one can't downgrade with the MBP 16 to

that era.

The best demonstration of the issue with with a simple sine wave,

https://youtu.be/MTSdtJJJcxc

I've been working with Apple's tier two support for the last couple of weeks on this issue. And as of today I feel confident I have a simple reproduction for Apple's engineers to use. My next call with them is this weekend, and hopefully by then they will be able to confirm they have reproduced the issue. I'm a software engineer myself, and from what I'm seeing, I'd put money on this being a software issue. It's transient and pervasive, which just smells of software bug. If it were a hardware issue I would imagine not so many of us would experience it (unless there's a significant manufacturing defect), and it wouldn't come and go. But this is all conjecture, and we'll have to wait and see what Apple says.

If I get any significant update from Apple I'll share it on this thread.

MobileComposer wrote:

Do you think if I de-installed Garageband it would disappear?

I don't know. I think it's reasonably likely it would happen with all DAWs. It's probably a flaw in part of the audio subsystem that DAWs interact with (but normal applications like Chrome and Safari don't interact with). So any DAW might trigger it.

I see - so now the problem exists all the time. I am sorry to hear about that.

Currently, I can't think of any fix available from Apple except that they say they are working on it.

When I encountered this with my first (of my three laptops), I was advised to turn it in - because they

would basically do a refurbish with the speakers (which may have solved it, who knows).

Right now I am blasting music on Youtube and not hearing the pulse. If I did decide to return this one,

I would try to find a model from '18 or '19 that is supposed to be good, but I have seen speaker issues

posted about 2018 MBP as well and yes, it is costly in other ways to be without a computer at this time,

especially during lockdown.

I wish you the best.

re: Reproducing the issue. Yes, my computer has the pulsating sound. Here's a video I made of it with my phone, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTSdtJJJcxc (you'll hear it's the same as yours).

Thanks for the case number. I'll bring your case up with my advisor, and hopefully that'll help us get a handle on this thing.