A loud "Beep" sound for Lossless Music

Hi Barberlives123,

I have the same problem.

I restarted my Mac many times but there's not differences. I use the internal speaker of the Mac and the AirPods Pro but the Beep noise is still there. I don't download music I only listen in streaming.

The beep noise occur when I play a lossless song jumping from another song (lossless or not doesent matter), sometime even I restart the same lossless song.

Many thanks

Gian

Hi Barberlives123,

This loud "beep" usually comes when the Music app starts playing Lossless song, regardless it is downloaded or not. I have different playlists. I did not test that via internal speakers, but this is annoying when I listen to the music via headphones or external speakers, connected via audio jack. This "beep" is always full sound loud even if the sound level of music is minimal.

The most often case - when the previous song was in lossy quality.

Environment: MacBook Pro M1 16GB, MacOS Big Sur 11.4

I have this issue too. I wanted to add that when listening with headphones the full volume beep is more like a blast, and is not only scary but actually hurts my ears. I worry about hearing damage and it's really upsetting. I've begun pulling my headphones off for a second after clicking play.

I'll add that once lossless files are playing, it doesn't seem to beep again until later.

If the lossless tracks stop loading (common) and a following track decides to play in lossless i'll get a mid-album beep when it begins.

I will try resetting the NVRAM and report back if it solves the problem for me.

THANK YOU Kegan

Just tested with sound enhancer OFF and NO BEEPS

Turned sound enhancer on. Instantly, beeps.

KeganAl wrote:

I encountered the same issue after I fiddled with the "Sound Enhancer" setting under Preferences - Playback.

Turning off the feature seemed to fix it for me.

Hey there Hohom,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We understand there is a sound beep noise when playing lossless music. We’ll be happy to help. 

To verify, does this issue occur every time a lossless song is started up if the previous song is not in lossless? Does restarting your Mac have any impact on this? Do you notice this if you use headphones or an external speaker? Does it seem to matter if the music is streaming or downloaded? Test the above steps and see if you notice any difference with the issue.

If those steps don’t help, test in another user account and see if the issue continues there - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

We hope this helps. Take care.

Hey Hohom,

Thanks for those details. You may want to see if this occurs in a new user account as well. You can use this link to guide you on how to do this:

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Also, do an NVRAM reset as it can store sound volume settings and may have an impact on this:

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

Take care.

Hey Hohom,

If the issue is still occurring after completing those steps, you’ll want to reach out to Apple Support at the following link to look further into this with you:

Contact Apple Support

Kind regards.

I encountered the same issue after I fiddled with the "Sound Enhancer" setting under Preferences - Playback.

Turning off the feature seemed to fix it for me.

As many have said, this is not just an annoying bug, but could potentially cause hearing damage. For me I have noticed this on EarPods and B&W P5's (both on 3.5mm headphone jack) running on a 2015 MacBook Pro, and just now thought the internal speakers of a new MacBook Air M1. In my case I'm not listening to lossless music but Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio. Same principal though, the loud noise occurs...

1. Only at the start of a non-standard non-lossy song (so either lossless or Atmos), usually on first play but sometimes whilst skipping tracks too.
2. Only on Mac. I've not noticed the same problem on iPhone.
3. The loud noise seems at maximum volume, regardless of where the music volume is set.
4. Is loud enough to startle at best, cause speaker and/or hearing damage worst case.
5. Music plays fine for the rest of the track afterward.

Both lossless and Atmos need to be off.

I have this problem too. It happens whether or not the song is badged lossless or not but doesn't happen when lossless is switched off or when using Bluetooth headphones or speakers. It happens on the first track after opening Music and also if I skip tracks but not when a new track on an album starts.

Tried downloading a hi-res lossless album Sixteen Stone (Remastered) by Bush.

Downloaded tracks often make the beep noise too when flipping between them.

Seems like it does it even more when i select downloaded tracks to play. It's not really an issue when one track starts automatically after the next.

Sometimes the progress bar will move but no audio plays until i reset the track. Then for sure a beep happens.

Testing on:

2020 imac speakers and wired v-moda m-100 headphones

Hi Barberlives

I have the same issue. The random loud beep occurs regardless of whether the music is lossless, downloaded, purchased on iTunes or streamed. This only happens when I am listening to music on my Mac, on the Apple Music app, with either my 2nd generation AirPods or my Edifier W820BT headphones (wired and wireless). I am using a MacBook Air with M1 chip. There is no longer any command to reset the contents of NVRAM on M1-powered Macs according to Macworld.

Imagine if this happens to users with hearing sensitivities, like Hyperacusis.

Please advise on how this can be sorted.

the only thing that terminates this issue is remove all downloads from the hard drive, then disable lossless for streaming and downloading, reload Apple Music app and listen in the old lossy quality (online or offline). And wait until that get fixed by the dev team