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Level 1

37 points

VERY loud sound when switching songs sometimes on Apple Music

I have a Mac Mini M1 hooked up to an external amp through the headphone jack. Normally this works just fine. However, ever since upgrading to Apple Music 1.1.5.74 on Mac OS 11.4, and turning on lossless audio, sometimes I will hear an EXTREMELY loud sound.

A few things to narrow this down:

Mac Mini is outputting to headphone jack through a 3.5mm to RCA adapter to a Denon AVR-786 receiver.
My amp is turned to a nominal volume -- comfortable, not loud at all.
Apple Music volume is at about 25-50%
I have Lossless audio turned on.
The Mac will emit the sound at the SAME LOUD VOLUME (I estimate >90 decibels of distortion for about 250ms)
This only happens occasionally, and only when choosing a new album or channel. In other words, I never hear it during an album (thankfully); it changes songs fine. But if I switch to a new album, there's a decent chance it will happen.
The sound is a very dissonant distortion sound and is so loud it defies the logic of it being a sound coming through the digital signal -- meaning I interpret this as something that is happening POST-DAC. There's no other explanation. I have my volume set so low that even a high amplitude digital signal would not make that sound. It's almost like the DAC itself or an internal pre-amp is turning off and then ON again and emitting this sound. But again, it is seemingly random other than when I select a new song. I haven't paid attention to whether it happens only on Lossless songs, but most of what I'm playing is Lossless.
To be clear, I do NOT have an external DAC. This is a pure analog signal going to RCA inputs on my receiver. I'm going to try to go USB->TOSLINK on the Receiver to see if I can avoid it (or isolate it).

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Jun 14, 2021 9:20 PM

Best reply

Mike Safar Author

Level 1

37 points

Posted on Jun 15, 2021 8:56 PM

I've narrowed this down to when I change to a new album or playlist while in the beginning seconds of the current song. My theory is this is happening while a song is still buffering.

So, for example, I hear a song start, I don't like it, I hear about 5-10 seconds and then I change to a new playlist or album and the sound is emitted.

Yes, I've tried this on various settings of both the bit rate on the Audio settings in MacOS AND different settings of Lossless audio.

Let me be clear: If you are saying Apple is "dedicated to your listening experience" I cannot tell you how disruptive a 90+ decibel static through 100w stereo speakers sounds in your ear. It seriously sounds like I just got shocked, so much my wife asked if I had been electrocuted from downstairs.

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42 replies

Jul 15, 2021 11:34 AM in response to iTim2009

A user (KeganAI) found a temporary solution to this in another thread. It's definitely a bug, and seems to be caused by an interference between either of the new sound formats (Lossless and/or Dolby Atmos) and the old Sound Enhancer feature. Sound Enhancer is only found on the Mac version of Music (and perhaps the Windows version of iTunes), which is why this issue doesn't seem present on iOS. Disabling Atmos and/or Lossless as iTim2009 suggests definitely does work, but so instead does turning off Sound Enhancer (found in Music by going to Preferences, then the Playback tab). If you're interested in trying either of the new sound formats, I'd recommend just turning off Sound Enhancer.

Jul 23, 2021 7:52 AM in response to rohan87

Elsewhere, others have said that switching off 'Sound Enhancer' solves the issue. Speaking from my own experience, I have 2 Macs, an iPhone and iPad with no such issue. I have been using lossless through Airplay 2 on Mac Mini, MacBook Pro and on PC - and Dolby Atmos through wired headphones, However, I don't use wireless headphones and particularly not Bluetooth or features such as those checked in the screenshot above. Try unchecking Sound Enhancer.

Jul 26, 2021 2:33 PM in response to Mike Safar

having same issue both on iPhone (Xs), Mac book (2018)/with Touch Bar, and MacPro (2020), both on Bluetooth and with wired in stuff. I have lossless turned on as well. Maybe its an issues switching between lossless and non lossless files?

Frrmsb

Level 1

9 points

Aug 2, 2021 11:59 PM in response to Mike Safar

Have the exact same issue on a Mac Air 2017 regardless of the output I use, I found out thatvif you go to Quality Audio Setting and turn off the Amplification of Sound you stop getting the loud BZZT sound, although the overall sound level is quite affected, that’s the only thing that has helped

ImJeph

Level 1

20 points

Aug 21, 2021 7:06 PM in response to Mike Safar

This happens to me only on my MacBook Pro (2016 15") when using my AirPods max. it's incredibly scary because of how loud it it is.

it only happened when switching albums. moving from song to song is fine.

I found that turning off Lossless stopped the issue.

have no idea how they can resolve this but this is dangerous. even at half volume with headphones it hurts incredibly.

hopefully they will resolve this.

garrymcg

Level 1

5 points

Aug 22, 2021 7:50 PM in response to Mike Safar

I have exactly the same issue. I use an iMac with external speakers. My partner uses a PC with (different) external speakers. So it's something to do with Apple Music, not our set-ups. Apple can you please reply as this sound is VERY loud and I crap myself every time it happens!

mynor176

Level 1

4 points

Aug 24, 2021 5:54 AM in response to PrashanBasti

Unfortunately turning off the sound enhancer did just kind of solved this problem for me, for a few weeks. Then all the songs started to have a continuous popping sound at the beginning and sometimes during playback. Lossless seems to be a problem too. Turning off all "high resolution" sound eliminates the problem completely.

Such a bummer.

Oct 5, 2021 12:19 AM in response to Mike Safar

So glad I was able to find this thread. I JUST got a brand new MacBook pro and never experienced this on my older MacBook. I am now terrified my speakers are shot or potentially not functioning at full capacity because you're absolute right, the sound in DEAFENING. Please tell me my speakers are ok. 😩😩😩😩

Oct 24, 2021 2:41 AM in response to MacUser174

So you're saying there could be damage to the speakers on the brand new $3,000 MacBook I just purchased? What's the source on "either hardware or hearing damage potential"? I've tried asking this as it's own separate question on here and didn't get any responses. I'm honestly very worried about my speakers and the noise happened several times (probably 5-6 total) and was so loud I thought "there's no way this didn't damage my speakers". I'd only had the laptop for a few days at that point so I don't know how to compare it to anything else, they seem to sound find. What I wasn't hoping for with my new $3,000 purchase was being worried about the speakers not performing at full capacity or crapping out on me down the road from this bug. Can someone please tell me if I'm being paranoid or may actually have something worry about, and if so what do I do? Because tbh setting this machine up in the line of work I do was absolute **** and I CERTAINLY can't afford another one seeing as i'm gonna be forking over a good chunk of my paycheck for a year just to finance it. 😡

Oct 27, 2021 3:14 PM in response to Mike Safar

Mike, I found you discussion while trying to research the same issue. Thank you for the helpful steps to reproduce and here is what I found out myself and what I believe is the cause/solution:

AirPods Pro Gen 2 (A2084 - Firmware 3E751)

This issue appears to be related to crossfade and persists when it is on. When it's switching albums and it doesn't have a new song to sample from it will make the noise. I only experience the issue when: 1) switching to a new album, or 2) when it reaches the end of the playlist and it starts a genius "play on with similar songs" feature. Turning off crossfade resolved the issue and I used it this way for a week and there was no popping or cracking as well as the loud noise you and others have experiences. I turned on crossfade again this evening and started experiencing the issue again.

I turned off crossfade and it seem to resolve that issue.