Sound Output Not Showing Up

Question

Sound Output Not Showing Up

I have long used a headphone amplifier with my MacBook Pro, and it has always worked thus :

I plug in the amplifier to the USB-C side port on my computer.
Oftenest, sound at once begins to play from the amplifier.
Otherwise, I can find the Sound section of System Preferences, and I can select the amplifier there as an output device.

Recently, the laptop no longer recognizes my amplifier as an output device. I plug it in, it shows a charging light ( indicating that there is a powered connexion between the amplifier and the computer ), but the device does not appear in System Preferences > Sound. Any ideas why not ?

Posted on Jul 22, 2021 6:26 PM

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Answer 1

Johnb-one

Level 6

9,180 points

Jul 22, 2021 6:51 PM in response to wmchristopher

Hmmm.. does your usb-c headphone amp show up under system preferences> sounds> effects/alerts? Is it one of those that need a driver or software, or is it just plug n’ play, no software required… if you hold down the “option” key on the keyboard and click on the speaker icon, it’ll show you all available audio inputs and outputs.. failing that, try running Audio MIDI setup which should allow you to reset your audio output( s) and input(s) you could also try resetting the smc/pmu .. as your MacBook is one of the more recent ones… it probably has either the M1 or the T2 security chip. Look under “about this Mac” to be sure.. then you can either look here at Apple support for how to do that or use Google/yahoo/bing to get you that info, find out how to do that and get you what you need..

john b

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Answer 2

Jul 22, 2021 8:55 PM in response to Johnb-one

No software required, and it does not appear under System Preferences > Sound > Outputs, which is where it is supposed to show up. I do not see any obvious way to “ reset ” within Audio MIDI Setup. I have tried resetting the SMC, and this has not resolved the issue.

Something is causing the my computer either not to recognise the amplifier as an audio output device or not to notice the connexion of the amplifier to the computer. I cannot tell which it is.

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Answer 3

Johnb-one

Level 6

9,180 points

Jul 24, 2021 4:05 PM in response to wmchristopher

What you could do is delete one of the outputs, go to create New. Call it usb . set it to 2 channel, either 44 khz or 48 khz… 16 or 20 bit .. and set it to output via usb audio.. this link explains how… https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sound-advice-fixing-common-mac-audio-problems-os-x/

john b

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Sound Output Not Showing Up

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