Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound OS 12.0.1

Hi, I just got my Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 over a month. It is on OS v12.0.1. It is a great machine. But it developed some popping sound today. I played some Spanish guitar music for around 1.5 hours (not at the highest volume) then it randomly developed some popping sound on the right side speaker. When I lift the mac and tile to the right to listen closely, the popping sound is getting worse and constant, especially at the high pitch. When I put it down the popping sound still existing but less even when I put the volume to 4 bars. Apple support suggested to upgrade to OS to12.1. After upgrade the popping sound is gone, even at the highest volume. Is it possible that the OS upgrade fix the issue? (i.e. limited the frequency range?).


I see some discussion that the popping sound comes when cpu /memory is high. In my case, I only open the apple music nothing else.


Has anyone see the same issue?

Thanks

Posted on Jan 3, 2022 2:16 PM

Reply

Similar questions

207 replies

Jun 9, 2022 10:04 AM in response to Tommy8850

I have also been having this same issue with my 16in MBP since I got it about 6 months ago. It happens with the internal speakers, a Rhode external USB mic with analog audio out, as well as my Bluetooth headphones. It happens in every app that I use with audio including Adobe Audition, Quicktime, Safari, Youtube, Premier Pro, Zoom. The problem is solved after restarting, and it comes back after the machine has not been restarted it might be a day or more don't keep track. It gets worse the longer it is left on until I get annoyed enough and restart then it is fixed for a while. Since I do a lot of Audio work on my mac this is a huge issue and needs to be fixed. I also notice that this sometimes corresponds with a slowing down of the machine with jumps in frame rate and lag for saving and switching apps etc...

Jun 14, 2022 4:01 AM in response to Tommy8850

What fixed this for me, was to not use Firefox to play my music. After I switched to Safari, I worked for 1 hour, no noices at all! In Firefox it was nearly constant when making adjustments to photos/saving/opening.


Turning off Hardware Acceleration in Firefox also seems to help, but still has some noises going on, unlike Safari that so far is 100% 'pop' free!


Hope this helps more people.

Niels

Jun 14, 2022 11:06 AM in response to Tommy8850

This happens specifically with aggregate audio devices and when such an aggregate is uses it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with CPU load. I am on a MacBook Pro (16", 2021) with MacOS 12.4 installed and the problem hasn't been addressed in any of the recent updates. It must have to to with Core Audio, Buffers, anything like that.

Funny thing is: As soon as I use a third party rapper like decibel from premix or Sonnox's Listenhub or Sonarworks Sound ID the problem is gone immediately. So it must be that if a Software "grabs" the zeroes and ones that represent the audio-stream before it goes out to the hardware this introduces a latency or a buffer that then "repairs" the audio-stream to the hardware outputs (your speakers or D/A Converters). That's why all major DAWs don't show the problem. because they have delay-compensation built in (which is also a buffer). So I cannot use Spotify, the magenta-tv app, the brave browser without also routing the audio through one of those 3rd party applications. Hope apple will fix this soon because it is more than annoying. It's close to a downright fraud to sell machines that go for quite a price and are praised as the cream of the crop state of the art that then are not able to output proper audio. I know that apple maybe is working hard on those issues but I reported my observations many times but apple doesn't reach out. I am an audio engineer and could maybe help, but unless there is a way to get contact to apple I am just a customer that just has to deal with annoying workarounds, that also sometimes do not work for all necessary tanks.

Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound OS 12.0.1

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.