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

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207 replies

Jul 3, 2022 3:44 PM in response to Tommy8850

OMG, still this issue! SHAME ON APPLE!

I have last updates, MacOS Monterey 12.4

Reproducible in all cases described in this thread.

No matter: 44,100 Hz or 48,000 Hz, on charge or not, high CPU or not.... - crackling is played from various apps and music/video services anyway!

What should we do? Like..ALL devices affected, or part? Can we get it fixed in any Apple official store on Earth?(I have no official Apple store with genius bar in my country...only official dealers...) If yes, it's gonna be "apple refurbished" device after fix?

Jul 8, 2022 2:07 PM in response to Tommy8850

Have the same issue with popping cracking sounds on my 14-inch MacBook Pro OS 12.4


After some Acitivity monitoring the issue seems to happen when Memory (not CPU) is moderatly loaded.


Below is the screenshot of when the memory pressure starting creating the sound.


The pops/cracking even appear when listing on AirPods Pro connected to the MacBook.


I spoke with Apple Support and they reccomended to send the Mac for repair, even though admitting that they don't know if the issue will be fixed.


Has anyone gave their MacBook away (for a week aparently) and had this succesfully fixed?


Jul 15, 2022 2:55 PM in response to Merc-24

I have had mine in to be repaired twice (they sent it out, not just done in an Apple store). Didn't fix it at all. I've been on the phone all morning with a rep basically to have them say we just need to wait and see if anything new comes out of this. I'm livid. This is not a cheap computer and I paid extra for Apple Care. I've already been without my computer for two weeks just for it to still make the popping sounds constantly.

Jul 18, 2022 9:41 PM in response to Tommy8850

I've had this issue on my MacBook Pro 14" M1 (base model), and it can get pretty severe and jarring. However, I'm almost certain it is related to the Chrome Browser. It is most notable with YouTube playing on Chrome. However, I also ran into issues when running YoutTube on Safari but only when Chrome was running alongside. Shutting off Chrome, cleaned up the audio issues on Safari.

Jul 26, 2022 6:36 AM in response to murtadha96

DON'T SEND IN YOUR DEVICES! It has nothing to do with hardware. It's a software issue. What you hear is rosetta not being able to keep up translating the audio-stream therefore loosing samples, which makes the clicking and pooping sound.

There are no solutions at the time being coming from apple. It has nothing to do with the hardware. It is an issue with rosetta, aggregate devices and/or buffering of the Audio.

There are some workarounds though. If you install any software core audio drivers (mixup audios' decibel, sonnox's listenhub or something similar) the problem goes away immediately and doesn't return when you set the sample rate buffers to a reasonable size. So unless you run nothing (not even one process) that needs rosetta, this problem will not occur anymore. Apple won't fix it and will hope complaints go away when in 2 or 3 years everything runs natively. It's a shame but that's how it's gonna be, I fear.

I am a professional audio engineer and read a lot about it in the apple dev forums, so if you dig deep enough you can find the causes and get a picture what's happening. Best solution if you need rosetta is using a third party core audio driver that buffers the audio after it is "created" by the os (grab's the zeroes and ones) and then hands it over to the speakers. This extra layer of calculation seems to introduce the necessary latency (slows the audio-stream down) so that rosetta can deal with it calculating it in "real-time".

Jul 28, 2022 10:53 AM in response to Singervienna

Hey. Can you clarify this, please?


I'm not using a macbook—i have a Mac Studio Max. I first noticed the tiny audio glitches when testing Logic, but then realized it happens even when playing back youtube videos. I thought maybe my Focusrite audio interface needed its software updated, but then i found the same issues with headphones plugged directly into the Mac Studio.


What are examples of third party audio drivers, and would that be a solution considering my specifics?


I have been an Apple 'freak' since the mid 80s, and i cannot believe this situation, if it truly is a problem with apple's hardware or software. They call it a "Studio" and it is ostensibly made for designers/musicians/producers... yet this is a significant problem (assuming mine is the same as is being reported in this thread....). And again, my issue is tiny audio 'glitches,' not really "pops" that occur maybe a couple/few times per minute. Almost imperceptible, but significant enough that it makes listening to music a silly experience, and writing/recording music absolutely unworkable.

Jul 28, 2022 11:12 AM in response to derek stanton

Additional info: I just tried listening to a synthesizer played into the Focusrite interface into Logic, and i did not detect any audio glitching from that. So, it seems like external audio sources are not affected, but software instruments used in Logic ARE also included in the issue.


Someone suggested maybe bluetooth devices might be the culprit, but i deactivated my Kensington Turbo trackball, and that didn't resolve anything.

Jul 28, 2022 12:00 PM in response to derek stanton

What "Singervienna" said seems to be working well for me. I tried both mixup audios' decibel and, sonnox's listenhub. Sonnox's Listenhub ended up working well because it is a system-wide application whereas mixup seemed to only be a plugin. You can get a trial for 15 days. So all you need to do is install it. Then switch your audio out to the new Sonnox's ListenHub, and make sure you change the settings in ListenHub input source to system, and output device to whatever you want the sound to come out of. Ill update if it stops working I have been using it for 2 days without any issues.

Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound OS 12.0.1

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