Using Two Studio Displays with one MBP

For anyone interested, I connected each display individually to the Mac and updated Monterey to 12.3. Following that, another update ran for each of the displays and updated them to 15.4 (from 15.3 out the box).

However, for work I am limited to a Windows laptop which only has 1 USB-C port (and an HDMI port). With the 1 USB-C port, I can only utilize 1 of the monitors. I tried an old Dell D6000 dock, a dongle, and even an HDMI to USB-C cable to get the second Studio Display to work. Couldn't get it working. It's worth mentioning though that the output resolution from the Windows laptop was 5K! Some forums mentioned Windows PCs would be limited to 4K.

Also tried another Dell/PC laptop which had two USB-C ports and both displays worked and supported 5K. Again, was very excited to see that. However, there is absolutely no way to adjust brightness using Windows and the Studio Displays... bad if you're working for many hours at a time.

Lastly, it was incredibly annoying having to control the volume of each Studio Display individually. I found "MultiSoundChanger" developed by "rlxone" on GitHub which made it possible to aggregate both Studio Displays into one output channel and use the tool to control the volume of both at the same time. Again, things that I would have expected Apple to integrated out-the-box.

Hey thank you for this! I actually ended up trying out the CalDigit Element Hub (as the TS4 hub was sold out). It worked quite well with the Macbook, but the resolution/output maxed out at 4K per Studio Display. With that said, it just made more sense to avoid the hub/dock altogether and just have a direct connection to each monitor and the MBP to keep the 5K resolution.

On another note, similar to my previous comment/post, I tried the Element Hub with my work's Windows PC and only got 1 Studio Display to work at a 2K (sometimes 4K) resolution. That's when I found out the port was only a USB-C 3.2 gen port which is not the same as a TB-3 port. It was definitely worth a shot testing out the dock though! I did come across the Razer dock during my search and it seems like a good option, just more pricey compared to others.

Also wanted to point out that the MBP recognizes both displays are connected as both displays' speakers can be selected as output devices (yes, even on the display that isn't showing an image) and the cameras function on both.

Also, I'm noticing that the output resolution is 4K (3840x2160) instead of 5K (5120x2880).

I feel like I've learned a lot about USB-C & Thunderbolt ports during this process... I always thought that these ports were one and the same as they all look like USB-C ports. However, I couldn't have been more wrong! Make sure if you ever upgrade your work laptop that it in fact has two Thunderbolt-3 (or 4) ports and not USB-C Gen 3.2 ports as these cannot compete with the data throughput required to make these monitors work well. When I go begging for a new PC I'll make sure to include this in my ask! 😂

Yes! I came across a wonderful GitHub release called "MultiSoundChanger" developed by "rlxone". I was able to combine both Studio Displays into one output channel and then only had to utilize this plug-in to change volume on both displays simultaneously. Really useful tool!

https://github.com/rlxone/MultiSoundChanger/releases

However, I did notice that sometimes when the app booted on startup, I'd have to quit the app and re-open it as the display speakers weren't listed (guessing app boots faster than the MBP recognizes the external displays hardware). Once I closed/reopened the app everything worked fine.

Also, I defaulted to the built-in MacOS speaker controls when switching audio between the displays and Airpods/Homepods/external speakers as those did not show up under the listed output devices in the app.

It might already be open as the app only creates a new speaker icon at the very top of your screen in the menu bar. The icon looks identical to MacOS’s standard speaker icon so you might see 2, with 1 being the standard MacOS icon and the other being the downloaded app. Hope that helps!