How noisy is the Mac Studio M1 Max?

My Studio Max's fan noise was much louder than I anticipated, since some claimed theirs was "completely silent". I'm convinced those people have offices with a high noise floor, my room is very quiet. The "whoosh" fan noise also includes a slight buzz or whine, so it's not as pleasant as some of Apple's other fans. I was tempted to return mine and get a fan-less MacBook Air instead.

But, since I don't require access to the ports very often, I placed mine on a shelf under my desk, and covered it with an old honeycomb shade, which reduces the sound to where I can barely hear it, about the level of a light wind outside my office window, or a very quiet HVAC. Not as convenient, and it also cost me, as I had to get a longer $$ Thunderbolt cable for the Studio Display.

Maybe Apple will correct the problem with a software update. The air is coming out cool no matter what I do, so I'm hoping it's not really necessary to run them that fast.

What a nightmare. Sorry to hear this. Because of all these reports I have ordered a MacBook Pro M1 Max 16”, now I am really worried about all the transition problems from my present set up, which is running flawlessly, 2015 15” MacBook Pro, on Logic 10.3.2 and El Capitan, all silent!

If you lived in the UK, all your regular outlets would be 240 Volt. Sometimes construction sites will use a temporary step-down transformer to operate US/Japanese 120 Volt hand tools.

In the US, regular outlets are 120 Volt, and when the electrician wires the correct two hot leads for Dryers and cooking Ranges, you get 240 Volts. But most folks are not using that outlet to power their computers.

I just wish Apple would of made a statement of some sort about this at this point. From the first day people have mentioned this. And I would think they know about this if the are sending you a replacement.

Apple is sending me a new one because of my annoying van-sound-signature "b-f-b-f-b-f" and not like anormal fan "f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f", but the waiting time is until 15 july !!!!!! here in Austria .... wtf

Keep us updated, I really hope the replacement is fine.

My Macbook book Air had a defective speaker, took it to the apple store for a replacement and got it back 3 weeks later with the same problem!

Good luck

I returned my base max on the 23rd and bought another one same day. Sent the second one back today, which up to the point of updating to 12.3.1 and/or doing the apple hardware test was extremely quiet. Afterwards however did notice more airflow coming out of the right hand side(facing towards the front, and less on the left. Which my first unit was pure gush. Then a few days before updating, I started to here the beeping and chirping noise. I saw TG PRO say the left fan was not working properly. So I ran the apple hardware test which blast the fans I believe to their max. Matter of fact, when I performed the AHT for the first unit per Apple Care, that’s when my first unit got even worse. TG PRO stopped reporting this on my second unit after the AHT. I suspect now, based on the logical course of things, my second unit was quiet at first because the left fan was not working, and maybe the hardware test helped it along. Once that happened I was done with it!! Hope this made sense.

can you pleas describe the sound of the fan please, is it more a clean ffffffffff or more a bfbfbfbfbf. mine sounds like a bfbfbfb in a cheap plastic box. I reduced the fan speed now to 1100 rpm in idle mode with the "macs fan control" app but i usualy dont like apps on my computer beside the big Adobe, MS, et al.

A number of people have recorded the sound and uploaded it on the macrumors forum here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-studio-fan-noise-its-going-to-be-one-of-the-loudest-macs-at-idle.2337251/page-22

There is a constant whoosh sound of air blowing through the vents, but there is also a higher pitched whining noise kind of like a turbine or whistle, depending on who you ask.

But if you spend a little time on that macrumors thread, you will see a number of people have recorded the sound so you can check it out.

Personally I returned my Studio M1 Max because the noise became quickly unbearable in a quiet office. I can't say it was actually "loud", sure I can hear my voice over the noise if I'm talking. But when you're sitting there concentrating on work in a quiet room, the noise quickly becomes very onerous.

And what is the dB value in a quiet room?

Apple has certainly tested in an acoustically quiet room, and it's not clear where the Mac was placed. Most users have a wall behind their desk, it's within arm's reach, etc. It's in a study where it's quiet and silent to work. Here, the noise and squeaks bounce off the walls and are extremely disruptive. There is the biggest problem. Those who have not heard it will not understand.

when I switched the Mac Studio off, the value dropped to around 19.5 (with no other noise sources in the room). In front of the MacMini showing a video on YouTube the value was also 19.5.

Still waiting for Apple to step into this discussion...

My UPS says 122V AC

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

We are also following a theory about input Voltage correlating with sound generated, with the suggestion that units operating on 240 Volts are louder.

Is yours operating on 240 Volt or 120 Volt?

I talked to the (German speaking) support today and asked if this noise issue is known and whether I could expect an update which solves the issue but the guy did not even understand what I was talking about - at least that was my impression- and couldn't provide me an answer except that I could return the device...

The problem here is only 14 days, since the first Mac Studio deliveries, jutubers not counting. They must have had earlier units made/other units, the rest of us waited longer than scheduled. And with the next Mac delivery, we are hearing from more users with the Mac noise and beeping. Still not clear if it's dozens or hundreds of people. I'm sure it will be a while before Apple figures out what's going on and support can sort it out. So far, they don't know anything anywhere.

in my case it is a relatively "clean ffffffff"

Thanks for the hint with the Macs fan control. Just installed it and made some more measurements:

at 3500 rpm (maximum) > 56 dB

at 1520 rpm > 29,6 dB

at 1250 rpm > 23,8 dB

at 1100 > 20,5 dB

on auto mode it goes to 1300 which is then as described earlier (uncomfortable)

so when going to 1100 rpm it is actually fine.

However the question is if I can do harm the computer with this

Or will the 1100 rpm as a minimum prevent this ? Anyone experienced with this ?

Actually I think Apple over engineered this. They tried to build something special with big fans and overshoot.