audio sound issues mac mini m1 Monterey

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Level 1

8 points

audio sound issues mac mini m1 Monterey

2020 M1 Mac Mini. Monterey 12.3.1. Apple Thunderbolt display.

Sound and Audio is very unreliable using the External Headphone jack attached to Bose 200 desktop speakers.

After a fresh mac startup (or restart), I can play Apple Music to the headphone jack (Bose speakers) and airplay to any number of HomePods and Airport Express devices. I can also Airplay from my iPhone SE (2020) to my Mac Mini M1 and other Airplay 2 devices.

But once I do anything else involving audio, this all stops working on the M1 Mini External headphone jack (external speakers). I can sometime switch to the M1 Mini's internal speaker or Thunderbolt display speakers but then that stops working as well. This can sometimes crash the Sound Preference panel in System Preferences.

Thanks,

Dave

Mac mini, macOS 12.3

Posted on Apr 20, 2022 10:04 AM

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Answer 1

hcsitas

Level 6

13,964 points

Apr 21, 2022 5:59 AM in response to Dave SL

See if avoiding the AirPort Express fixes/improves? Avoiding AirPlay? Shut down the Express for starters and play downloaded music. Then power it on and stream. As a final step, AirPlay.

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Answer 2

hcsitas

Level 6

13,964 points

Apr 20, 2022 6:59 PM in response to Dave SL

Have you tried connecting the Bose to the display’s headphone jack?

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Answer 3

Dave SL Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 21, 2022 5:47 AM in response to hcsitas

Unfortunately the Apple Thunderbolt display does not have a headphone jack.

I'm pretty sure this is software related as the speakers were fine until the 12.3.1 update. And when I restart the mac, it works. I've never seen a System Preference pane crash before.

Just started playing Apple Music this AM with Mac and Airport Express selected as output. Both started playing for about 5 seconds then the speakers connected to the Mac stopped and Airport Express speakers kept going. All sound from the Mac stopped (Thunderbolt Display, Internal Mac Mini speaker and Headphone jack on Mini). Opening Sound pref panel restored general sound output. Deselecting the Airport Express output in Apple Music hung Apple music for about 1 min then Headphone output to Bose worked. Selecting any other output in Apple music disabled the Headphone jack output. Selecting internal Mini speakers, Display Audio or other Airport speaker made the audio selection unstable (random volume levels, delays in playback, beachball, no sound from Airport speakers).

Quitting and reopening Apple Music then opening the Sound Pref Panel resulted in the panel crash (screenshot above).

As before, a restart of Mac fixes all temporarily.

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audio sound issues mac mini m1 Monterey

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