macOS volume limiter/warning

Question

Level 1

6 points

macOS volume limiter/warning

Hi, I bought a Mac with M2 for 3 thousand dollars. Today I was working with sound, the volume was almost at a minimum, at some point I decided to plug in my headphones, and the volume automatically increased to the maximum. Of course, I didn’t notice this, and the deafness after the acoustic shock has not subsided for 2 hours now. Also, I reflexively pulled the headphones out of my ears and broke my glasses with a sharp movement. Then I downloaded a sound meter on my iPhone, put the headphones to the microphone, and roughly measured how many decibels my ears received, the result was approximately 122, and most likely it was more. In many sources, you can find information that at such a volume even a single sound can damage hearing. Then I went online to read about this problem and found the first mentions from users in 2009, which means that this problem has not been resolved for 14 years. The last case was in 2022 when an iPad damaged the hearing of a little boy, and his family sued Apple. At the same time, there is a volume limiter on the iPhone, which means that one of the company’s departments recognized the problem and fixed it, but the problem has not been resolved on the laptop to this day. In my opinion, we are dealing with negligence that damages people’s health.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Nov 6, 2023 3:23 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

SoulSkrix

Level 1

8 points

Apr 22, 2024 5:06 AM in response to Amargy

Signed up just to say "me too".

Regarding the response of @jeffreythefrog, good intentions or not - it was a largely antagonistic discussion and it is simple to understand that they are worried about decibel limitation of the Mac itself. To tell somebody to control the volume is to treat them like a child, especially when they pointed out a feature that already exists on the iPhone and it isn't a volume control issue (maxed out when connected, never happened to you?).

As somebody with lifelong tinnitus from a similar accident as @Amargy, I sincerely hope they managed to recover and did not become afflicted with a lifelong condition that is not taken seriously enough by audio and software engineers.

It is fine that the device is capable of putting out extreme volume, but when they have feature disparity on things like safety features such as this - it is quite inexcusable to put it on one product over the other. This feature alone is the only reason I use an iPhone with Airpods. Even if the decibel limit for some reason doesn't apply to phone calls.

I agree with OP, it is largely disappointing that they do not bring this safety feature to their OS, we shouldn't need to rely on 3rd party solutions with a 1st party solution already exists and works wonderfully on one of their devices. Bose headphones cannot be to blame for my tinnitus as I plugged in a 3.5mm jack into a laptop after the battery had died, there is no audio regulation by the Bose headphones unless it is coming from Bluetooth audio, the rest is just physics.

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Answer 2

Nov 7, 2023 6:35 AM in response to Amargy

twice now I have tried to answer you, and the mods removed your post again while I was typing a reply. I cannot help someone that doesn't want help, but instead wants to "vent".

good luck. I hope you get what you are looking for.

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Answer 3

Amargy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2023 8:56 AM in response to jeffreythefrog

You are asking a question that has an obvious answer, you can also ask me if I drink water and breathe oxygen, the problem is in something else - in the very first message I wrote that when changing the audio device from speakers to headphones, the volume automatically became maximum, I definitely could not increase it by my own will, there is simply no need for that, it is hard to imagine that someone would need to listen to audio in headphones at a volume above 100 decibels, accordingly, according to your logic, I should connect the headphones and immediately check the volume. According to my logic, the volume should remain the same as I set it last time, and even if somehow I could increase it accidentally, in the case of headphones there should be a notification that appears on the iPhone - “are you sure you want to increase the volume? this can damage your hearing”

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Answer 4

Nov 6, 2023 3:47 PM in response to Amargy

I believe you can go into your settings - Sounds & Heptatics and adjust your Volume there. The only drawback might be that the side key volume won't go up as loud and it might affect the loudness when you're talking on the phone.

it seems like there's another way too. Maybe where you link to your earplugs I can't think of what it's called but when you 1st use your earbuds and set them up for your ears/ hearing preferences

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Answer 5

Amargy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2023 5:46 AM in response to jeffreythefrog

I think that most headphones do not have a volume control, I have just such ones. In my case, the only volume control is the laptop and the volume became maximum without my knowledge and you can only notice it by accident. I repeat again - now in the world it is normal to have pre-installed fuses on phones and devices. Engineers or rather managers should think about safety, for example, airbags are installed in the car for a reason, earplugs are issued to workers at loud productions and airports. Do you think it is normal that your laptop can give 125 decibels in your ear? This is literally the volume of a siren. You can also suggest to carefully control the volume for children. You can write your response to the parents whose child has damaged hearing. And you would have no questions, if you had such an experience, you can trust me.

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Answer 6

Amargy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2023 8:40 AM in response to jeffreythefrog

All you can offer me is to constantly check the volume, I’m afraid this is not the most elegant solution and will cause paranoia in the product user :) The problem can be solved in three ways: 1) apple engineers should release a fix, as they have already done for the phone 2) I have to go work for Apple to fix this problem 3) buy additional software for control, something like “ear safe” plugin, I find it strange when you have already bought one of the most expensive laptops on the market, but I'll have to do it, because there are no over options

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Answer 7

Nov 7, 2023 8:36 AM in response to Amargy

you still haven't answered me. so I'll state my question again. "if your headphones have no volume controls, then the volume should be controllable on the mac's end. are you saying that you cannot control the volume on the Mac end?"

I have two pairs of headphones that are used depending on what I want to listen to. on one pair, I can control the volume with either the Mac, or the headphones. the other can only be controlled using the mac's volume controls.

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Answer 8

Amargy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2023 9:04 AM in response to jeffreythefrog

In the laptop settings there is only one way to control the volume - press the volume increase button and press the decrease button, there is no other control there, I can do it manually and check the volume manually each time, that's why I wrote - “you can only suggest checking the volume”

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Answer 9

Nov 7, 2023 9:02 AM in response to Amargy

here's all I can offer. if the volume gets maxed out when plugging the headphones in, that indicates that either you can only control the volume on the headphones end, or you need to turn down the volume down on the mac's end after plugging them in. if neither of those things occur, there is somehow an issues with those headphones. do you have another set that you can test that function?

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Answer 10

Apr 22, 2024 6:24 AM in response to SoulSkrix

SoulSkrix wrote:

Signed up just to say "me too".

That's fine. But the only people reading are other users. If you want Apple to know your concerns, you can do so here:

Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 11

Nov 6, 2023 3:51 PM in response to Amargy

Oops. Scratch what I just said. I just caught Mac.

it sounds like A definite problem. Have you YouTubed it? Good luck.

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Answer 12

Nov 7, 2023 4:45 AM in response to Amargy

if you are worried about hearing damage because of the volume being too loud, why not just lower the volume on the headphones? there is no law that says you need to use the headphones at max volume.

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Answer 13

Nov 7, 2023 5:39 AM in response to Amargy

if your headphones have no volume controls, then the volume should be controllable on the mac's end. are you saying that you cannot control the volume on the Mac end?

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