Intermittent Audio Issue with Mac Studio & Studio Display

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Level 1

8 points

Intermittent Audio Issue with Mac Studio & Studio Display

Hi everyone,

I own a first-generation Mac Studio connected to a Studio Display. Most of the time, the audio works flawlessly, but every few days, it suddenly stops. The system doesn’t seem to recognize any issue—applications continue playing audio, and SoundSource shows activity on the audio meter—yet no sound is actually produced.

Disconnecting and reconnecting the Studio Display temporarily resolves the issue, but having to do this repeatedly is becoming quite frustrating.

This seems like a software problem. Is anyone else experiencing this? Are there any known workarounds or fixes?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Mac Studio, macOS 15.3

Posted on Feb 4, 2025 3:34 AM

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Answer 1

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Top-ranking reply

hcsitas

Level 6

13,940 points

Feb 4, 2025 4:28 AM in response to boborbt

Have you tried swapping the cable? What else is connected to the Display?

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

15,761 points

Feb 7, 2025 4:30 PM in response to boborbt

I had an early Mac Studio with Studio Display and sound was always fine. As suggested try another TB cable.

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Answer 3

boborbt Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 23, 2025 4:04 AM in response to hcsitas

Hi, sorry for the delayed response.

hcsitas wrote:

Have you tried swapping the cable? What else is connected to the Display?

I haven’t tried swapping cables (more on that below). Nothing else is connected to the display.

I’m experiencing the same issue at home with my Mac Mini connected to a Studio Display, which makes me doubt that the cable is the problem. In both cases, I’m using original Apple cables, and they seem to be functioning properly. Also, if the cable were the issue, simply reconnecting it shouldn’t make a difference—but it seems that resetting the Studio Display by reconnecting it is what actually resolves the problem.

I’m inclined to think this is a bug in the Studio Display software. Since I haven’t seen others reporting the same issue, I suspect it might be related to my Mac’s specific configuration. One possible factor is that I use Rogue Amoeba SoundSource, which is excellent, but it might be interfering with the Studio Display’s functionality.

This has been a tough issue to troubleshoot. I could try disabling SoundSource for a while, but the problem is inconsistent—it sometimes doesn’t occur for weeks, while other times it happens multiple times in a single day.

Anyway, thanks for the help!

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Intermittent Audio Issue with Mac Studio & Studio Display