Hi elisatems,
As a fellow audio-focused Mac user, I understand how critical this is for your workflow. The fact that killing coreaudiod temporarily fixes it is a very important clue — it tells us the Core Audio daemon is entering a degraded state over time, likely due to a change in how Tahoe handles audio buffer management compared to Sequoia. Here are some steps that may help:
- Reset Core Audio preferences: Open Terminal and run:
sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist
sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
Then restart your Mac. These files store audio device configuration and can carry over incompatible settings from Sequoia that conflict with Tahoe's audio stack.
- Check and adjust your audio buffer size: Open Audio MIDI Setup (found in Applications > Utilities). Select your built-in output, click "Configure Speakers" and verify the settings. More importantly, if you're using your notation software with a specific sample rate (e.g., 48 kHz), make sure the system output matches. A mismatch between the app's sample rate and the system's can cause progressive distortion on Apple Silicon.
- Disable audio-related system features: Go to System Settings > Sound and turn off "Play sound on startup"and check that Sound Effects output is set to the same device as your main output. Then go to System Settings > Accessibility > Audio and make sure nothing unusual is enabled. Conflicting audio routing can stress coreaudiod.
- Create a script to restart coreaudiod without rebooting: Since you know killing coreaudiod works, you can make it more convenient. Open Terminal and run:
sudo launchctl kickstart -kp system/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod
This cleanly restarts the audio daemon without a full reboot. You could save this as a shell script on your desktop for quick access when the distortion starts.
- Check for Audio Unit plugins that may not be Tahoe-compatible: Open Terminal and run:
auval -a
This validates all installed Audio Unit plugins. Watch for any that report errors or failures — an incompatible plugin can destabilize coreaudiod over time even if it's not actively in use. The output will show PASS or FAIL for each plugin.
- Try creating a new user account: Go to System Settings > Users & Groups and create a temporary admin account. Log into it and test your audio workflow there. If the distortion doesn't occur in the new account, the issue is tied to something in your user profile (a launch agent, audio preference, or cached plugin state) rather than a system-wide problem.
- Safe Mode test: Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately hold the Power button until you see startup options. Select your disk, hold Shift, and click "Continue in Safe Mode." Test audio playback in Safe Mode — this disables all non-essential system extensions and clears some system caches. Even if you can't run your full notation software in Safe Mode, testing Apple Music playback there will tell you if the issue is system-level or related to an extension.
- Submit detailed feedback: Since this is clearly tied to the Tahoe upgrade, reporting it at apple.com/feedback under macOS > Audio with your specific hardware (M1 MacBook Pro 16", 2021) and the coreaudiod workaround detail would be very valuable. The engineering team can use that to trace the regression.
The coreaudiod degradation pattern you're describing (works fine after restart, gradually worsens) is consistent with a memory or buffer handling change in the Tahoe audio stack. This is the type of issue Apple typically addresses in a point update once they have enough diagnostic data.
Let us know if any of these steps help stabilize it!
