snap crackle pop noices from iMac 27

Oh no! That's the replacement Gr Obi? Such a shame.

The Apple has fallen far from the tree.

I am just puzzled why these speakers on the iMac are having such quality control issues. Seems like if they would have made the iMac just a bit thicker, we would've had better speakers. Not sure why the speakers are having these popping problems, but it seems like a logical conjecture that it may be due to the thinness of the machine.

However, It's not like the iMac is portable, so why make it so thin, if the speakers are having such problems and lack bass from the get-go? Seems like a dumb compromise to me, as the speakers on the last model were definitely better. That's the consensus on all the reviews.

Really hope it can be solved via a firmware update.

i think apple just didn't test it in a silent room or something for defects.. because it really gets annoying and is noticeable.. i love apple but you simply can't make consumers pay a permium price for a product what was put out in a hurry and lacks alot..because if they had taken their time they atleast would've noticed this cereal pop sound.

i hope apple goes back to where they were creative and the products they put out were perfect.. permium price deserves a permium product not a second hand ebay product. i kinda feel ripped off for the comprimise of design.

hopefully they can make a turn around with a update or something..

so sad.

My imac also arrived with several scratches on the front. Although Apple did offer some money back in return I was still unimpressed that such an expenisive product arrived damaged.

if I was you, I wouldn't sattle for that. I know i'm not going to sattle for anything less than the product they display in their commercials.. (even though I don't have the time to do all this). They should get their sh*t togheter before they put a 3000$+ computer out there. makes me feel ripped off by the compromise of design and making a product in a hurry to make money. Without any kind of quality to it, the status we get our products in are second-hand at best.

wonder what steve would have done about all this. probably a turn around in management as how it was.

obi.

what do you plan to do about it - refund?

We'll you obviously don't know my full story. idon'tblameyou.
in total before I recieved my new iMac (after long waiting.). I already had a total of 4 replacements for the iPad i bought and 2 from third party company products (a mic and a stand for the iPad.) this all through the apple online store. with the 2 iMac replacements i have now i come up to a total of 8 replacements and the products quality is still questionable. so yes i would say my experience with apple must be my worst consumer experience ever! they did give me an compensation as i use my iPad for work and i'm a animator and thus rely on my electronics.. but how dumb is that? nothing happens after you get the compensation the product is still sh*t with problems. (excuse my french) monday i got a appointment with apple here in The Netherlands, where i go explain to them again the whole situation. (wich i've done 8 frikin times with 1 problem added each time.) i will keep everyone here posted on how apple will treat my case.

now you probably get why i feel ripped off. i depend on time to make animations and so my electronicsI haven't made a dime in the past month because of all this bs. and the loss of icome really adds up.

obi.

I also have the same problem: received a new 27" iMac in February and noticed an intermittent crackling sound from the bottom right hand side of the screen. Couldn't work out if it was from from the speakers at the base or from within the case in this vicinity. Happened 2 or 3 times a minute after switiching on but after half an hour or so seemed to get less or dissappear, with the odd crackle on random basis. Didn't waste too much time in getting back to Apple on it as thought it was a fault specific to my machine and it was collected within 3 days so didn't get much more opportunity to test the frequency of the crackiling any more. I have just finished setting up the replacement machine Apple sent, another brand new 27" iMac and it has the SAME problem. Not sure yet whether same frequency etc as haven't had time to test out enough and frankly not sure what I'm going to do yet. Very annoying indeed though.

hi gregory

i would advice everybody to just keep on calling apple with this problem.

maby then they will do something. im now waiting on my 3rd iMac replacement.

worst experience ever. already waited 3 months and going in to the 4rd and still haven't received one up to apples standards. im now talking with apple senior advisor to come to a solution.

very sad Steve would've slapped who ever is responsible for putting this out before thoroughly tested.

obi

I'm having the exact same problem with mine. Picked it up last Wednesday. Worked fine for 3 days and now suddenly all this random popping/crackling. Called Applecare. The guy was puzzled, spoke to a senior engineer, and recommended that I take the unit back to the store for review. I'd think about asking for a replacement but that does not seem to be helping people right now if it's a manufacturing issue. The only upgrades are the hybrid drive and 32gb ram. Very aggravating.

You should establish that you want a replacement. If you don't record that within 14 days from new, unless there is a formal recall you may lose that privilege.

Yes, good advice, I shall take it up with Applecare.

Seems that Apple has no solution to this. It's not getting widely reported (at least from what I gather via Google and the like). But the fact that people are getting 3-4 replacements and having the same problem worries me. I happen to have a very quiet home office so those pops may as well be 4th of July fireworks.

For anyone else monitoring this thread having the same issue, do you all have the hybrid drive? I saw that reported on other threads but would be surprised if that's what is causing it.

One guy on Macrumors could recreate the sound by pressing on the black glass at the bottom left and right sides of the screen. I was able to do this as well, but it sounds like the random pop is coming from different places on the back and thought it might be some sort of glass "settling" issue. But if that were the case then I'd imagine we would see a lot more reports of the same problems.

For anyone else dealing with this, if you go to http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=16864803&postcount=22 you can download the sound file with the offending noise and see if it matches what I'm dealing with.

Couple of points I thought I would mention to see if they are common to other people: the first is that both machines I have had with the problem had the new fusion drive, in my case the 3TB version. Secondly, in both cases the problem diminishes (but does not necessairly dissappear) with time - say half an hour. The second machine, which I have only had set up since today, is fine at the moment, but if I go away and let it go to sleep for a while, when it wakes up the faint crackling/popping starts again 1 to 3 times a minute.

Mine is the fusion drive, 1TB version. The only physical change I made to mine was upgrading the ram to 4x8gb Kingston sticks. Picked it up last Wed. No noise that I recall from Wed-Sun. Suddenly Sunday afternoon I started hearing the series of pops. Would diminish after 30 min but still get random ones from time to time. Blacked-out the screen overnight. This morning within using it for 30 seconds I got several pops.