volume fluctuation on macbook air

2013 MBA, i7, 8GB,256GB here....

I am also experiencing audio fluctuations on browser (Safari,Chrome) related video, i.e youtube, netflix, CNN, HBO etc.

Audio level normal -> Loud -> Silence/No audio -> Audio level normal

Issue not as severe when watching video from NAS with VLC.

No issues when using Spotify or iTunes with audio only.

But still, annoying as **** when you pay for a premium product to encounter these kind of issues.

Not sure what i will do next, quite a hassle (in Sweden atleast) with the only Genius bar beeing a 24h roundtrip with car from where i´m located...So not to keen on that!

2013 MBA base model.

Also experiencing the issue, don't like the idea of getting a replacement because this machine has Samsung screen and Samsung SSD. Add to that the hassle of copying files etc.

Some speculation:

My thought on the issue is that power management (or power-saving if you will) is causing the level changes. It would make sense why this new energy efficient model is expericiening the issue, and older models have never had this kind of problem. (if you look at the iFixit teardown, the audio chip is the same as previous generations)

Does anybody knows if the problem persists under bootcamp? That would rule out a hardware error.

I'm experiencing the same problem.

Volume fluctuates while watching streaming videos on Chrome

I've a brand new MacBook Air 13'', 8GB RAM, i7, 256GB,

just a few software installed (Twitter, TweetDeck, Chrome, Pages, Skype)

Same problem, same computer. I took it in to the "genius" bar and was of course told no one else has reported the issue. Same answer when I called. Since it was within the first 14 days, I returned it and got a new one, hoping that would fix the problem. It didn't.

Very frustrating since I paid >$1500!!!!

Went to local genius bar (past 14 days), the guy there was able to reproduce the problem, but said they never heard about the issue (but promised to report it). They approved ordering a replacement unit, but I decided to get Macbook Pro Retina 13 instead, which I did not like, so returned it also. Now ordered Sony Vaio Pro 13... Too bad they have not addressed the issue, since I would've kept my original Air if not for that.

I'm having the same issue as well!

I notice it when watching episodes online - when a video breaks where an episode would normally go to commercial and then comes back after a few seconds of silence, the audio is significantly quieter. I'm listening to this video right now http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9458944 (admittedly an annoying video), and the audio has cut to about 1/4 of its regular volume and then slowly increased back to regular volume probably 4 or 4 times during the length of the video. When I paused the video to copy the share link to post here it did it again.

Same issue here too! It is super frustrating. Other than that I like the Air, but my frustration is building rapidly.

I am also thinkin about dumping the Air for the Vaio Pro too. Let me know how you like it.

I'm beginning to wonder if this volume fluctuation isn't some 'magic' that macos is attempting to do with the dual microphones and noise cancellation?

I notice that I'll have the volume up and if the movie/show gets quiet, by the time it tries to get loud again, the volume has decreased... it's almost like it's got a feed back loop of some type...

volume goes quieter in the output and the system lowers the output volume... odd thought, but...

EDIT: sound preferences/input has a "use ambient noise reduction" check box. just turned that off to see if it has an impact...

-jbl

my mba is doing the same thing, hopefully apple will come up with a software fix soon

Blah. Can't edit forum posts after a while... anyway, no, turning off the ambient sound bits didn't fix it.

-jbl

Just got my 13" MacBook Air the other day and noticed this volume flucuation issue during playback of rentals from iTunes. No sound issues when playing music, just video. Thought it was due to streaming, but then I played some iTunes movies that I own and had the volume go up and down sporadically; when playing the movie on my iMac, no problem. Also have heard the sound variance when viewing several internet videos (BBC, CNN, etc). I did try to deselect the "use ambient noise reduction" box under sound preferences, but that did not fix the problem. Hope this is figured out sooner than later.

Actually forgot I had the BOOM program in purchased apps, installed it and it appears to have leveled out the volume fluctuation. I have only watched a couple of videos with the app running, but so far so good. I'll provide an update if anything changes.

Unfortunately, I'm also having this same problem. Mine is i7/8gb/256gb. Ordered online and went to picked it up 4 days ago at the Apple store. I've pretty much been watching videos for most of the day since yesterday since it's my day off and whatnot and I've been experiencing this problem ever since. I mean it's starting to be quite annoying because the audio goes low in the middle of the video so I had to turn the volume up and then it goes back up again to normal. It's all the same for downloaded videos and online streamed videos. Now, I'm contemplating if I should return it, replaced or get it fixed. 😟

Same issue here

2 weeks old i5/4gb/13 inch.

Volume on internal speakers drops seemingly randomly when listening to content on safari and iTunes. Gut feeling is that it's a software issue and I'm hoping for a fix.

Jono

I noticed that the shell case I have on mine, covers the second mic hole. Is anyone else using one? Also found that pausing web video and starting right away doesn't affect it, but pausing and waiting 5 secs does.