Default sound output keeps changing

Question

Is there a way to lock down sound preferences so that they remain the same after a restart?I have an external audio device (Propellerhead Balance) connected to my iMac (OS X 10.8.4) and this is always selected as the default sound output, even though it&#x27;s not what I want.I&#x27;ve tried setting it to use the optical line out in bother System Preferences / Sound, and also in Audio MIDI.... but if I ever reboot the iMac, it defaults back to the external audio device.I&#x27;ve also tried deleting com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist, but the default version that&#x27;s recreated looks like the one below (and looks wrong).Any solutions?&lt;?xml version&#x3D;"1.0" encoding&#x3D;"UTF-8"?&gt;&lt;!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"&gt;&lt;plist version&#x3D;"1.0"&gt;&lt;dict&gt;          &lt;key&gt;0&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;dict&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;current default input device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;LogMeInSoundEngine:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;current default output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;current default system output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;primary default output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;primary default system output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;secondary default output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;secondary default system output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;          &lt;/dict&gt;          &lt;key&gt;201&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;dict/&gt;          &lt;key&gt;501&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;dict&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;current default input device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineInput:1B,0,1,0:1&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;current default output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;current default system output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;primary default input device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineInput:1B,0,1,0:1&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;primary default output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;primary default system output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;secondary default input device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleUSBAudioEngine:Propellerhead:Balance:0000001004040:2,1&lt;/ string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;secondary default output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleUSBAudioEngine:Propellerhead:Balance:0000001004040:2,1&lt;/ string&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;secondary default system output device&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;AppleUSBAudioEngine:Propellerhead:Balance:0000001004040:2,1&lt;/ string&gt;          &lt;/dict&gt;          &lt;key&gt;Meta_UIDList&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;array/&gt;          &lt;key&gt;Plug-In.com.apple.audio.AirTunesHALPlugin&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;dict&gt;                    &lt;key&gt;discoveryEnabled&lt;/key&gt;                    &lt;true/&gt;          &lt;/dict&gt;          &lt;key&gt;version&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;integer&gt;1&lt;/integer&gt;&lt;/dict&gt;&lt;/plist&gt;

m0thr4 · Answer

Hmm... it seems this is just teh way Apple Macs behave - your devices are scanned whenever you reboot, and any previous settings you had are discarded.It seems ridiculous, as some things that are technically audio output devices (e.g. Guitar Audio interfaces like the Stealth Pedal) are completely unsuitable for processing all your audio and, in my case, I don&#x27;t even have anything connected to the Stealth pedal&#x27;s output (as I&#x27;m using it purely as a MIDI controller).I will log this to Apple for feedback and see if they can fix it in their next operating system.  My current workaround is a backup of my plist file, and a shell script which runs at boot time and copies my preferences back in.