Q: iMac late 2013 + Mavericks + USB Sennheiser - input freeze

Same issue with my audioengine DAC. Crackle, Crackle, Pop, Pop! Sometimes it works for a week then other times it is very frequent. I have tried disconnecting all other things I can not pinpoint what where the culprit lies.

Very very very unsatisfied with this since I spent a LOT of money on this computer. It is a shiny computer but USB issues work on computers that cost a magnitude less!.

I don't know if this is software or hardware. If its hardware I bet a 1000 bucks Apple ignores this.

I have been having similar problems with a Mac mini (mid 2011) with the Mac freezing up. I had a number of calls with AppleCare and ended up taking it in to the Apple Store. Their opinion (and mine) is that it was a non-powered USB hub that was causing the freeze ups.

I've had the mini home for several days now with a powered USB hub and the problems seem to have gone away.

I am now buying the iMic hoping that it will work OK with the mini running Mavericks but if not I should be able to use it on an old Windows PC.

Perhaps other's problems might also be related to unpowered USB hubs.

Jerry

No I did not use any hub for the previous 2 imacs.

Currently based of some of the suggestions I use a powered Hub just for the microphone and mouse. Using the mouse to check on the hub.

This reduced the problem from the USB headset degrading in 10-30 seconds to the USB headset Degrading over 2-12 Hours. However the very first time I plugged it in ,it worked perfectly for 3 days, why I can't repeat that I have no idea.

Restarting the Mac resolves the issue until it repeats, no combination of unplugging or restarting any other device makes any difference.

I continue to regret my decision to upgrade my 1 year old iMac which worked perfectly to this dud.

I have a slightly different problem. When I plug my Logitec H650e USB microphone into my iMac (running Mavericks), it works for a few seconds and then the input completely freezes. I speak into the mic but no one can hear me and I see no levels in the System Preferences > Audio pane. The H650e is listed as the input device, and I can hear output through the headphones, but no input comes through.

The strange thing is I have a new Macbook Air running Mavericks as well, and the H650e works fine with it.

I do have a powered USB hub attached to the iMac, but the H650e is plugged directly into the iMac.

I have the same problem with a Sennheiser headset. After some troubleshooting, I determined that just having the USB adapter plugged in causes the iMac to eventually crash. I decided against trying out different USB adapters. since the consensus in this thread is that others are causing the same problem).

Then I realized that the headphone jack on the new iMacs supports audio out *and* audio in (because it's compatible with iPhone headsets) and decided to try an adapter that breaks out the unified audio in/out port into two separate ports. I bought this one from Amazon, and it works fine.

This just gets worse and worse.

I've been talking with an Apple support supervisor. He took me through some troubleshooting steps, and finally suggested reinstalling the OS, which I did. That didn't help. In addition, the three USB sound devices I use (Logitech H650e, Blue Yeti Mic, Griffin iMic) all work just fine on my Macbook Air running Mavericks. This suggests the problem is not software related, but a hardware problem with my iMac, or perhaps a hardware/software conflict.

He is now suggesting I go to an Apple Store. That is going to be a huge time suck, especially because in my case the problem is intermittent and not always easy to demonstrate. Not to mention the inconvenience and time lost taking it down there.

I did go the Apple Store for that 2 times!!! They have replaced my iMac 2013 twice! The problem is really on every iMac. I can't believe that Apple have that kind of support.

Go the the Apple Store, Go to the Apple Store, Go to the Apple Store, as soon as the probleme isn't something with iTunes or a "How to to do" they are really bad at support.

I did try 5 different headset all the same issues. The only thing that work for me now is using my iPhone headset .... Imagine ...

Don't loose your time to go the the Apple Store the problem is not YOUR iMac but ALL IMAC!

Yeah, I am basically hoping that someone else will blink first and take their iMac to the Apple Store and report on the outcome, so I don't have to :-)

And now that I say that, I see that someone else did do that and got nowhere with it. So I am just going to keep at it with the adapter that works for me (which, of course, doesn't help anyone with an actual USB device).

The reason that the iPhone headset works is that is doesn't use USB. Other devices that don't use USB work fine as well — see my post above.

Yep! I knew this already. I past so many hour on this issue with Apple... Ouf. Fed up.

Wow, that's incredibly depressing to know that replacing the iMac didn't help.

I wonder why there aren't more threads on this in the forums if it affects all iMacs? Seems likely that a lot of iMac users use USB mics. Wouldn't there be more discussion of problems here it affected all iMac users?

So I just paid $3k for an iMac that I can't use any of my USB microphones/headsets. I use these every single day because I do a lot of podcasts, interviews, etc.

Fortunately I have my Macbook Air that I can use for recording these things, but that's not really an acceptable workaround.

I wonder if a firmware update might be able to address this? Has everyone on this thread submitted feedback through this link: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ I think the more of us that do this, the better chance something will happen (though I'm not holding my breath).

I'm going to start another thread with a more general problem to see if others are having problems with non-Sennheiser USB/audio devices.

Yes the Sennheiser is probably putting people off the topic. I have tried three different headsets none of which are Sennheiser, If it was a matter of buying x usb headset because it works I simply would. But not one person in this thread has said that one of their usb headsets is working only non-usb.

Do you all think it's strange that there hasn't been a single reply from someone else experiencing this problem to my post titled "USB audio problems with 2013 iMac"?

Is it possible that the issue only affects some iMacs and not others? That theory wouldn't seem to be supported by the experience of CyberVoyou who is now on his third defective machine. But I can't help wondering why there aren't more articles on the web, posts in this discussion group, etc. Usually when there's an issue like this that affects all computers within a certain product range, there's a ton of discussion about it.

Anyhow, I'm scheduled to take my iMac to the Apple Store on Thursday afternoon. Probably a waste of time, but I want there to be a record of these problems very early on in the event that Apple ever acknowledges the issue and a solution becomes available.

I posted another thread called 2013 iMac owners: do you have a USB headset/mic that works?. The idea is to find out whether anyone with a 2013 iMac running Mavericks has a functioning USB headset or mic. If they do, that means the problem is either limited to a certain range of iMacs, or it's a software issue we haven't figured out yet.