Audio popping and crackling problems across the board with Mavericks

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405

I am having the same issue -- brand new MacBook Air. Sometimes it plays fine but more often the crackling and distortion begin and it continues to deteriorate no matter the volume level. Checked the headphones separately, no problem. Checked the audio files, they play fine from the phone. Playing the same audio files from the Air will sometimes degenerate with the crackling and distortion that sounds similar to when a pre-amp is overdriven.

PRAM reset worked for me, see http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405 for instructions

Thanks for the tip but this unfortunately did not work for me. I haven't noticed any difference in behavior.

kgale - and you tried using Audio MIDI Setup app as well? I found it worked, and then every so often I have to go back in and do it again. Still waiting for Apple to fix this one.

Questionable Sanity - At first it didn't work but it seems to be working having switched from 2ch-24 Integer to 2ch-32bit float for some reason. Thanks!

The crackily audio issue seems to have something to do with the built-in QT player in Mavericks.

I am getting crackling audio when playing, for example, mp4 files with QuickTime Player 10.3 (727.3).

However, when playing back the same file with QuickTime Player 7 (Version 7.6.6 (1709)) the audio/video plays absolutely fine with no audio crackling.

Download here: http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL923/en_US/QuickTimePlayer7.6.6_SnowLeopard. dmg

The system wide audio issues that people are having seems to be linked to the system changing the default source rate of the midi playback - in my case, it changes the hrtz to a lower setting, and I have to reset it back to 48000. The QT only problem has been covered in other threads.

I'm just reporting back that my previous report of success was premature. Bit rate and integer / floating point vlaue changes didn't make a difference in the end. I was faked out by the fact that changes sometimes seem to work briefly but not permanently. This is a serious bummer that so much music purchased from iTunes is rendered practically unplayable from the laptop. I've given up and only play back from my iPhone now. Perhaps there will be a fix in the next major OS release.

I had to do internet recovery to get to 10.9.1

problems gone.

Had the same issue... tried all of the above suggestions, nothing worked... until I did Internet Restore (10.9.2 re-installed itself), problems gone... let's hope it lasts!!!

MAMADEO UPDATE: !! - AFTER WORKING FOR A WHILE (AN HOUR OR SO), I SHUT DOWN... AND NOW THE PROBLEM HAS RETURNED - AFTER ONE SHUT-DOWN OVERNIGHT, AND REBOOT THIS MORNING - SAME OLD STATIC - SO, NOT CLEAR YET IF THE SHUT-DOWN MADE THE PROBLEM RECUR, OR JUST SOME AMOUNT OF PASSED TIME... YOU GET THE IDEA...

NEXT STEP ON MY PART - 1) ANOTHER INTERNET RESTORE, TO SEE IF IT ONCE AGAIN FIXES THE ISSUE, AND 2) IF IT DOES, WILL LET MY MACHINE RUN, AND SEE IF IT RECURS ANYWAY -

WHY DOESN'T APPLE ADDRESS THIS ISSUE??!! $200 DOWN THE DRAIN, THANK YOU (NOT!)

P.S. ANOTHER CTL-OPT-P-R DID NOT HELP... NOTHING HAS... MOVING ON TO INT. RESTORE..AGAIN... 😟

Have you tried opening up Audio Media Setup, clicking on your sound card (so buit-in output or your USB card if you have one, then check the format... if it's not 48000.0Hz, change it to that. I find my computer every so often after restart changes that back to 32000 which causes the popping and distortion.

Does not help - should a reboot also be necessary? I would think not... but no, this did not help -

FYI I'm using an external EDIROL UA-20 - worked fine when plugged into a friend's (non-10.9.2)Mac Air - and on my machine as well, until this dang OS upgrade... 😟

No. You should be able to make the change on the specific sound card, and it should be instantaneous. I've had YouTube videos paused that were making the popping noises and making the swap in midi fixed it without even having to reload the video.