USB Audio Problems Late 2013 iMac - Clicking / Popping / Dropouts

I have not, but I certainly will once I try to use with Ableton. I've only been using with iTunes, Spotify, etc. Thanks for your feedback!

I'm about to return my iMAC 2013, but before I do that, I would love advice about the best, stable Mac that works great with audio interfaces (a Focusrite) and has not had these awful audio problems I don't mind going back to a G5 and would consider the new Mac Pro, but I don't need the fastest machine on earth. My old G4 worked well for 12 years but I finally had to replace it. Many thanks.

In all honesty it is Mavericks that is causing this WHOLE issue. Not fusion drive or any other hardware or software. I have a late 2010 iMac (no fusion drive) which came with 10.7 Lion and everything was perfect, even 10.8, until I hit 10.9!

Oh my, USB interface distortion, non recognition of audio inputs or outputs, all of that. I tried all the 'fixes', tried 10.9.2, and none of that restored the machine to the perfection i had before.

In the end I bought Lion from Apple for £14, backed up the files i really wanted, wiped the OSX partition and reinstalled 10.7.

And the machine now is as new, all interfaces and audio ports work perfectly.

I work in QA and find it outrageous that an OS 'update' can degrade a machine so much and still get released. Especially regarding the price of a Mac. Either audio testing was not conducted or it was conducted and deemed good to go!

No, you're wrong on that front, at least in my experience. I had clicks/pops pre Mavericks.

I do agree that it's outrageous this computer can't do audio production.

Okay just for the sake of ruling it out - Is it pretty safe to say that everyone experiencing these problems has either a fusion drive or an SSD?

Basically - Is there anyone on here who bought it with one of the standard hard drive options that is also experiencing these audio problems?

I had a Fusion drive iMac and had tons of issues. Returned it, and now I have an SSD model and I have no issues whatsoever...

I'm pretty sure it was a Fusion drive issue.

- Jon

I got a late 2013 27in iMac running Mavericks, with a 3TB fusion drive and an Edirol UA25 USB2 audio interface. I experienced a lot of the issues I've read on this thread, but persevered with cobbled-together solutions until I found something stable. I believe I have done so. Hopefully posting here may help someone.

So there are a few different issues. I'll go through them one by one.

1: Popping and clicking that increases in frequency and magnitude over time until the machine becomes unusable.

The was an odd one, as I only experienced it once. What baked my noggin was that I'm sharing my studio with a colleague who experienced it happening every time.

Eventually we worked out what the difference was. He was starting every studio session by installing a new piece of audio software from an external DVD RW drive. Turned out that any mass storage device plugged in to the USB 3 ports kicks off some kind of cascade effect. Dunno how or why, but if you're getting this issue try unplugging everything that's plugged in to your machine and adding things until you get the effect. (If it happens when nothing is plugged in then what the **** are you waiting for? Return the machine!)

So reset after installing things and leave backups until the end of a session.

2: Occasional popping and clicking while producing.

Some of this was particularly heavy plug-ins loading and unloading (Diva etc.) That's not really a problem. Some popping and clicking was caused by internet access, so closing the browser killed the issue dead. (Check for any apps you may have installed that constantly check the internet.)

3: Loud pops and bangs like a speaker being traumatically switched on or off.

Really odd one this. It seemed to be caused by USB devices that were self-powered. For me this was a synth (Virus TI2) and an external hard drive. The Virus would send the bangs over USB to my DAW (I would see them coming through the input channel over USB but I wouldn't hear them through my sound card.) The hard drive would randomly unmount itself, alarmingly. If both were plugged in, the unmount would be accompanied by a loud Virus 'Bang'.

The solution was to use a USB2 hub - but an UNPOWERED one. Using a powered one made it a lot worse.

I was also getting sparks as I plugged powered devices in to the iMac, where the USB plug came near the aluminium housing.

It's almost like something in the power isn't wired up properly and it sometimes discharges in a way the interferes with the USB signal...

My current system uses a Belkin Thunderbolt dock as well. As a stepping stone to the 'don't use mass media devices' solution, it went some way to clearing things up. But it wasn't a complete solution.

I'll be talking to Apple over the coming days to see if any of these issues are actually manufacturing faults.

Just wanted to ask and see if anyone with this spec: iMac late 2013 with SSD (not FD) and Apogee Duet2 could tell me if OS X 10.9.2 and the latest Apogee January 2014 driver has solved the audio issues.

I see mixed results in different threads so I would gladly hear from anyone since Im about to pull the trigger on a new SSD iMac but I won´t purchase until I know for sure.

If you have this exact spec I would be glad if you could let me know how it's working out. 🙂

Hello!

I´m just new to this and I was going to´change from PC to Imac in my musicstudio.

After reading almost all the post´s about this "not Apple" problem.....i wonder???

Is there any configuration that works 100% with USB soundcard or am I lost??

Thinking about Imac 27 I7 16Gb and SSD drive......and perhaps A USB drive for the musicfiles....any comments??

I will not bye another similar problem i have with my PC so.....just taking care of my money!! :-)

Would be nice if someone has an input to all this.......Cheers!

Air4s1

Prior to 10.9.2, my 2013 iMac with FD would cease to respond when using USB speakers. 10.9.2 solved the issue until this week. I now have horrible warbling during audio playback and lots of pops/static noise. The times that the pops/static are particularly bad I receive the following error in Console:

kernel[0]: USB Sound assertion in AppleUSBAudioStream at line 4767

I don't believe I installed anything new to prompt this issue and it happened without any OS level changes on my part. Any ideas on a solve? Thanks!

Hi All,

Well, I'm now on an SSD, but with Yosemite - my Audioengine D1 USB connected audio static issues are back!

I think Apple broke what they fixed back with 10.9 code...

Anyone else having similar issues?

- Jon

Yes, I'm having the same static/popping sound using the D1 interface on the new Retina iMac running Yosemite with a 3TB Fusion Drive. There doesn't seem to be much recent information on this issue out there, but it's a real problem.

The increase in latency when connecting the guitar via USB. At first, when to connection latency is almost equal to 0, but after 3-5 minutes already half a second.

Tried different devices USB. I think that this is a problem AudioCorepri work with USB. In what direction to solve the problem?

(I have a MacBookPro 2013 late 8GB RAM).

Outcome: Apple takes care of its poor buyers. It is very disappointing that such a cool company makes such mistakes!

I have a MacBookPro 2013 late 8GB RAM, SSD 256Gb. The increase in latency when connecting the guitar via USB. At first, when to connection latency is almost equal to 0, but after 3-5 minutes already half a second. Use my laptop for live recording impossible.

+1 on having this issue with a Retina iMac 3TB fusion drive with an Audioengine D1 connected over USB. SPDIF out solves the issue except I get clicks when iTunes advances to the next track.

Pity because audio is definitely much much better with a DAC.