Sound from Thunderbolt Display crackles intermittently

I have the same problem, it is just as if the sound can not follow the and it scrunch.. I have 2 x 27" and same problem on boths.??

Hello,

Same issue when sound coming from SAFARI (youtube, netflix). Not from itunes (up to now).

Mac Mini i7 late 2014.

If I turn to sound from Mac mini and then again to thunderbolt, problem goes but not for a long time.

Regards

Jérôme

Same here. Late 2013 MBP with retina connected to TBD. When I first start up, sound is fine, but after a while sound playing on videos (primarily in the browser, have not tried with iTunes extensively) becomes garbled. Have to unplug and plug TBD back in.

Anyone know if this is a MBP or a TBD issue?

I've got the same issue. For me it appears typically after 5-10 minutes of continuous sound using the Thunderbolt display speakers, the sound becomes distorted, with crackling and distortion. I've found that if I momentarily change the audio output to my internal MBP (13" late 2014) and then back to the Thunderbolt speakers, the problem goes away for another 5-10 minutes. Sometimes I get as much as 20 minutes. This also seems to true for *any* external audio. Using a USB Jabra speakerphone yields the same result: after 5-10 minutes the sound becomes distorted. This is also true regardless of the source: skype, itunes, gotomeeting, vidyo... I first thought that it was network related, until iTunes did it as well on locally stored videos.

This did NOT happen on my previous setup, which was a 13" MBA (2012? I don't have it any more...) connected to either USB speakers or the Thunderbolt display. The MBA was running Mavericks, so two things have changed: MBA->MBP and Mavericks->Yosemite. Which was the killer? Don't know.

Both my colleague and me, who are running 13" MPBs with retina attached to 27" TB displays, have experienced this recently with video conferencing. Once with Skype and once with GoToMeeting. After about 15 minutes, the audio suddenly becomes terrible - all crackling and distorted. The only way to solve it is to unplug the MPBs from the TB and carry on. Frustrating.

I've just this week started having this problem, the sound becomes garbled and distorted after a bit. If you stop all audio for a while and turn it back on it goes away, but quickly becomes garbled again.

I think this might be an issue with the display, but I think it might also be occuring because my macbook is overheating.

It happened just now with my Macbook Air when I had a process take over the CPU and it started running very hot. As a test I quickly plugged in my Macbook Pro and the static wasn't there. Of course, since it goes away if you stop the audio for a bit, it's hard to tell if it's a legit test. But so far I'm not ruling out that it may be an issue when a Macbook XYZed starts running really hot.

Wanted to sound in on this.

This is exactly my issue, although I'm running an older LED Cinema Display on my MBP. This isn't just happening with the Thunderbolt displays, as it's occurring with mine as well. And also right after the Yosemite update--prior to this no issues. This display has two connections, the USB one and the mini DP one (three if you count the power cord--tho that isn't important to this issue).

Same crackling sound when it does occur. The volume control will also be delayed by a second or two and the "pong" sound is distorted, delayed, or mute. If I'm using Mumble, two things will usually happen tho: 1) either the voices coming through will get crackly, but apparently I sound fine to listeners, or 2) people will hear me all crackly or robotic, tho I'll still have sound. (I've though it could be a Mumble server issue, but I've been using the program for years with no issue, and this has also occurred right after the Yosemite update.

Generally the issue will occur when I'm running a lot of media/sound-heavy programs. Having Safari (running sound and video), World of Warcraft, and Mumble open will usually trigger an issue in an hour. Unfortunately, sometimes it will not happen at all for days, and other times it will occur back to back within minutes. It has also happened just running Safari and other sound and media programs. For me, Safari seems to be one of the big culprits that eventually overwhelms the sound system resources.

When the issue occurs, I have been able to solve the issue in 3 different ways:

1) Quit all running programs that have sound, especially Safari. Most times, just quitting Safari will clear up the sound a bit, but it seems I have to quit all programs to completely "reset" the sound.

2) Using SystemPrefs>Sound (or option-click on the menubar volume control) to change the output sound to go to the MBP, then setting it back to the display.

3) Unplug and re-plug the USB connector running from my display to the MBP. This forces the output sound to the MBP speakers, so doing the same as in 2. Unfortunately, sometimes the MBP won't switch the sound back to the display when it's plugged in again (which I then have to manually set).

Reading other posts on the forums, seems that this has been occuring since 2011 in some form or another, so it isn't just the Thunderbolt Display.

Of course not all users have this issue, otherwise more people would make a stink about it. But we do have a forum here to post our issues if we happen to be in the minority.

And we also hope the replies are constructive.

So I have 2 Thunderbolt displays. One is overheating and intermittently blacking out. I am trying to sort that one out too but my other TBD has the audio issue other folks are reporting. One thing I just tried which seems to be helping is to reroute my TB to go from the TBD direct to the Mac Mini then route a cable from the TBD to my Pegasus drives. In this way the first TB device on the chain is the display. This isn't the best routing for me as I like to swap the display for use with my MBP sometimes (due to my other display not working). Routing through the display would mean not having my TB drives connected to the Mini while I use the MBP...

Anyhow, just testing a theory which is that there is an issue with audio going through chained devices which are under load. Will update this thread after I have tried this for a few days. So far so good though, until this morning I could only get about 30 seconds before the audio went to garbage.

I have this same issue. Had it when I upgraded then upgrade OS and it seemed to fix itself then now I am on the BETA upgrade and it came back.

I have two 27" displays with Thunderbolt. It sounds like interference or "crackling" sometimes I have gone into settings and changed sound output but this doesn't always work. I feel it might be something with Thunderbolt not being able to stream music and video. Kicker is the sound issue is coming from my BOSE USB connected speakers???? Used to work great till I upgraded the operating system.

I have the very same issue with my Thunderbolt Display. I have a 2013 Mac Pro (purchased March 2014) and a 27" Thunderbolt display (also purchased in March 2014). Today, the sound started crackling- switching to the second Thunderbolt port clears it up, but only temporarily. My wired keyboard, which is plugged into a USB port on the display, also sometimes cuts out and letters I'm typing don't enter. My wired mouse is plugged into a keyboard USB port, and it cuts out at random (I had to stop using my wireless mouse because it was intermittently not working and Apple doesn't seem to have paid any attention to it). This is very annoying!

I bought the display recently and am now too having this same issue. It is connected to a Macbook Pro 13", early 2015 Retina. It is a shame because it is a nice looking monitor, but this is a deal breaker. Researching the issue, it looks like it has been ongoing for years, so I'm not even going to bother troubleshooting. Just returning the thing, getting my money back and buying a non-Apple monitor.

When you pay $1000 for a monitor, you shouldn't have to deal with this sort of stuff. 😟 Think my Apple days are coming to an end.

My Thunderbolt display is covered by Apple Care (as is my Mac Pro). The display sound is perfect when hooked up to my MB Pro. After some troubleshooting with Apple, the issue seems to be a bad sound card in the Mac Pro. We'll know more when I go to the local Apple Store for a fix on Sunday.