El Capitan USB audio problems.

Upon Clean install some issues persist:

- Sporadic distortion (sort of out of sync)

- Sporadic Dropouts.

- Sometimes playback won't start properly : No sound.

OS X: 10.11.2 / Mac Mini 2012 / Presonus Audiobox iOne

Apple needs to pay attention to this issue.

I wouldn't hold your breath, they had knowledge of this issue 5 months before they even released El Capitan, and it still isn't addressed in the 10.11.3 beta. I would settle for them just acknowledging the problem and saying they are working on a fix, but they are completely ignoring it.

Just updated to 10.11.3 public release and my Nuforce Icon DAC still isn't being detected. 😟

The Nuforce Icon DAC looks like to be based on the PCM2706. This is also a USB v1 chip.

Same thing here ... 10.11.3 did't change anything

Apple, come on !

Very disappointed, bought my first mac in years to have Logic X and my Zoom R24 working as a control surface. Zoom have released a driver for El Crapitan but it only functions as a sound card and a distorted, dropping out, one at that. No control surface functions at all, in fact no midi recognised on the Apple machine. I'm unsure if this is a Zoom problem or Apple problem but having read this thread i am becoming increasingly disillusioned.

This weekend I will spend my time rolling back to Yosemite, it's blatantly apparent Apple has no intention of acknowledging or fixing this issue. I for one am fed up with the direction they have taken. Most changes they have made to both software and hardware in the past few years has been wrought with problems. I've had my 3,000 iMac back to the store twice for monitor replacements, and random shutdowns. The photos program is terrible, iMovie has become unusable, iTunes becomes more bloated and less intuitive with every release, their machines are glued shut, ram soldered to boards, nothing they make is upgradeable, the only thing that has kept me in the mac community as of late was their OS, and now I've lost faith in that as well. I remember the beige G3, big green button on top, drop the side down and access all of your components, same with the g4 and g5. Now they offer you 3 choices, a sealed mac mini, a sealed iMac, and a non upgradeable black tube. Form over function. Their only concern these days is phones and tablets. I have been in graphic design for 25 years, and the entire office I work with is so dismayed with apple over the past few years. Our shop will be switching over to an all PC environment in the near future, it's so sad but I can see the reasoning behind the move. It was a great ride.

I'm with you. The best Apple machines were built many years ago. I have almost no interest in Apple modern products besides OS X and iOS... and those aren't working that great either. So... yes ... going back (or for the first time) to PC makes sense.

I assume you guys have filed bug reports on this stuff (along with hardware type, etc)?

That said - and I know this is of now consolation if you have a piece of kit that's not working - it's generally always a bad idea to upgrade an operating system if you're dependent on a piece of hardware. This is especially true in the audio hardware space. Ironically, "pro" gear tends to have the slowest movement to new systems, mostly on account of the fact that pro shops tend to rarely upgrade working production machines so there is rarely any rush.

Digidesign/Avid (Pro Tools), for example, was always notoriously slow to provide working device drivers for new operating system releases. You'd wait a year sometimes. Universal Audio still has zero support for El Capitan. This isn't an El Capitan issue, per se... it's just par for the course with audio hardware and new operating systems in my experience.

The good news is that there seem to be enough hardware manufacturers who have still yet to shop working drivers that if there is an actual problem on the OS side you can be sure there are companies working with Apple to get the necessary fixes in place.

Also, as far as moving to the PC goes... grass is always greener. There were legion problems with Windows 7 and drivers when it was released. Then they got fixed. Same with 8. Same with 10. Way it goes.

HI Dylan,

I totally understand your opinion with pro gear. But most of the people here, have issues with consumer products. Little products like USB DAC that worth 100$ and which work fine with 10.9 and 10.10 should be compatible with 10.11 , don't you think so?

Dylan I don't think a bug report needs to be filed, this has been a known issue since the first beta release of El Capitan a year ago, 5 beta versions later they still released the OS and now 3 updates later and it still persists, I'm sure they are fully aware of the issue.

No it is of no consolation at all. If they choose to release an OS that they know beforehand isn't ready for release then don't.... and if you decide to say the heck with everyone that has audio equipment (most of which I bought at the apple store, Blue Snowball, M-audio control, M-Audio Keystation) then at least release the OS and warn people not to upgrade if they are using audio equipment. Releasing something you know isn't ready for release is just bad business ethics.

The good news that there are audio manufacturers that are working on drivers to fix an issue that wasn't broken in previous versions of the OS isn't good news to me, that's passing the buck and giving the finger to folks that enjoy the mac environment and audio and music equipment. The companies shouldn't have to work with apple to fix a problem apple created when apple already knows the solution.

I will agree with you in the grass is always greener and PC's have problems as well... this is why I have been in the mac environment for 25 years. Unfortunately the mac environment is getting polluted while the PC environment is cleaning its act up. I'm also tired of "oh you like to game? well then you should build a PC, macs aren't meant for gaming." "oh you like too use audio equipment? well you might want to use a PC because mac is notoriously slow in addressing audio issues." "Oh you want to put in a better graphics card? Well you should have built your own PC as mac doesn't allow you to swap cards anymore." Want to upgrade your ram? sorry in most cases you can't because we solder it to the board, make sure you order enough before you buy, and we'll give you no choice but to buy our apple ram which is 2-3 times more expensive than the same samsung ram you can buy off the internet. Don't even get me started on IOS problems as of late or the constant changing of cables and connectors rendering some older peripherals useless. And why do they have to come out with a new OS every year? How about just trying to update one and getting it to work?

This is all coming from a guy who has bled apple for 25 years, who has convinced many others to abandon their PC and windows and become a switcher because things just work on the mac side. Trust me I am dreading leaving the mac environment, between my iPhone, and iPad, and iTunes, and iPhoto and i-everything else it is going to be a huge pain in the butt, but I have seen nothing from this company over the past 3 years that makes me feel i have an advantage over the average PC user, and I certainly no longer feel my product is superior.

I’m going to leave my experience here as well. I just purchased “The Element” from JDS Labs and it came in about 5 days ago. It is pretty much a run-of-the-mill DAC/AMP. I’m having the same exact issue as everyone else has been having in this thread:

• Constant disconnects
• No audio playing when connected

I blamed JDS Labs for sending me a broken unit etc., but after doing a bit of research it is completely on Apple. I hope this issue gets sorted out.

It's strange.

I have an Apogee Groove and have had basically zero issues with it (running it at 24/192). Admittedly it's a higher unit and Apogee has a long history of stellar Apple support (being basically a first party), but it's doesn't even require drivers - just a class compliant device that you plug in and use.

Also had zero issues with my Duet on El Capitan either.

FWIW though, the Apogee One has issues with the iOS 9.2 release. Not sure if it's related at all but given the shared code between iOS and OS X, there may be something to it.

I have seen where you are proposing that Apple OS is discontinuing the support of USB V1.1 based chipsets. Does this seem to be true with other USB 1 version products such as jump drives or other peripherals? I'm not the most knowledgable of chip level electronics, but I have some questions/ideas.

Is the stopping of support only relevant to audio based products? I have an old MIDI/USB controller that has also stopped working, but it could also fall under the "audio" category.

Is there a way to upgrade the chips in our products to be USB 2 compliant?

Is there a way to build a USB 1 - 2 conversion device that would make OS think that there is a USB 2 device connected?

I'm honestly not sure what Apple intends to prove or accomplish with eliminating support for USB 1 other than throwing their weight around. The use of USB 1 on USB 3 ports doesn't seem to affect other devices to the point that they should be eliminated for the average user, and if speed is a problem, separate the ports into 2 separate busses so that a slow device won't have the effect on the bus with the faster devices. There seems to be no need to force older based chipsets out.

I'd say at this point, that if indeed the problem is that Apple is forcing equipment obsolescence of the average common user, they are not going to correct it at this point. They have not acknowledged this as of yet that I am aware either. This lack of notice, or option is most unprofessional and demeaning to their customers.

To be clear: it is still just a guess. Not all problems mentioned here might be caused by the same issue. May be one of the users just has a bad usb cable.
Having said that, many devices don't work and all devices of which I can find the chipset are USB 1.
In the OS there is a generic USB audio driver and I expect this driver to be the issue. It can be that it doesn't function anymore with USB 1 speed products and/ or that the usb audio protocol v1 isn't implemented anymore.
I don't know whether other USB 1 products function still, but I would expect so.
I would say that your midi/usb product could be affected, it is properly the same protocol/ driver, but am not sure.
- Is there a way to upgrade the chips in our products to be USB 2 compliant?
Practically not.
I could imagine for some devices to add a circuit board that does conversion from USB to I2S and inject that in the DAC, but it would be very challenging.
- Is there a way to build a USB 1 - 2 conversion device that would make OS think that there is a USB 2 device connected?

Interesting thought, practically not, I would say.
I'm honestly not sure what Apple....

Clean up the house. Old technology becomes a burden. If you don't support it, it won't give you trouble. What they fail to understand is that some external devices last way longer than their own stuff. "is most unprofessional..." To my opinion Apple hasn't taken business continuity serious enough on previous occasions as well. This creates a lot of distrust with professional users. A clear example is final cut and motion, where many users have doubts about Apple's commitment to video and film production in the long run.