El Capitan USB audio problems.

Had a problem with a USB DAC styleaudio carat-hd1v. Never had issues before. Today after the upgrade to 10.11.5 the DAC wouldn't work. With everything on I unplugged the usb port, inserted again (directely plugged in a macmini usb port) and it started working fine.

I've been having USB problems with Bose Companion 5s. Shutting down Spotify/itunes, and then Activity Monitor, kill the Coreaudiod process, restart music, joy!

i have been having similar problems with my bose companion 5 speakers since i upgraded to 10.11.4. sometimes the imac doesn't recognize the bose speakers (per system preferences/audio). sometimes the speakers are recognized but there is no sound. things go back and forth when i shut down and then later power up the imac.

today the speakers were recognized but no sound.

i just powered down my imac, disconnected the power cable coming from the acoustimass module and unplugged the acoustimss usb cable from the back of my imac.

i then re-installed the bose system. it is now working. who knows how long?

well, that "fix" didn't last very long.... i give up.

The bug still has not been solved for me....My Audioengine D1 DAC keeps disconnecting (and making a horrible noise when it does). Things improved a bit under 10.11.4, but it barely works now with 10.11.5. The DAC works perfectly with my windows computers (and one of them is a 9 year old netbook still running XP). This is the first Apple computer I've bought (a 2015 Macbook Air) and it seems that it will be my last based on this.

Same here. 10.11.5 made no difference with my Yellowtec unit.

You can have sound (with the console going mad with log entries) and then suddenly the audio corrupts (like being fast forwarded with 20x speed and crackle) yet the file remains playing at its normal rate.

But hey, we should be thankful that the company led by talented Mr Cook has more pretty things to add to 10.12 ... Siri, for example (note irony).

Hej Siri, why is Appple's QA so poor today?

Hey Siri, do you want me to buy a new computer?

Hey Siri, does Apple care about users who use Apple products to make a living?

Hey Siri, is the future editing on an iPhone?

i updated my imac with 10.11.5 about 2 days ago. so far i haven't had any more trouble with my bose companion 5.

i didn't find a particular mention of the problem in the update descriptions, but i think apple has answered our prayers.

try it. backup before the update in case you don't like it, but maybe all of the usb speaker problems have been fixed.

Amplifying your comment I also have no issues with 10.11.5, though I'm plugging the Bose Companion 5 speakers directly into the Mac's USB port without a hub in-between. This was the solution for 10.11.4.

In response to other comments in this thread, in my business we are slowing moving away from Apple back to Windows (10) machines driven mostly by user complaints, though modulated by fiscal constraints. Apple is a consumer system with little that is unique to offer to the creative or "enterprise' users. Though I must admit I have yet to scrap my personal Apple hardware but I would struggle to reinvest when it is time to update the hardware.

but my bose companion was always plugged directly into my imac. maybe there was more than one thing that needed to be fixed.

i switched to mac in 2010. i first started using pc's in the mid 80's when applications had to be loaded from a floppy and user data saved to another floppy. we used dos to communicate with the pc.

i have always felt that i haven't understood my mac's the way i understood my pc's. i was better at diagnosis and fixes. i have never felt that the mac was as transparent as the pc. maybe that is because i used a pc for much longer than i did a mac. and that i never invested the time to understand the mac as i had with the pc....

i take back what i said about 10.11.5 solving my problem. the imac is back to its old bad habits again.

Hello guys! Another human frustrated , Me! I own scarlett 2i2 , and the only thing i managed to do is this:

1. Reset NSVRAM by restarting and after chime just hold OPTION+COMMAND +R+P and the soundcard must be pluged in your usb port on your mac

2. It is now showing in sys preferences and also in my Daw (logic pro) and can be selected ....

3. If you plug out your soundcard from mac, you wont be able to find it until you reset NSVRAM again , HOWEVER !!!!!! if you dont unplug ,scarlett continues to show though you restart or close the mac .....if you need to unplug ,just SHUT DOWN mac ,then unplug ....and plug it again when needed before power up...for me is the only solution by now which works !

Hope it helps you too !

Hi. I'm using NuPRIME uDSD and suddenly faced to same situation.
In my case, problem was USB3.0 HUB port no. which connected to DAC.

Once problem appeared, Only port 1 or 2 could drive DAC correctly.

port 3(or greater) couldn't output sound.

I hope it helps you.

I have the same problem - external bose speakers plugged into usb - Everyday when play spotify or similar it switches back to internal speakers. Have to unplug usb and plug in and then go to sound settings and re select bose.

Also noticed apple remote stopped working until restart Mac.

Very frustrating.

I have been having the same problems with my iMac and Bose companion 5 usb speakers for a long time,I have tried everything, I've even had a fresh install of el capitan and still the same. Is there any way it can be solved?

I used your solution serbanescuraoul
for a Presonus Audiobox 22VSL and it worked as you said. As soon as I unplug the device I need to reset the NVRAM. It is pretty bad. I am using El Capitan 10.11.5 on a MacBookPro Retina 2012. If someone finds a solution to this please share.