El Capitan USB audio problems.

You are correct. Universal USB can't be updated with software. Apple is screwing a lot of people who have these type of devices.

I did download the recent update, which had "Resolves an issue that prevents certain Audio Unit plugins from functioning properly". This did nothing for my DAC.

@Marco29dpt, thanks for the suggesting resetting the SMC but this did not work for me. I have a nu force u dac 2.

I have the Presonus AudioBox USB & MacBook Pro (early 2013). Have El Capitan 10.11.1 installed. Am using a high quality USB 2 cable http://www.cablestogo.com/product/28103/3m-usb-2.0-a-b-cable-black-9.8ft. Have had no problems at all with the AudioBox USB. But oddly if using basically the same cable, but 5m length http://www.cablestogo.com/product/28104/5m-usb-2.0-a-b-cable-black-16.4ft the MacBook will supply "power" to the Audiobox (as the front Red Light is on) but in "Sound Prefs" & Audio/Midi Utility... Audiobox does not even show up. Am aware that AudioBox USB is 1.1 & Macbook Pro USB ports are 3.0. Before I updated the MacBook Pro from Yosemite 10.10, to El Capitan 10.11.1... The AudioBox USB worked perfectly fine w/ the 5m USB 2 cable. It seems obvious somewhere that El Capitan 10.11.1 has altered it's USB 3 drivers in some way. The AudioBox USB is a class compliant core audio device, that requires no driver install for OS X 10.4 & above http://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-USB/downloads

Also, resetting SMC & NVRAM does not solve the issue

hello

I dont know well what is dac 2.??? but my problem with EL CAPITAN was the disappears in the "preference system " the BOSE usb audio when EL CAPITAN

wake up..... disconnect usb and reconnect usb BOSE usb audio it came back..... resetting SMC & NVRAM does solve the issue for me...

Marco

@xearthlingx Let me ask you some questions since i have the same Presonus Audiobox usb BUT my macbook pro is late 2011.

If you use a high speed USB 2.0 9.74 ft cable your presonus audiobox usb works fine ? No disconnection from the USB while reproducing itunes, spotify, etc ?

Whats different when you use the 5m cable ?

Could you explain with more detail since my Presonus Audiobox gets disonnected from USB in less than 10min while reproducing music, so i have to restart itunes or spotify to get the sound back there.

Thank you!

Using a shorter 3m USB 2 cable, solved the problem for me w/ the Audiobox USB (running El Capitan 10.11.1 on Macbook Pro - Late 2013) AudioBox USB completely stays connected & never disconnects with any audio apps I use (including iTunes, Spotify, Logic Pro X, Pro-Tools 12, MegaSeg). AudioBox is USB 1.1 & requires no driver, since it is a class compliant USB midi/audio device.

I've tried using a 5m USB 2 cable here & get bad results (AudioBox will rarely connect, unless repeatedly plugging the device in & out). When I can finally get it connected... I get no audio output at all from the AudioBox & with-in a few min, it disconnects. Oddly I did not have this problem w/Mavericks & Yosemite, on the exact same MacBook Pro & AudioBox USB.

My best guess could be that the Macbook Pro has USB 3 ports & Audiobox USB is 1.1. Apple may have updated the IOUSB 3 drivers w/ El Capitan, making them more strict for USB standards.

I have Bose Companion 5 speakers and had problem with the control pad volume adjustment was disabled from the pad could only mute.

I updated from 10.11.0 to 10.11.1 and it fixed my problems also good to go to utilities--> audio midi setup and make sure output is set to 6 channel-16bit Integer

I go to configure speakers --> Multichannel--> dropdown menu--> 5.1 Surround--> apply

So from what I've gathered, the following devices do not work in El Capitan, but worked fine under Yosemite:

Nuforce dac,

Audioquest Dragonfly,

SoundBlaster X7,

Emotiva XDA-2,

Audeze Deckard,

Duet2,

M-Audio M-Track Quad,

Tascam US-1800,

Avid MBox,

MSB Analog Dac,

Fast Track Ultra,

Audio Kontrol 1,

Northstar Dac 32,

Meridian Explorer,

Miyo,

Bose Companion 5,

Teac A-H01 DAC,

ZOOM R16,

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2,

Native Instruments Traktor,

Yamaha CD-S3000 DAC,

M-Audio Keystudio 49i

...but it's nothing that El Capitan/Apple did, it's the engineers for these products that need to fix the problem. It's your fault for buying something that isn't Apple.

Actually the Nuforce DAC 2 is a universal USB system and has not software. It should work on all devices. Apple choose to upgrade their audio protocols and made many universal USB system incapable. Apple is responsible. FYI Apple doesn't make a DAC.

If you bothered to read the whole thread you would have seen that i already stated it's a universal usb device requiring no software. I also referenced previous posts from beta testers stating El Capitan essentially broke usb audio devices. I never said apple made a Dac, Apparently the sarcasm failed to reach you.

Just to confirm, from my experience it's not about the device, it's about the app.

Qobuz music streamer will only play out of the MacBookPro's internal speakers (after updating to El Capitain), even though my SoundBlaster USB DAC is shown and selected in Outputs

Other apps (Tidal) and streamers (BBC R3 Live website) and system sounds play through the USB DAC fine.

So I think it's in the app software that the issue is.

Not saying it's not Apple's fault! Of course it is. It was working, they changed something, it's not working.

I'm using the Sony UDA-1 which I just got. I read that it wasn't working at all with 10.11, but that 10.11.1 "fixed" that issue. I can confirm it works, but the audio is very distorted, but I feel it might be on my whole system for any audio output I use. Is there something that would get rid of system-wide audio distortion?

D-Franc wrote:

I'm using the Sony UDA-1 which I just got. I read that it wasn't working at all with 10.11, but that 10.11.1 "fixed" that issue. I can confirm it works, but the audio is very distorted, but I feel it might be on my whole system for any audio output I use. Is there something that would get rid of system-wide audio distortion?

If you just play some audio using the computer speakers, is it always distorted? Then you have much more serious and probably different issue than most.

Has the developer anything to say about it? Obviously they would like to keep selling a product. If 10.11 is the root cause of the device not being able to function they might state something on their site. I have a Line6 device and they commented 10.11 caused some major issues for them and they stated on one of their blogs they had been working with Apple on a fix, as of 10.11.1 they later stated it was better but far from acceptable at this time. You may wish to contact your developer to get some insight into their knowledge of the issues and you may wish to report the issue to Apple. If Apple did break the USB drivers internally no one here can offer you a fix that would be an acceptable solution to something that needs to be addressed in a possible OS upgrade.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/