El Capitan – Sennheiser USB Headset issue

Hi,

I have problems with the microphone of the Sennheiser PC 8 USB Headset in any application which records audio.

After some time - roughly 45-60min - the quality of the micro goes done to zero with a lot of crackles and other sound distortions.

The only solution is rebooting the iMac 2012.

I am very unhappy with this situation

I have experienced issues with Plantronics USB headsets, over time it gets static and garbled. My solution, unplug the headset, then plug it back in. The issue arises after a few hours, so I have conditioned myself to go through this routine before doing soft phone calls.

It happened on occasion with Yosemite and Mavericks, but it seemed to only impact the TX and not RX side of the conversations. With El Cap, it is impacting both sides.

Just curious if anyone has figured out a way to keep USB Audio stable (especially if the CPU is under load). I raised a ticket with Apple and they were quite helpful, we replicated, took log file dumps, etc. They kicked it up to engineering who came back with confirmation that they see the problem but that it's related to the vendor of the audio device and that it's their driver that's bad. The thing is i'm using the out-of-box generic usb audio drivers so clearly the vendors don't see it as their issue. The support rep seemed to agree but said he'd done all he could as engineering wasn't listening.

Very bad outcome for everyone having problems with USB headsets....I have spoken with Sennheiser if they can provide any update but they said the headset is using no driver cause it's relies on the general USB driver from the operating system....

Is there a list of headsets which are compatible with iMacs (my one is from 2012) ? I need a headset. Otherwise I have to buy a Windows PC next time.

I've just realised that my Sennheiser PC8 USB headset microphone is not working at all on my Mac mini (late 2011) with El Capitan 10.11.2.

The Sound prefpane recognises the headset, and I can hear sound OK. But the mic seems to be dead. Changing input sources and re-plugging the USB connection did not help.

One step forward, one step back...

check with the developers webpage on these issues. I have had issues with line 6 audio in 10.11 and Line 6's response has been they are experiencing issues with 10.11's toolset and working with Apple but at this time they have not fully resolved audio issues. This is particularly concerning in light of a number of posts that are exclusive to audio software or hardware devices having problem is El Cap.

also anyone waiting for skylake CPU's should read

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/220953-skylake-bug-causes-intel-chips-to-fr eeze-in-complex-workloads

The Sennheiser website is no help that I can see. I have emailed them, and will see what transpires. As cragem said above, they's probably say it's Apple's problem, but the more noise people make the harder they will push Apple for a fix, I hope.

Same boat here. Bought this headset for my whole team and one by one as we upgrade to El Capitan, they become worthless.

Charles - Any luck with Sennheiser?

I just got off the phone with Sennheiser. Basically, they are not aware of the issue and they very clearly stated it's "an Apple issue" which I guess sort of make sense because it's a driverless product and it worked just fine under Yosemite. The only way Sennheiser could fix it would be to either release a driver for a product for which they have never written a driver or to replace everyone's headset with a model that somehow works around what's probably a bug in Apple's OS (I've heard grumblings of other USB audio issues with El Capitan).

Either way, I'll be buying a bunch of headsets today from another manufacturer. If Sennheiser support is unaware of the incompatibility, it definitely sets the tone that they don't care too much about Apple users. The tech even asked me if I tried plugging the headset into a Windows machine to make sure it worked right. So apparently in Sennheiser terms, "works right" means works with Windows.

Thanks for your update, Steve. To be fair to Sennheiser it seems fair enough to test the headset by plugging it into another machine, but apart from that I agree absolutely with your summary. I had a prompt and polite email reply from someone at Sennheiser who did not seem to be aware of any issue related to El Capitan, so I've pointed them to this thread.

I bought the PC8 because it was cheap and worked fine with recent versions of OS X before El Capitan. If anyone here could recommend a similar headset that does work, that would be great.

Hi guys,

I just ran into the exact same problem - a LOT OF CRACKLES after a few seconds of talking via a sennheiser PC8 USB headset microphone.

Have you guys found a working headset as a replacement?

Which headset does work? :-)

I'm only one day in, but the Logitech ClearChat Comfort/USB Headset H390 seems to be working just fine. It's heavier than the Sennheiser PC8, but a little more comfortable on the ears. It appears to have just slightly poorer mic, but does the job. At least so far today has had zero issues with El Capitan on a few video conferences and a test in Audacity. No crackles.

As of today, it's $24 on Amazon.

I should mention I'm running a Macbook Pro, non-retina, Mid 2012, not that I expect it would matter since it seems to be an El Capitan/Sennheiser compatibility issue.

Thanks Steve. The Logitech H390 is about £30 here in the UK. I've ordered one and will report back.

I tried my Sennheiser PC8 on my wife's 2009 Mac mini with 10.11.2. As expected, no joy.

Thanks steve for the tip!!!! 😁

I just ordered it for 33 €. Aren't those differenent prices remarkable? US wins... :-)

I never liked logitec though, but I guess there is no choice. Why the **** do we have those crackles? It must be some kind of apple-driver issue - just as Sennheiser said.

After a couple of days' use I'm well pleased with the Logitech H390 headset. That said, I haven't tested it extensively to see if USB audio performance falls off over time. I never noticed that in the past with the Sennheiser headset, but then I don't tend to record or dictate for long periods.

The H390 is more substantial than the Sennheiser PC8, quality for dictation (I'm using it now) and Skype seems good, and I like the way the volume control adjusts the system volume on my Mac. The little volume control gadget is a bit plasticky, and the main cable is heavier than I'd like, but overall it was a good buy (£20 for a good used model on Amazon).

I've just realised that Apple's dictation system has a lot of trouble with "El Capitan", which it mostly renders as "LM" (I think the "Cap" bit confuses it). Ha!