My MacBook Pro 2018 version speakers are crackling.

Apple being typical Apple never officially publicly acknowledged it was even an issue as far as I'm aware. Some Apple store reps and service providers told certain individuals they were aware of it and working on a fix, while others claimed to be oblivious of the issue despite numerous news reports about it and many pages-deep forum threads like this. Several people deduced that the crackling was caused by sample rate drifting, and then a software update solved the issue. You are the first person since the update to complain about it (the two posts above you are talking about different issues, as they didn't read the thread properly before posting). Myself and others no longer have the problem.

Apple customer service is a dirty world of misinformation, confusion and flat out dishonesty. Several years later they are yet to acknowledge that iCloud music is a broken mess. Take anything they tell you with a grain of salt.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/08/29/macos-high-sierra-supplemental-update-2-det ails/

First of all I may be the first person since the update to reiterate this !

But you can see the original thread on MacRumors about this issue and a guy posted about his interaction with Apple Support just last week !

They stated that they are working on the issue.

That's why I contacted them to see for myself ! They then told me the same thing!

I agree with you about not being upfront and denying that this issue even exists !

But many years contrary to your statement are still plagued by this issue!

I think the problem here is people are having a variety of different audio issues, and are all congregating in the same threads! I checked the post in the Mac Rumors forum, that guy seems to have a different problem to the one I was having that was solved (which at the time was quite widespread).

It's disappointing that there are so many different issues with these Macs. After the audio issue was solved for me, I started having some pretty bad bugs with video playback, which were thankfully solved by Mojave, and now it's working perfectly.

However I definitely don't have confidence that I won't find myself with more issues later on. Apple really needs to do something about its quality control.

On the bright side, at least they aren't deleting all our files like a certain other computer company! It's sad that that's even something we need to worry about with 2018 technology.

At least my N64 still works perfectly 🙂

Hello Marios;

Apple keeps saying that it is isn't a hardware issue but from the way people have been experiencing this issue they have had their speakers blowing off or stop working all together.

Technically speaking if the issue is with the software (i.e. Sampling Rate of Audio drifting) then that will affect the speakers causing hardware issues to occur.

Now for weeks Apple says that they are collecting logs!

I am still searching for a statement from Apple on their Release Notes addressing this issue and I am still in touch with Apple regarding this matter.

I wanted to so buy this MacBook Pro but I cancelled my order because I was worried about this!

Apple should at least address this issue and put out some kind of notice; because it is keeping concerned Apple users in the dark.

I cannot give you any guarantee but I will post any more update I get.

Hello Asher,

I'm in the exact same position as you my friend.

Furthermore, I hope for a new 15-inch model with inferior specs (will be ok for my needs) than the Pro one, at Oct. 30 event.

Thank you and keep us posted.

Same issue here. Somebody said it might be a software problem with the priority of the audio drivers, i.e. when the machine is under load the audio drivers will not get enough priority to provide a constant stream auf audio. On my machine (2018 MBP 15" w/ 32GB RAM) the distortion is so bad that you can no longer recognize the sound at all.

This is happening to me but I think it's CPU related - when the CPU is working.

I have a pair of Bose speakers plugged in and when a web page is loading or now I have an update going on my iPhone (through iTunes) where the CPU is working hard, I hear some almost white noise happening (small crackling or distortion). It seems pretty tied into what the laptop is doing.

Maybe this info helps, I'm not sure but I thought I'd explain what I observe.

I just recently bought a new 2018 model only 2 weeks ago, and it is having the same problem. Happens only once every couple minutes, but it sounds almost like a quick bout of interference in a walkie talkie or baby monitor. I've noticed it doesn't happen when using my Bluetooth headphones, and only occurs when I use the built in laptop speakers. Restarting the browser (I'm usually watching YouTube or TV online) or the computer doesn't do anything to fix it either. It just delays it from restarting. Are there no fixes for this?

I have not. I still Adobe CS6, and when I was running the Mojave betas on 2 MBP's, the programs either didn't work or didn't work well enough for me to use them properly. I'm still hesitant to update without having confirmation that those programs will run smoothly (I see very mixed results on this online) since it's for my job.

Doing that would still leave me with the uncertainty that these programs will not function well afterwards. Also, judging by others in this forum (and many others) having the same exact problem, whether or not I update to Mojave will not matter. This is clearly a much bigger problem for Apple.

I have not used nor have any of these audio programs. My 2018 15" MBP (not even 2 weeks old) has only been used for and at work so far, running nothing but browsers (happens on both Safari and Chrome) watching YouTube or Playstation Vue, iTunes, iMovie, and Adobe Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I also use a pair of bluetooth earbuds, which I can and have listened to for hours without any issue at all. It's only ever using the built-in speakers.

After reading several forums, and seeing people having no luck at all with replacing them, I just don't have the confidence that swapping it for a new one will fix the issue, and I really don't think it should have to resort to that when there are so many people experiencing the same exact problem.

Daniel please contact Official Apple Support and tell them!

It's of no use if you come on this support forum without mentioning to Apple Support because they do not look at this.

And if you contact them they can escalate it to the appropriate team and at least let the engineers know!!

Please do it as soon as you wish. It will benefit not only you but the others too.

Hello

As I have mentioned multiple times, stating once or twice in Apple Support Communities is fine but Apple Support doesn't know about the severity of this issue.

This is to all users not only those in this thread: If you are concerned/ have a Macbook Pro 2018 (experiencing this problem)/ are concerned

PLEASE CONTACT: Official Apple Support and speak with a Senior Advisor, tell them all you can let them know about what the symptoms you are facing and request follow-ups.

Read Further:

I will provide a bit of information indirectly relevant to this situation but which may assist all Apple users as I haven't seen on any forum or 3rd party website provide what I am about to provide.

As an Engineer after speaking with Apple on another issue "iPhone X Speaker Crackling" (Since I had an iPhone X which exhibited the problem) I provided video as well as system logs to them.

I submitted the report December 2017 as soon as I got my device. I took too long frankly to get a concrete response from them but after persistence I finally managed.

So they said that the "Form Factor"/"Design" in the case of the iPhone X was to blame whilst playing certain audio samples.

It is primarily observed in the case of playing certain but not all "Piano" content. This was due to how the audio processing was done.

Those who work on audio management and editing will understand that there is "Sampling" / "Mixing" and the software need to decide how to manage the highs and lows of various frequencies and accordingly push them to the receiver/speaker.

There was no easy way to address this problem according to Apple other than to impede the listening experience of the user forever.

Because this was a "Design" flaw at the engineering stage it would essentially mean that Apple would have to recall all iPhone X's (Not XS) and this would not only be costly but this issue was observed distinctly only by a few people like me because we are audiophiles (An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction)

However this has resulted in Apple fixing the issue in the next Generation iPhone's which are the 2018 iPhone's

iPhone XS | iPhone XS Max | iPhone XR

So my conclusion would be that this is a design flaw and the same symptoms are a stark resemblance to what the MacBook Pro 2018 is experiencing.

Hope this helps Everyone.

I just bought my MacBook Pro Tuesday and it was doing great until after listening to music on it after awhile the speakers start to pop. I really hope this is a glitch because it would suck to have to get another one

OMG AM I DREAMING OR MY LAST COMMENT HERE HAS BEEN DELETED ??!

I was explaining that Apple proposed me to send me a cable as compensation and in any case I would accept such a joke !

I also highly recommended you retweet that if you're also disappointed with Apple service and want a decent compensation :

🇫-1F1F7; on Twitter: "After 4 months, 2 new #MacBookPro with the SAME issues and countless hours of work lost try…

Thanks everyone.