My MacBook Pro 2018 version speakers are crackling.

I have this issue on my MBP 2018 TouchBar 13".

This thread is quite similar. In short, there are two camps (quoting another user):

1. There is a spot inside the display assembly where there is metal on metal and it makes a popping sound when heat increases.

2. There is a popping sound coming from the speakers.

Re: Popping Sound, MBP 2016

I too am having this same problem. However, I only notice it after streaming on Spotify after thirty to forty minutes. Bought a 2018 MBP 13" 2.3GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB Ram, 256GB.

I have this same problem too since 3 month. At the moment, only, when I use Spotify after many minutes on a 2018 iMac Pro.

Hi csross1,

Thank you for the tip. Strangely enough, when I opened Audio MIDI Setup, my MacBook Pro Speakers and MacBook Pro Microphones already had the same sampling format, at 44,100 Hz. When both were the same, the speaker emits crackling noise on my MacBook Pro after about one hour of music playback (i.e. iTunes or Internet radio played from Safari).

When I connect a pair of earphones, I do not hear any crackling noise from the earphones. Upon checking the Audio MIDI Setup, I also noted that my External Headphones sampling rate was automatically set to 48,000 Hz.

Since I have not heard any crackling noise from my earphones, I tried the following.

1. Disconnect the earphones
2. I restarted my MacBook Pro and verified the sampling format of MacBook Pro Microphones and MacBook Pro Speakers are set to 44,100 Hz in Audio MIDI Setup
3. Play some music from iTunes for about one hour or more
4. After verifying that the speakers emit the crackling noise, I set the MacBook Pro Speakers sampling format to 48,000 Hz
5. Continue playback from iTunes

After more than two hours, I have not heard any crackling noise from my MacBook Pro speakers. For now, I'm still wondering if it is worthwhile for me to take the MacBook Pro for the Apple Authorized Service Provider to have a look.

takashiyoshida wrote:

Hi csross1,

Thank you for the tip. Strangely enough, when I opened Audio MIDI Setup, my MacBook Pro Speakers and MacBook Pro Microphones already had the same sampling format, at 44,100 Hz. When both were the same, the speaker emits crackling noise on my MacBook Pro after about one hour of music playback (i.e. iTunes or Internet radio played from Safari).

When I connect a pair of earphones, I do not hear any crackling noise from the earphones. Upon checking the Audio MIDI Setup, I also noted that my External Headphones sampling rate was automatically set to 48,000 Hz.

Since I have not heard any crackling noise from my earphones, I tried the following.

1. Disconnect the earphones
2. I restarted my MacBook Pro and verified the sampling format of MacBook Pro Microphones and MacBook Pro Speakers are set to 44,100 Hz in Audio MIDI Setup
3. Play some music from iTunes for about one hour or more
4. After verifying that the speakers emit the crackling noise, I set the MacBook Pro Speakers sampling format to 48,000 Hz
5. Continue playback from iTunes

After more than two hours, I have not heard any crackling noise from my MacBook Pro speakers. For now, I'm still wondering if it is worthwhile for me to take the MacBook Pro for the Apple Authorized Service Provider to have a look.

I will try this, thank you. I see your post was August 13th. Today is November 25th. Did it completely resolve your problem, or did the issue return?

I can tell you for sure I'm experiencing this issue daily. I've also been testing the issue aggressively. It happens system-wide, (on my machine at least)... Logic, Live, iTunes, Chrome, Finder...

And I'm finding the issue happens in headphones, not just the speakers. It seems to happen after sound has been playing for an extended period of time, no matter what app... (Just watching a movie in Hulu can kick it off.)

Next time you go out for the evening try this:

• Leave iTunes playing while your gone. See if you have distortion when you come back.

(Leave it playing when you'll be out for at least a few hours...)

Happened for me...

And, the last time I tested this I left iTunes running while I was answering emails and doing housekeeping on my machine... iTunes started distorting after about an hour, and the distortion was identical to distortion I get in Logic. It's a system-wide issue period... I suspect people who only encounter it "occasionally" are just people who aren't working with sound running for long periods of time...

Since I work in Logic and Live I'm working with sound daily for hours in a row, and I encounter the issue every single day... The most obnoxious part of the issue is that Console doesn't report it unless you use Logic, (Live as well). iTunes, Finder and Chrome don't print an error to Console. Logic does however...

The most infuriating part is that I documented this heavily and went back and forth with engineering for a couple weeks. They blew me off because I'm not on Mojave. However...

• Users told that upgrading to Mojave are reporting this does not fix the issue. 

• This does not explain why people who bought new machines with Mojave pre-installed have the exact same issue.

My advice would be to call in to Apple, get a Sr. Advisor ask to log a complaint referencing your case. Once it's logged as a complaint they may be able to give you some more options you can do to get the issue looked into...

I have a problem with mine as well! I got the 15" i9 version and it was very annoying how the sound would randomly cut-off with no obvious reason, went to the apple store got it replaced but still the same issue persists on the new one as well! (not as frequent though)
I'm currently in touch with Apple support and they have the sysdiagnose for both MacBooks and I'm just waiting for apple engineers to figure out exactly what is going on!!

This is probably a problem with the T2 co-processor as some news were quoting these had some other problems and they also control the sound. I have the same problem on my iMac Pro... sound cracking, doesn't matter if I'm using external or internal speakers, it happens on both so it has to be a chip issue. Just to clarify there are two scenarios: 1) Sometimes it is just momentary "one-off" crack or pop and then sound goes back to normal. 2) The sounds cracks and keeps cracking until the output is changed. Changing from one output to another momentarily resets the problem though, but doesn't prevent it from appearing again later.

This has been happening with my 2018 15 Inch i9 Macbook Pro as well. This has occured several times when I have been working in Premiere Pro. One moment everything is working perfectly fine and then the next moment the audio would crackle severely and make loud popping noises at max volume, even though my volume was set at below half. Once this happened, I quickly paused the audio lowered the volume to its lowest setting, save and then quit Premiere Pro, and then open up apple music and play a test song to see if the audio problem was still persistent. Once I quit Premiere Pro, the problem would go away, however, the audio on the macbook pro after is severely dampened and not as robust and strong as it usual is. This is very disappointing and frustrating for the amount of money that this model cost.

I'm also having the same exact issues with YouTube/Video playback where the audio just cuts out randomly on my 13" 2018 MPB (i5, 16gb ram, 512gb). I've also had a few occasions where the audio will get really "tinny" with absolutely no bass to it. Glad I'm not alone in the issue but quite annoying. I took it to the Apple Store and they wiped my computer and gave it back to me with a clean install and it worked while in the store but the problems persist. They offered to send it to repair if I came back but I don't want to send it to repair if I'm just going to get another board with the same issue.

Since you just got it replaced you could wait at least until the return period is almost over. I believe this to be a softaware problem and not a hardware one.

I’m currently in contact with one of Apple’s Help Desk operators. And they titled it “T2 tech: Audio is chuncky”! lol

So, it’s most likely, as everyone is guessing, related to the T2-chip.

I've found that I don't have to fully restart the app, just ctrl+tab or cmnd+tab (depending on OS) to leave the app and stop the sound for a second. I think it's an issue with continuous speaker usage so that pause fixes it (only temporarily ofc)

Edit: I've only noticed this problem while in Windows Bootcamp, macOS is perfect for me

I am also having this problem just today a little over 2 weeks from purchase. There are a lot of YouTube Videos starting to post what a cyclical crackle sounds like. Mine was when watching YouTube from Desktop For YouTube Application and then when playing from iTunes Apple Play.

I rebooted and now I cannot yet reproduce the crackle but I can return it and get my money back or keep it and hope its fixable in software or with Mac OS Mojave.

There have been lot of problems with the 2016 and 2017 models. Why go down that rabbit hole?

What to do?