My MacBook Pro 2018 version speakers are crackling.

Hey ehsanw97

the main issue being the speaker crackling sound which has been occurring in both Mac OS and in bootcamp windows.

I have nothing on my Mac but Traktor and some audio, and a couple of drivers for controllers. (same with my last 2018 laptop)

During my own testing a temp fix for bootcamp can be to use bluetooth headphones so you don't have to restart your game or music every now and then via changing the audio source to stop crackling temporarily.

I have found that the sound issues can occur on both headphones and speakers. Only an external sound card fully solves the problem.

In addition to this I have been told to inform you all that on the Mac Side a temporary workaround is to open up activity monitor and kill the process 'coreaudiod' this process stopping should stop the crackling on Mac OS.

Pretty much stopping anything and restarting stops the problem but it returns.

They have said that they are of this issue and that a fair number of people are having the same problem with the 2018 lineup. I have also been told that an update will be released soon to address this issue so hopefully it fixes this soon

Thanks for the heads up on all this and sharing it with us here. Lets hope. I get the worrying feeling that this fix will take from somewhere else. Like what happened with the iPhones when they slowed them down to make them last longer.....Apple admits slowing older iPhones because of ageing batteries | Technology | The Guardian

when I received mine yesterday I immediately checked the audio MIDI setup and found the output default is 48,000, no issues till today it happened to me when my Mac under heavy load, I went back to the midi output and found it changed to 44,100 after opening garagband. I set it a gain to 48,000 and its fine now.

Obviously software bug !

hopefully apple to fix it as soon as possible

update for the issue:

as I said before I discovered that GarageBand changing Midi settings to 44100, then I went to the garageband setting and there is a MIDI output setting inside, I change it to: use macbook pro speaker and system default setting. It worked and now GarageBand now longer changing system audio output and no crackling

I still get the crackling at 48, it just takes a lot longer, like 2 to 3 hours, with 44 it happens to me at about the 40 to 50 minute mark. This is on my 4th machine which I just picked up last night.

I am on my THIRD MacBook Pro with Touch Bar now, and each one had it. All returned and I tried again.

It happens exclusively when I open Logic Pro X. The moment it does that, the problem begins. First time, I opened Logic about 10 days into it... then it began. Second time I did it three days in, and the problem began. Third time I did it one day in, and the problem began. Every time it began, it never stopped unless I killed coreaudiod in Terminal; even then, it began again within an hour.

At this moment I am reinstalling all MacOS and data again, fresh, to see if it cures the problem for a few days. Then I'll launch Logic and see what happens. If the problem exists after a complete refresh, it's 100% hardware malfunction.

It’s not a hardware issue. It’s down to software. I’ve been using my mb pro 2018 for the last month and there’s only ever a problem with sound when I’m using blender and even then it’s very infrequent which suggests it’s a software bug. Once I close blender the problem goes away and I’ve been playing music and steaming off YouTube with no problems for hours on end.

Hopefully it will be fixed once Mojave is released.

Re-installing MacOS just solved the problem... so it definitely isn't hardware. However, using Logic Pro X started it up again. Coreaudio kill doesn't solve the problem forever.

Final word: Apple made Logic Pro X and the MacBook Pro 2018 incompatible until a corrective update to OS or Logic is issued.

Just because you have reinstalled everything and it seems to be fine doesn't mean it isn't hardware. It means that when the machine is under no pressure just playing off iTunes or the internet it performs fine.

I haven't ever opened logic, GarageBand, Blender or any other program mentioned in this thread. I have only used one thing and one thing only and that is Traktor (another audio program made by Native Instruments.) So to make it clear two brand new MacBook pros 2018 with Zero things installed apart from Traktor.

It doesn't change the sample rate and no matter which sample rate I use the problem returns.

Except it doesn’t perform fine when it’s ‘under no pressure’. Most people have reported experiencing this simply when using iTunes or YouTube, hardly a high load. I’m leaning towards it being a software issue, since the fixes are all related to changing/resetting software settings.

Personally I haven’t experienced it since reinstalling, but I’m not exactly confident it won’t start again. It’s not a huge deal for me since I usually use an external interface when working on music, so I can avoid it if I need, but it would certainly be nice if Apple were a bit more transparent about the progress (if any) on a potential update. It’s pretty pathetic of them to be claiming to not have heard of the issue, even though there’s been news articles about it out for weeks now.

You are correct. There is NO guarantee it isn't hardware, however it causes constant and consistent problems when it acts up on my MacBook Pros--after launching Logic Pro X. With a re-install of MacOS, it doesn't occur again. It didn't need heavy load to recur after it had started. It doesn't happen under light load after re-install while it did happen under light load once the system was "broken".

I thought it might initially be hardware due to the type of noise and the nature of the "break". Hardware can't repair itself with an OS reinstall, but parameters governing hardware can.

It isn't a piece that breaks and then is useless. However, it could be an under-engineered piece of hardware that begins developing feedback or arcing once a threshold has been crossed. The initial noise sounded like electrical arcing on AM band radio, then developed over a few hours to sound like rapid/mechanical electrical discharge.

I'm surprised Apple hasn't addressed this issue in some way by now. Even to say where they are headed and a possible time frame for repair. At this moment they could take a year or two until they patch it.

Except it doesn’t perform fine when it’s ‘under no pressure’. Most people have reported experiencing this simply when using iTunes or YouTube, hardly a high load. I’m leaning towards it being a software issue, since the fixes are all related to changing/resetting software settings.

I wonder if everyone who has had a problem has run at least at some point some kind of audio program or bootcamp? Could this be the common thread?

it would certainly be nice if Apple were a bit more transparent about the progress (if any) on a potential update. It’s pretty pathetic of them to be claiming to not have heard of the issue, even though there’s been news articles about it out for weeks now.

I couldn't agree more.

However, it could be an under-engineered piece of hardware that begins developing feedback or arcing once a threshold has been crossed. The initial noise sounded like electrical arcing on AM band radio, then developed over a few hours to sound like rapid/mechanical electrical discharge.

yes it could be something like this. I keep wondering about this throttling issue and If it could be in someway related to that?

I'm surprised Apple hasn't addressed this issue in some way by now. Even to say where they are headed and a possible time frame for repair. At this moment they could take a year or two until they patch it.

I guess either enough people aren't reporting it, or they are lying about it because they don't want to have to do a recall? a year or two is totally unacceptable.

Yes, I’ve used Logic and Kontakt. The sample rate sync error message that logic gave when it happened was what clued me in to it likely being a software issue rather than faulty speakers.

However I first experienced the issue with iTunes and YouTube several days before I first used either of those two apps.

I'm in the same position as you.

Here is my story:
The day after I've had my new Mac 2018, it started to crackle because I thought it was because of Ableton 10 since it was the only ''big'' software I've installed after getting my Mac.

And I was playing a song at the loudest level possible on my new Mac and eventually, the crackling problem with my speakers became even worse than the crackling itself to the point I thought I had broken down my speakers!

The sound coming out of them was ****: it started with some major crackles/distortion followed by delays/repeating sections of the song while it was playing to finally transform the nature of the sound coming out of my speakers!! And all of a sudden, I was left with no bass/mids in my speakers AT ALL. It was as if playing this song too loud destroyed some kind of internal twitter in the speakers... At that point, I was very scared that it was broken for ever and super disappointed that the Mac just couldn't handle the sound being played a little louder than usual...

So I started to make some research about my problem and see if I was the only one facing the same problem and that's how I found this forum.

So I decided to reset EVERYTHING and delete everything that I had transferred from my old Mac to this new one just to see if doing a major rebooting would solve my problem.

So after completely restarting my Mac 2018, like the first time opening it, resetting the whole thing like it's brand new again actually solved the crackles and the other big issue that happened before with the quality sound of my speakers!!

At that point, I was just super happy that my Mac 2018 was back to normal again!!!

But I thought I could just wait to see if all these problems were gonna start again, since it seemed to be an issue entitled to Mac 2018...

So I've waited a while before actually installing Ableton again or transfer anything else/files to see if the crackling had something to do with any imported softwares or files. So at that point, all I was doing was to watch plenty of videos on YouTube or just listening to some music on Spotify and wait for the crackles to show up again.

AND IT DID (after 2 or 3 days of using the speakers quite intensively).

Conclusion...:

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH F*CKING TIME MACHINE GUYS!!!

2nd part of my story:

I decided not to get my new Mac 2018 replaced by another one because what's the point of getting a new one with which there's a very good chance I might be confronted with the exact same problem again?!...

So I tried to even the sample rates of the mic and the speakers (48 000 Hz) and that seems to work nicely for now. but if it doesn't I'll definitely share my experience here again...