2018 Macbook Pro 15`Inch Crackling Speakers

Hey MikedeWet

I got my macbookpro 2018 also , same issues , mine had a massive surge static loud energy pop / speakers damage .

still get the double skipping , crackling and worse . i find it happens after the machine heats up .

I searched online - you can reset the p n r , then you can also try activity moniter and quit the coreaudio driver and reopen it , it temp fixes it , but eventually it kicks back in as soon as the cpu is hot or using many audio / heavy cpu use

eg , you tube , fb , logic pro , final cut etc . all at once it just cant handle it , i believe the audio driver / or hardware

sound card is a real problem or its a heating issue as the fans do not cool the computer down , apple i see have firmwares to update the general crackling driver problem , but i also think some are linked to heat and power issues

as well as firmware .. anyways i took my macbook in to technician and they area fully replacing mine so - hopefully on the new one it wont have this issue , but it may have the firm ware problem till it is realieasted i will keep u posted

take her in before u get the power surge and your speakers blow out .

It could also be something to do with radio interference due to a lack of shielding of the audio drivers, and the T2 chip. as the casing was removed on the new macbook pro's i believe it could also maybe be this - as interferance can cause radio signals to sound like that static and if its a loud frequence siginal it can suddenly destroy the speakers , needing to be replaces or repaired , in my case my computers custom built so apple is replacing it .

Hello David,

If you do not wish to provide those details then it's fine but since I'm in touch with Apple regarding this issue I would like to understand which model you have and when you purchased it so that they are able to pin-point and have a better understanding of the situation

I've had similar issues as well and it was fixed in Mac OS Mojave but, recently I have been hearing crackling noises again except this time I thought it was from inside the casing and figured it was from the cpu but after plenty of thorough tests using cinebench and Geekbench software I pinpointed the problem to be that whenever something cpu intensive is being done the fans kick on and when the fans kick on they create crackling noice from through the speakers. I have the 2018 MacBook Pro intel i9 32gb ram version.

actually scratch that even though fans were not on this time I was playing a video in 4k and the crackling noise was there sounds like a disk being scratched and is indeed coming from the inside. I play the video the sound is there then pause the video and sound continues to be there for a brief moment then stops, until I play the video again

yes I am talking about the 2018 MacBook Pro. I understand there are no moving parts in this laptop other than the two fans, I am simply describing the noise it self and relating it to something else. and I have never tried to set the fans at the max rpm, as I know it's dangerous.

Thank you for that Techprince !

A few people have reported the issue to Apple, but a few is never enough! The more that people report issues the better !

Using the feedback option (The link I sent is a goo way of letting Apple know) but you can go a step further and contact Apple Support and keep asking them about the issue until someone acknowledges it !

Not everyone in Apple Support knows about it which is crazy to say the least !

But as I said Report and Apple will see it !

Hi there. I just bought 4 days ago, my MacBook Pro 2018 Touch Bar 15 inch, i7, 8th gen. First time with Apple. I'm in London.

Learning my way with the system and all related, I haven't yet installed any software.

I DO Have a crackling sound as well in the speakers. I recorded it for evidence with my phone.

I have to mention that I followed just the standard setup, and even done all the updates available in my AppStore.

First time, yesterday (3rd day having the laptop) just finding my way and playing around in Garage Band, it started the crackling sound. I thought, what a ... might be something I did with the sound while messing around with the instruments in the track. Ok; left it like that and closed down GarageBand not paying to much attention, as after that I went on music and Youtube to check if really is a speakers issue or not. For the moment not hearing an issue noise anymore, I carried on with my learning around.

Next day (today), I played some music from my external hard drive via iTunes and I am not sure how long after the first song, must have been at least 1 hour for sure, I had the crackling sounds, regular at every about 10 seconds or so, had recorded them on my phone.

Turned off the music, had a lunch break while I was thinking of what will I intend to do next: went on the forums, and for my surprise to find out many, many other users and many forums that complain with the same issue. A small relief, that is not my machine only.

I truly believe that is a software issue, or some incompatibility of settings between the components. Just my first opinion.

While I was looking on the net for this, I played some more songs, with no further issues. Indeed was not over 1 hour though, ....will keep on testing next day.

I will write or contact by phone Apple support as well.

I will try to look into how to change the audio sampling from 44 to 48Khz as others were suggesting (how do you do that??)

Further more, I will NOT update to Mojave until more of the users with the same issue, will confirm 100% that this solved their issue definitely.

I will not give it back for exchange because that will not solve the issue, (I have experience from previous situation with some other big brand product) that you are giving back something, and get a second one with the same or an extra issue. ...more, I have learned that even the big brands, they are not giving you for exchange on warranty a brand new machine, but a revised, refurbished one that was returned, they "fixed it", cleaned, repacked and here you go..

...no thanks.

Not having any other issue, I will wait a bit patiently for Apple's solution....and if others will confirm that Mojave solved their speakers crackling issue, than I'll go for the Mojave.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

I have the same issue. But only with headphones, I have 4 different pair that are crackling after a short usage. That youtube video made everything worse, As soon as I clicked on it everything was skipping and crackling and I thought I was going to go deaf. I'm really sad that APPLE has decided to make such beer quality products at champagne prices. I had my MacBook Pro replaced for an overheating issue and I was happy with my new laptop, but this crackklin isn't good for my hearing and where I work, I have to leave headphones in. Anyway, sorry I don't have a fix for you. But I figured you should warn people that that youtube video exacerbates the problem. I don't know if you've experienced this either, but occasionally I won't get full range of audio and volume from the computer and if I restart it, the loudness comes back. Seems like a definite hardware or software issue, So annoying. Good luck everybody!

It is unbelievable. I spent 4k as well. Thos crackling sound could damage the speakers too. It is probably CPU or Software/drivers issue. Will Apple make us damage our speakers before they do something ?

The only temp solution I found was to:

1. Go to "Activity Monitor"

2. Search for "coreaudiod"

3. Double-click it

4. Quit

5. Force quit

It resets the audio for little bit, but the crackling comes back again after a while. This is just a temporary fix so you don't have to restart your Macbook.

Here is another web page describing the issue. Can't believe Apple engineers have not heard of this by now. Don't know why this product was released. I'm thinking of returning this until I am sure it is fixed. New MacBook Pros Suffering From Sound Defects (Report)

It would be interesting if you could try streaming video and/or audio from a streaming site (xfinity tv, Sirius, iTunes) through the speakers. Let is play for an hour or so and see if it crackles. I had 2 new ones do this and returned them both.

I think you must give apple deadline when it would be fixed. If later they still not fix it, you have right to asking for refund.

If they still keeping promise will fix it without tell you when it done maybe few months or few years, would you waiting it ?

It means erasing the entire operating system and then installing Mojave. It might be successful with just upgrading to Mojave but in my case, I erased it all and then installed Mojave. How it is all done? That’s something you have to google up and follow instructions. Didn’t have problems since

I'm still on High Sierra but can tell you what caused the issue for me... Either Security Update 2018-002, Security Update 2018-003, or a combination of both. (I installed them at the same time.)

Before I installed these I had no distortion for 3 months, machine used daily... 15 mins after installing the updates the problem showed up and wouldn''t go away.

I've since gotten around the issue by restoring a clone I made before installing the updates... While I had the issue I had crackling happening daily, since cloning back I haven't had the issue for over a week.

Anyway I suspect that these updates are either installed with Mojave, or installed when you restore using Recovery... If you have auto-update from the app store turned on then you almost certainly do have them installed...