Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Investigating 16-Inch MacBook Pro Popping Sound Issue, Fix Planned in Future Software Updates
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
In all seriousness, the quality issues are not significantly worse than any other manufacturer, however I think Apple QC issues hit its users harder than other manufacturers' issues simply because only one company sells macOS machines.
Sir, that was no accident. The "I was walking around naked when I slipped" excuse doesn't work here.
It depends. The issue being discussed here is very serious for some people including my self.
Let’s be clear with a single and undeniable fact:
These machines are incapable to provide a smooth media editing experience without the use of external audio. And in this price range there are no excuses for that.
I went to 4 Apple stores in 2 different cities to test different units and every single one pops. If anyone wants us to talk about statistics this is almost 20 out of 20, regarding the 16 inch unit.
The fact that many people don’t notice this should not determine in any way the significance of this issue. If you are just surfing on the web you might hear a couple of pops here and there or you might not but if you open FCPX then it gets into a nightmare. It’s bad.
Also, the fact that some people here are defending Apple at any cost and without any real benefits from the company is beyond my understanding.
If someone here is being paid to be an Apple troll i can totally get it, it’s a job, not a real one but at least there is a profound motivation to do this. But as a common consumer why on earth would you give excuses to a company that charges you a heart and a liver for a faulty product?
You do realise that regarding audio these products are faulty. don’t you?
For all the marketing hype being put out around these machines and the prices that Apple are asking for them, QC errors like this are almost inexcusable. Apple's getting dangerously close to jumping the shark with all this BS
Considering the market they sell to, most users will never care about this issue. It matters because the Pro user will hit this more often, but the majority of Apple owners aren't that, even for their top of the line laptop.
Actually, in my experience, the machines ALSO had this issue on all of the external interfaces I tried:
- Speakers
- 3.5mm jack
- USB2.0 card
- Gosh dang bluetooth even
Posting actual facts is NOT being an Apple hater. i.e. The major problem the MBP had with the keyboards. So much so, that Apple reverts the keyboard to the old technology. If that would not have been a major problem, Apple would not have been apologizing publicly and reverting back to the old Keyboard. Once again, you will minimize it saying that the percentage of users Blah, blah. But facts shows otherwise.
Different than you I do not make excuses I post facts.
Trying to excuse and minimize every single problem that different users posts, and calling it BS, clearly shows that you that you have zero objectivity and are just a troll...
It is exactly the same thing they did with the MBP Keyboards. Just denied it, downplayed it and try to fix them for over 3 years. Did it work?? No.
The sad part is that Apple is still selling them, when they should have recalled them. So much for the new Apple quality control...
I guess you need to work another 3 years until Apple actually acknowledge the problem and find a solution.
[automerge]1582138875[/automerge]
I guess the keyboard problem was not serious enough that took the 3-4 years to fix.
The best devices in the business, says who?
The best devices in the business
- should not have basic problems that you cannot even type.
- should not have basic problems that you have constant problems with your Audio due to T2
- should not be disposable appliances
- Should be upgradable in the basic components such as RAM.
- should not have all soldered components.
Last edited:
Valid points.
When you are designing a 100% closed system such as this with every component soldered on the motherboard you have to make sure that everything works as intended.
Things can go wrong at any time but this is what beta testing is for. Our part is to pay a premium to actually use the machines, not to spend out precious time reporting major issues like this and waiting for a fix which may never come.
These products are clearly faulty and Apple sooner or later will have to give some explanations and take some actions to comply with the Consumer Law which i believe is pretty straight on cases like this.
I have a new 16in here and as expected, it has the T2 audio issues. 🤷♂️
Obviously Louis Rossman (or a disciple of his) sneaked into your house with an SMT rework station and replaced your properly functioning T2 chip with one of the 100% defective T2 parts.
Or maybe the world isn’t black and white, and some problems have shades of gray.
Is it possible that Apple has made a lot of progress on the issue, but that it’s not yet 100% resolved? I’m not sure we know the answer to that. However, we do know that 10-20 million users aren’t reporting a problem in the first place.
So maybe you can a detect a single 16 inch unit that doesn’t pop in order to help us see those shades of grey.
What we are sure is of the actual facts that Apple is releasing products without actually testing them.
The quality control has become a joke. It is ridiculous for users to be actual beta testers of Apple products especially considering how overpriced they are.
And that is what happened with the MBP Keyboards.
Is it possible that Apple wants to hide the problem under the rug like they shamelessly did with the keyboard?
M8, yes, we don’t know the full scale. This is assumed.
But you’re dealing with people such as myself who have a 100% failure rate across 10-20+ devices.
Are we just SUPER DUPER unlucky to the point of statistical anomaly? Like, it’s more likely for us to win lotto 5x than have this experience with our devices, if we assume “only handful out of all shipments are problems”?
Or do you think it’s more likely that there’s just a lot of people with bad hearing, or who don’t know what they are looking for, or simply don’t care?
Rumor has it @hajime (post #312) had a month with no popping with a 16”. @Gradly (post #276) had the problem, it went away with a prior update, but now it’s back. And with 10.15.3 @Konigi (post #278) observes the problem is worse now, even needing a reboot to fix it 🙁 And of course 10-20 million people aren’t complaining about the problem at all.
None of the above supports a claim of a fatally flawed, 100% defective T2, does it? Maybe the “plebs” just don’t have the golden ears necessary to hear the problem or aren’t using the right settings to trigger it. Then again, in post #270 someone named @dmstasinos says two of ten 2019 15” MacBook Pros he tested are perfectly fine 🤷♂️
Last edited:
My claim above is about the 15" inch model only. Did you read the whole post? Someone in my thread (on Apple discussions) said that he got his unit replaced and the new one didn't pop. Then he said that the popping was there but on the new unit he could barely notice it in contrary with the first one. This is the thread:
MacBook Pro 2019 Speakers are making pop … - Apple Community
So as for the 2019 15" inch model, there are variances in the amplitude of the pop - click sound. It's pretty loud on some units (like mine for example) and you can barely hear it on others. I came to this conclusion after testing many 15 inch units and talking with 2 different Apple senior advisors but it was too late for me to get a replacement unit as the 16 inch model was already out there and a month had passed. So this is the reason i gave that ratio of 8/10 for the 15 inch model. Those 2/10 units also pop but you may get away with this.
Now the new 16 unit is a different story. It's the exact same issue but the popping sound has a much higher amplitude and it is noticeable on all units. There may be some small variances in volume but the pop is so loud and distinct that you can't miss it.
Since you keep talking about those 20 million people, can you persuade one of them to post a video with just their cursor hovering above some clips inside iMovie or FCPX? This is a real life test and the way i tested every unit so far, and as i said before i have tested almost 20 units (both 15" and 16").
Since you scrolled through the whole thread, did you see my videos?
You don't need golden ears to hear the pop, just ears. That 10-20 million people thing you are mentioning is not an argument at all. You should pay more attention to some posts here and there from people who are actually using these machines. These are the beta testers that Apple never hired.
Last edited:
I read your post #270 where you seemed quite puzzled that only 8 of the 10 15” had the issue. That’s what I was responding to.My claim above is about the 15" inch model only. Did you read the whole post? Someone in my thread (on Apple discussions) said that he got his unit replaced and the new one didn't pop. Then he said that the popping was there but on the new unit he could barely notice it in contrary with the first one. This is the thread:
MacBook Pro 2019 Speakers are making pop … - Apple Community
discussions.apple.com
So as for the 2019 15" inch model, there are variances in the amplitude of the pop - click sound. It's pretty loud on some units (like mine for example) and you can barely hear it on others. I came to this conclusion after testing many 15 inch units and talking with 2 different Apple senior advisors but it was too late for me to get a replacement unit as the 16 inch model was already out there and a month had passed. So this is the reason i gave that ratio of 8/10 for the 15 inch model. Those 2/10 units also pop but you may get away with this.
Now the new 16 unit is a different story. It's the exact same issue but the popping sound has a much higher amplitude and it is noticeable on all units. There may be some small variances in volume but the pop is so loud and distinct that you can't miss it.
Since you keep talking about those 20 million people, can you persuade one of them to post a video with just their cursor hovering above some clips inside iMovie or FCPX? This is a real life test and the way i tested every unit so far, and as i said before i have tested almost 20 units (both 15" and 16").
Since you scrolled through the whole thread, did you see my videos?
You don't need golden ears to hear the pop, just ears. That 10-20 million people thing you are mentioning is not an argument at all. You should pay more attention to some posts here and there from people who are actually using these machines. These are the beta testers that Apple never hired.
I’ve done QA. It’s very easy to make invalid assumptions when trying to characterize a problem.
When the problem comes and goes with different software/firmware updates, that indicates to me it’s not a fatal hardware problem. There was a beta 4 update a few months ago iirc where the problem seemed to have suddenly disappeared upon installation, according to posters.
When Apple sells 10-20 million units—I have no idea how many T2-based machines are in the field but that’s my estimate—and only a handful of users are complaining, that doesn’t indicate to me that 100% of units have bad hardware.
I’ve never said you or the others aren’t having an issue. But I’m fairly certain it’s more nuanced than the T2 hardware is broken and the issue is not solvable.
Actually I am still puzzled about the inconsistency of the popping’s amplitude from one unit to another. If there is the exact same hardware in all these 15 inch units (2019) and the cause of this is a software bug (as Apple said), then it should have the same effect on all units.
I am not in position to blame directly the T2 chip for these issues. I believe that it’s one of the main suspects because as far as i know it’s the only component that has been added in the audio path just before various issues (crackling, popping etc) emerged. That’s it.
Also, if T2 is indeed responsible for this, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a 100% hardware issue. It could be T2’s firmware.
What i can say with total certainty is that Apple has lowered the bar regarding audio, which is a shame because it’s the exact same company that raised that bar in first place.
As for the invalid assumptions, making assumptions, either valid or invalid, is not really my thing. But after several months without any tiny bit of information from Apple it is expected for some people to loose their optimism.
Not necessarily. If the bug is caused by, for example, not initializing a hardware register, or data overwriting memory locations it‘s not supposed go into, then the sound amplitude could easily vary from unit to unit based on random initial conditions. Many software bugs cause irreproducible effects.
Popping amplitude slightly differed for me too. The reason for that is there have been a couple 'speaker fix' patches, so they likely changed the power/frequency/etc curves of the speakers themselves.
However, the distortion/pop and the hissing comes directly from the audio controller, which is the T2. As the issue is present on all outputs.
However, the distortion/pop and the hissing comes directly from the audio controller, which is the T2. As the issue is present on all outputs.
I have discovered a complete "workaround / fix" for this issue. Simply install Sonarworks Reference 4 software. What this does is route all audio output through their software. It is designed to provide speaker / room and headphone correction / calibration so that the listeners frequency response is as close to flat and unbiased as possible. This software is most often used in recording studios and by mixing / mastering engineers.
Upon doing this all "popping", "clicking" and "ticking" has completely stopped. This tells me that this is INDEED a software issue. It obviously has to do with something Apple cannot seem to get right with audio zero crossings in the CoreAudio driver.
How this eliminates the issue is by implementing a buffer in the audio. This leads to smooth audio transitions on and off. Why in the world Apple's engineers cannot implement a simple buffer in the CoreAudio driver of say only a few milliseconds to remedy this is beyond me. It would not cause any side effects like battery drain or processor usage. Apparently at this point they simply couldn't care less and it isn't a priority. Visit this website if you would like to try the "workaround / fix" for yourself. https://www.sonarworks.com/reference
FYI: I am in no way advocating that us who bought these machines should have to find "workarounds". It is pathetic and ridiculous really. Apple should start paying attention (never gonna happen) and fix this garbage. There's no good excuse with their budget and closed hardware/software ecosystem that issues like this should drag on for months to years! Apple should be embarrassed. They're not... As long as Timmy keeps the stock prices ricing, none of this matters to them. Sad.
Upon doing this all "popping", "clicking" and "ticking" has completely stopped. This tells me that this is INDEED a software issue. It obviously has to do with something Apple cannot seem to get right with audio zero crossings in the CoreAudio driver.
How this eliminates the issue is by implementing a buffer in the audio. This leads to smooth audio transitions on and off. Why in the world Apple's engineers cannot implement a simple buffer in the CoreAudio driver of say only a few milliseconds to remedy this is beyond me. It would not cause any side effects like battery drain or processor usage. Apparently at this point they simply couldn't care less and it isn't a priority. Visit this website if you would like to try the "workaround / fix" for yourself. https://www.sonarworks.com/reference
FYI: I am in no way advocating that us who bought these machines should have to find "workarounds". It is pathetic and ridiculous really. Apple should start paying attention (never gonna happen) and fix this garbage. There's no good excuse with their budget and closed hardware/software ecosystem that issues like this should drag on for months to years! Apple should be embarrassed. They're not... As long as Timmy keeps the stock prices ricing, none of this matters to them. Sad.
Last edited:
Does it stop the hiss? 
Often ignored, and hard to detect - the audio streams also hiss. Even without the popping/crackling/etc distortion happening.
Often ignored, and hard to detect - the audio streams also hiss. Even without the popping/crackling/etc distortion happening.