Crackling sound from speakers under load.

[georgelza]

curious if anyone else have experienced this.
Might be streaming something from Youtube, while under load... i.e. running a AI model. I get a crackling sounds, like old radio from my speakers.

This was interesting enough also present on my previous M1Pro/32GB Unified Memory, figured I was pushing the old lady a bit to hard,

But now also having it on the new M5Max/48GB Unified Memory.

This is across various OS upgrades...

G

 

[benwiggy]

Check Activity Monitor to see how the cores are being used. CoreAudio isn't what it was, and there are bugs and failings throughout.

Have a look for a buffer setting for streaming, and see if it can be increased.

 

[splifingate]

Probably insufficient shielding.

That being said, I've noticed a much more pronounced "crackle/crumple" coming from my Line Out speakers on load/sleep after the 15.7.7 update...

 

[theorist9]

I was going to suggest it could be clipping from setting the volume too high and overdriving the amplifier, until I realized what you meant by "under load" wasn't the sound system, but the SoC! 😀

But then I thought: If fully loading your SoC maxes out the PS, it's plausible the computer reduces the voltage supplying the audio circuitry, which could indeed cause transient clipping.

So I did a bit of searching, and realized this actually is a thing ("You may still get popping/crackling when your CPU's under a heavy load (e.g. rendering), so just be aware of that.")

https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/comments/el6e8m/psa_audio_poppingcrackling_potential_fix_for

You can hear what clipping sounds like at 0:08 here: