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Do you have any issues with audio on the Mac Mini?

Do you have any issues with audio on macmini? (Internal/External audio) like clicks and pops.

  • Yes, I do have some clicks and pops occasionally

    Votes: 19 21.8%

  • Yes, I have some severe crackling sometimes during playback

    Votes: 10 11.5%

  • No, I don't have any issues

    Votes: 58 66.7%
  • Total voters
    87
  • Like
Reactions: Duncan68
anaudiopro said:
Use case scenarios with endless 3rd party peripherals will inevitably lead to having different outcomes, especially given the amount of variables. It doesn't mean that the T2 chip or USB connectivity is without flaw and doesn't cause issues on other setups.
Click to expand...

Which I never stated. Nor did Production Expert.
 
Sustainerplayer said:
Which I never stated. Nor did Production Expert.
Click to expand...
Then what's your or their point? That they didn't seem to have any issues as of yet on their particular test setup? Fantastic for them! It doesn't help all the rest of us that do. It's kind of like wagging your finger in someone's face. Not helpful. More like bragging.
[doublepost=1551485302][/doublepost]
Sustainerplayer said:
Which I never stated. Nor did Production Expert.
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I also notice that they use terms like "anecdotal evidence from forums", which is basically saying that everyone else is full of crap online and making all this up. How ridiculous and elitist is that? Maybe they are the ones that are not being fully truthful as to try and prevent tarnishing Apple's sterling reputation even further? Aka. maybe they are @$$ kissing Apple...?
 
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anaudiopro said:
Then what's your or their point? That they didn't seem to have any issues as of yet on their particular test setup? Fantastic for them! It doesn't help all the rest of us that do. It's kind of like wagging your finger in someone's face. Not helpful. More like bragging.
[doublepost=1551485302][/doublepost]
I also notice that they use terms like "anecdotal evidence from forums", which is basically saying that everyone else is full of crap online and making all this up. How ridiculous and elitist is that? Maybe they are the ones that are not being fully truthful as to try and prevent tarnishing Apple's sterling reputation even further? Aka. maybe they are @$$ kissing Apple...?
Click to expand...

I think the point is to show people that not everyone is effected, and to give potential mini buyers both sides of the story. I’ve seen several articles and posts that make it sound like all Mac mini’s have problems with audio when in fact they do not. I was somebody who lurked around these forums to find out about the mini, and if someone sees an entire thread only showing one side of the story, it can paint the wrong picture.
 
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Reactions: s15119, rmdeluca and Sustainerplayer
Jorbanead said:
I think the point is to show people that not everyone is effected, and to give potential mini buyers both sides of the story. I’ve seen several articles and posts that make it sound like all Mac mini’s have problems with audio when in fact they do not. I was somebody who lurked around these forums to find out about the mini, and if someone sees an entire thread only showing one side of the story, it can paint the wrong picture.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
Well there is truth to that I agree. Either way I'll know in a few days when my Mini arrives and can test it for myself.
 
Jorbanead said:
I think the point is to show people that not everyone is effected, and to give potential mini buyers both sides of the story. I’ve seen several articles and posts that make it sound like all Mac mini’s have problems with audio when in fact they do not. I was somebody who lurked around these forums to find out about the mini, and if someone sees an entire thread only showing one side of the story, it can paint the wrong picture.
Click to expand...
LOL there’s nothing like rolling the dice on a new Mac. What you just said makes it sound like Apple is releasing batches that are faulty and some that are not. I know from personal experience that this isn’t the case. The issues lie in the hardware/software. Oh the joys at Apple these days. This shouldn’t even be “a thing” at all. The fact that it is speaks volumes.
 
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Reactions: Trips
I believe that ALL T2 Macs HAVE the problem (with the current version of Mojave).

Whether they EXHIBIT it or not is a different matter, depending on the use case.
 
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Reactions: dspdoc and Duncan68
canyelles said:
I believe that ALL T2 Macs HAVE the problem (with the current version of Mojave).

Whether they EXHIBIT it or not is a different matter, depending on the use case.
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Precisely, and denial doesn't make it nonexistent.
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Duncan68 said:
I think it depends on the audio hardware they have and the interaction with the Mac.
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
rjsounds said:
I have a 2018 Mac mini on order.
I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface.
Once I have it set up, I will test and report any audio issues with the new Mac mini.

I don't see why people are fighting here. There are indeed many threads on different forums indicating there is certainly an issue related to Apple's T2 chip and USB audio interfaces and this whole pauseaudioengine timesync kernel thing. I hope I'm not affected, but if I am, I just hope Apple does something about it.
Click to expand...

I've had my mac mini for almost 2 weeks now.

I can now confirm - there is definitely an issue related to the T2 chip and my USB audio interface.

About once every 15m - 30m my audio will get interrupted for a second. This of course has been mentioned in other online forums and on reddit, and is reportedly due to the system time daemon automatically updating the system time and for whatever reason sends a pause-audio-engine message to the kernel.

I can even trigger it myself by checking and unchecking "set time zone automatically."

Here's what's interesting though - I used screenflow to record my computer's audio at the same time I was playing a sine wave in Logic Pro X and started to check and uncheck the "set time zone automatically" which triggered the audio glitches over and over again. However, when I go back and listen to the recorded computer audio, the pure sine wave, the audio glitches were not recorded. It was seamless. Somehow, even though in the kernel there are pause-audio-engine messages, my recording wasn't affected. It is annoying though, to be working on a song, or listening to music, and hear the audio glitch about 3 or 4 times an hour.

I'll be contacting Apple about this. The more exposure it gets, the more likely they will address it. I'm super disappointed that this is happening though. I won't return my Mac Mini because of it, but I certainly hope Apple tries to fix this since it's apparently been happening since the introduction of the T2 chip at the end of 2017.

Edit: I also tested this without the USB audio interface and there are no issues.

When I have some time I'll see if I can upload a video of the audio glitches happening.
 
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From the RME forum:

Re: What's the verdict on current Macbook Pros + USB RME interfaces?
According to our tests Beta 5 indeed fixes the various drop outs and clicks encountered with USB 2 on the 2018 Mac models.

And it also seems to fix a different issue that gave us a lot of grieve (this thread, which led to driver 3.08 on page 2). Hopefully the final macOS release will still have all these changes...
Click to expand...

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?pid=139743#p139743
 
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Reactions: auduchinok and boomspot
I just finished installing 10.14.4, and the release notes have this:

- Improves the reliability of USB audio devices when used with the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini models introduced in 2018
Click to expand...

So it looks like the bug fix made it to the regular release. I have re-enabled time sync and set time zone (which would cause dropouts at least once an hour) and will see if the fix eliminates the dropouts.
 
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I had a couple of overloads, they indeed sound different now, but still in the end result is the same, it just doesn't clip audio...
I mean overloads in Logic project in which I normally don't ever have any overloads and it runs smoothly through the same place over and over and over and suddenly dang, 1,5 - 2 sec of choppy overload and its gone.
 
Thanks @Duncan68 for your updates. I haven't had time yet to test this myself with my USB Focusrite audio interface, but this coming weekend I'll be mixing a couple of songs in Logic so I'll have plenty of time to see what a difference this update made!
 
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Reactions: Miscellaneous and Duncan68
System Configuration:

Mac Mini (Late 2018)
3.2 GHz Core i7
16 GB DDR4 RAM
512 GB SSD

Connected Peripherals:

Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 (USB 2 Audio Interface)

Native Instruments Komplete A Series 61 (USB 2 MIDI Controller)

Wired USB Apple Keyboard & Mouse

iLok USB Key

ACER 1080P HDMI Monitor

Audio Software:

Ableton Live 10 Suite (10.0.6)

Various AU Instruments & Plugins

I have noticed occasional dropouts in audio playback since I bought my new Late 2018 i7 Mac Mini. Not frequent, but still worrying nonetheless. I never had this issue with my previous Late 2012 i7 Mac Mini. Just thought I would share my experience to add to the discussion. I have recently updated to Mojave 10.14.4 but haven’t had time to test it out yet. I will add any relevant information to the thread.

Cheers!
 
Quick update with more information...

The dropouts or hiccups that I have experienced usually happen shortly after booting up the Mac Mini and starting to work on music. It's like the music playback goes out of sync for a second and kind of shuffles the playback.

From what I've noticed it usually happens once within about 15 minutes or so of starting to work on music and then everything is normal.

Thanks!
 
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