There is a thread in Studio subforum with a poll about fan noise. There is also another one (about 50 pages so far) about the same subject.
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Mac Studio Owners Complain of Irritating High-Pitched Noise
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I don’t hear much about it at any music production forum I’m a member of (KVR, Gearspace, VI-Control). Everyone says it’s about as loud as 2019 Mac Pro, and that’s it.
Oh come on. You get the cheese grater, you get the whine to go with that cheese.
Their bank accounts say they're doing it right.
Obviously in the current and past implementations. But I think there are bigger problems yet to be solved if you're going to make breakaway AC power cables. They exist in small niches, but we're obviously not drowning in them so there's likely either an engineering or safety issue. To the extent that those issues are surmountable, it's clear that it was not worth the effort/expense to Apple to pursue it for the Studio Display, given that it's the only product they currently make that would make use of that technology.... and it's also a very low volume product too.
I'll be a very happy user if my forthcoming machine can accomplish two things:
1. Run a massive number of soft synths in Logic without stuttering.
2. Run quietly.
That's really all I need.
I might have to do that eventually, but it sure would be more convenient to have it handy. I'm planning to do things like slip an SD card in occasionally. My studio is multi-purpose -- writing, recording, photo & video. If it were solely a dedicated audio studio my setup would be quite different.
If one can have 2019 Mac Pro at recording studio (and many do), one can have the Mac Studio, just saying…
Yup - can attest with my Max Model. No whine or fan sound, but if I put my ear close to the back, I can hear the light whoosh of air. Fan is always on unless asleep, and funny enough that’s one of the few times the body gets warm.
Was worried at first because some people have recorded that high whine in the studio forum.
Ever spent hours trying to perfect a mix, getting more frustrated every moment that it isn't quite right, and then realize that your computer fans have spun up and you can hear it even through your best closed-back headphones?
What is ambient noise floor in your studio room with everything switched off? Less than 25dB?
I certainly hope so. I wish I'd had the opportunity to run my setup with a 2019 Mac Pro so I had a basis for comparison.
At this point I'm wondering if I ought to cancel my order and buy a reconditioned iMac Pro on Amazon for $2,000. Old tech at this point, but I'm guessing it would be pretty quiet.
Agreed, especially since this Mac is designed to be on a desktop. I have a gaming PC a floor below me running long USB 3.1 and DisplayPort 2.0 cables for silence but buying 2 or 3 $400 optical thunderbolt cables is ridiculous for this machine given its intended desktop use (plethora of ports, sd card reader, etc.)
After thinking things over some more I'm going to use a hackintosh until the Mac Pro comes out, and hopefully it won't start at $10,000 or something crazy. I wanted one last Intel Mac Pro since AVX is still used in a lot of audio plugins and Rosetta 2 doesn't support AVX, but I think there's no chance of that happening.
I need 128GB of RAM and 8TB of local SSD storage so this Studio M1 Ultra was ideal, it's a shame I'll have to sit out Apple Silicon for another 6+ months... I can't wait to throw my 16" Intel MBP into a pyre - it's such a nice machine until you actually try to use it for anything. I open a single Kontakt VI and the fans ramp to 2,500rpm+ once I start playing it, it's hilarious.
Hopefully by the time your order comes in they've noticed this issue and worked to address it- since some people are already saying they've gone through 2 or 3 of these machines I think it's likely they will. My order came up this week which is why i'm holding off.
Just under 30 dB as long as the dog doesn't bark. When the MacBook Pro fans come on it jumps to 50 dB which is too much. Most of my recording is MIDI, so I can work around it. When it comes time to fire up the Neumann, however, 30 dB is an issue and 50 dB is completely unacceptable.
*puts nerd hat on*Well, if his room’s ambient noise is more than 25dB and his Mac Studio is working within specs - he won’t be able to hear the fans. Simple acoustics science
If this was true then orchestras wouldn't work because you wouldn't hear them when everyone is playing quietly.
Sound combines with the decibel addition equation which is 10 * log10( sigma ( 10 ^ ( Li / 10) )
So if your office is 22 dB, adding a 25 dB studio will take your ambient noise floor from 22 dB to 26.8 dB, which is a 4.8 dB increase, which is pretty noticeable.
If your office is 32 dB, adding a 25 dB studio will take your noise floor from 32 to 32.8 dB which is only a 0.8 dB increase, and is probably completely imperceptible to most people.
For reference 3dB is widely regarded as the smallest volume difference that most people can reliably discern.
You shouldn’t hear Mac Studio (unless it is whiny/faulty) over 30dB background noise, IMHO.
100% in by agreement, except the orchestra bit
25dB is a “whisper” or “sound of falling leaves”. Even quiet classical passages will be louder than that…
I wonder if most of the reported cases are from the younger users. You see as we age, it becomes harder to hear higher pitch sounds. There are apps, and probably some YouTube videos that you can watch to test this.
Let's hope that's all the noise I'll have to complain about.
To those saying this is just users overreacting, I would point out that high frequency hearing loss is quite common the older one gets and also that living in noisy environments (e.g. in a busy city as opposed to a quiet rural area) is associated with a greater prevalence of hearing loss. A far more likely explanation for the fact that some people hear the noise and others don’t is that some people have greater degrees of high frequency hearing loss than others.
Having had non-Apple monitors that I needed to return because the whine they emitted was intolerable, I sympathize with those who are affected by this issue.
And, these reports have seriously quelled my ardor for paying $2K to buy a Mac Studio I don’t need (my 16 inch M1 Pro MBP is more than adequate for my needs) but had heretofore been lusting after (because I’m an AAPL junkie ?).
Having had non-Apple monitors that I needed to return because the whine they emitted was intolerable, I sympathize with those who are affected by this issue.
And, these reports have seriously quelled my ardor for paying $2K to buy a Mac Studio I don’t need (my 16 inch M1 Pro MBP is more than adequate for my needs) but had heretofore been lusting after (because I’m an AAPL junkie ?).
I just received my Max 32gpu/32gb/2tb studio on Monday. As soon as I start the machine I can hear a high-pitched noise. It's not awful, but always there until I turn the machine off. Super annoying, to the point where I can't use the machine for more than an hour without getting up. My M1 Mac mini was dead silent, my 2020 i9 iMac only kicked on the fans when rendering videos or using Creative Suite programs.
I talked to Apple Support over the phone and they told me to visit my local Apple Store. After they inspected the machine they considered the machine in working order (pretty much a worthless visit). I told the guy you have to listen to the machine without the background noise of the busy store. They were unaware of any fan issues with the Mac Studio.
At this point, I'm going to return it. No sense in staying frustrated. If it was just a blowing fan noise I could justify keeping it. Hopefully, Apple releases a fix or firmware update, I don't see the point of hoping this happens if I only have 14 days to return.
I suspect the issue is either the two different types of power supplies or maybe the fan enclosures made in different places? Apple seems to be making parts for these machines at different places.
I talked to Apple Support over the phone and they told me to visit my local Apple Store. After they inspected the machine they considered the machine in working order (pretty much a worthless visit). I told the guy you have to listen to the machine without the background noise of the busy store. They were unaware of any fan issues with the Mac Studio.
At this point, I'm going to return it. No sense in staying frustrated. If it was just a blowing fan noise I could justify keeping it. Hopefully, Apple releases a fix or firmware update, I don't see the point of hoping this happens if I only have 14 days to return.
I suspect the issue is either the two different types of power supplies or maybe the fan enclosures made in different places? Apple seems to be making parts for these machines at different places.
For $5,000 I certainly hope so. We shall see. Backup plan is to build an isolation box, but I'd rather not.