How to Fix Cracking and Popping Sound ?

Apparently some good news after a few years in the making: some people are reporting this is finally fixed in macOS Sonoma. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/audio-stutters-with-usb-dacs-on-macbook-m1-pro.42001/page-15#post-1652819

@mnovaes Thanks for sharing this! Looks promising, I am crossing my fingers and knocking on wood that our ears can be at peace once this update rolls out :)

Hello, I have been tested MacOS Sonoma Public Beta in my MBP 14 M1 Pro (3 days). And I didn't hear any crackling or ******* on my speakers, although before the update I got them 100% once every 15-30 minutes. When I press memory to yellow zone I din't get any cracking again. I'm hoping this is the fix and when I upgrade to public I'll never hear this again. @mnovaes thank you for link, it's work <3

Cautiously optimistic...I've been running Sonoma for a couple of days, with the usual memory pressure, and haven't heard it cutting out yet.

Well I just updated to Sonoma on my MBP M1 Max and I still have the audio glitch with my RME UFX III via usb while listening to music through Apple Music. I’ll get the audio garble glitch randomly where playback kind of stutters and distorts. I reinstalled my UA Apollo x6 which connects via thunderbolt and no issues using it instead.

it is hard to believe that Apple does not accept the bug in their firmware or Hardware issue. I am facing this issue with my Macbook 2022 14-inch laptop from May 2022. I have been to the Apple store 3 times and they say it will be fixed in the next software upgrade but it hasn't. They do not take it for repair because they say it is a software issue, not a hardware issue. I had no option and had to deal with the crackling sound. I stopped watching movies/videos on my laptop just using it for work.

I've been trying to solve this on a Mac for months now without success. Today, for kicks I disabled (not uninstalled) the SalesLoft extension in Chrome video started playing just fine. Toggle it back on, and the crackling noise comes back.

I've had this issue with my 2021 M1 MBP since I bought it. On the basis of this thread I upgraded to Sonoma but that doesn't seem to affect it at all. My biggest offender is Bitwig, which seems to be unusually common in these replies for a relatively niche DAW. My issues don't seem related to buffer overloads or high DSP activity, and aren't fixed by increasing the buffer length. Really irritating.

I use the latest version of MacOs Sonoma 14.1.1:

If the memory pressure of my macbook air m1 goes to yellow, then the music playing randomly lags, it makes like a micro click.

My typical workflow is having various chrome tabs, firefox , Spotify (for music) and a couple of IDEs for programming.

Honestly this is the first computer that has audio that lags....and if the problem doesn't resolve it will be my last mac... With what it costs it is in my opinion a serious problem, a user experience that is inevitably damaged by not being able to serenely hear music without it being ruined by some random ms of interruption.

years and years after, still have crackling and poping issue with a brand new Mac 16, only solution found is rebooting another observation I have is that Microsoft Teams is often the app that starts crackling, then afterward it's a crack-fest in youtube videos in chrome and other app that emits sounds

Wow, seems like a serious thing, it happens in fact sometimes for me while coding with bunch of chrome tabs and big software like QGIS ... MB Pro 14 M1 32 gb RAM... Interesting to see how they will fix that...

I have the same issue with MacBook Pro 16 M1.

When I'd faced with the issue for a first time I am also as other guys thought it is due to bad quality of audio.

Currently I have only one solution is to use Bluetooth Headset.

It is shame on Apple for not fixing this issue for laptop that is not so cheep

M3 Max 36GB MBP 16" (no usb dacs, just native speakers)

Back to Apple after 18 years. Waited for apple silicon to mature a bit and decided to go with this generation. Am absolutely dumbfounded to see this issue. I don't have any crackles or popping. What I do have is the sound having micro cuts, be it Youtube, Spotify and it doesn't even need massive loads or spikes for it to happen. No memory pressure at all. This is actually unbelievable and unacceptable on such an expensive computer. Have dirt cheap laptops that handle audio better than this.

Clearly something is amiss with Core Audio, not sure why Apple aren't addressing this as sound performance is absolutely mandatory for a smooth experience. Thank God I'm not back to doing audio engineering on Macs this is unacceptable.

I'm on Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71) on an M1 MBP. I've had the staticy issue for 3 OS versions now. It always shows up when the memory pressure goes yellow (higher than 75%) in activity monitor. Thankfully I've been able to fix it (for a time) by switching outputs to MacbookPro Speakers, then back to my external USB DAC. Force quitting CoreAudio works too, but is more disruptive. The problem also resolves if I quit some memory heavy apps or close tabs.

It's definitely CoreAudio interacting with low memory situations that causes it. I wish this machine had more than 16GB of RAM.

This is ridiculous I have been having this issue with my 2019 Macbook Pro, now got a 2023 Macbook Pro with M3 Pro and 36 GB of memory. Memory usage is usually low and still get this crackling, popping sound when listening to music, being on Google Meets calls on Sonoma 14.1 (23B2073).