Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#301

Post by StreamBright » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

paublyrne wrote: post #154

saiya-jin wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you most probably don't need all of that collection in your phone. Phones are generally lousy primary storage for, well anything including photos and music. Easy to lose, drown or destroy. You also most probably wouldn't hear the difference between high bitrate mp3 and flac, unless you are genetically gifted with superior hearing and use expensive headphones on top of that. But I guess its easier to shell tons o…

I imagine it's not the primary storage for OP, but syncs from the library on Mac, which is probably has a backup strategy itself. As commenter above noted, you probably don't need lossless audio on your portable device if you only listen through earbuds, but if you use connect it to some good speakers or high quality headphones, then why shouldn't you be able to? As for the quality difference in general, I ripped my…

Exactly this. I don't understand why people are giving up on quality and bend over for guys like Tim Cook who push down worse quality products consistently. They need to realise that wireless audio is just not there for all the use cases (leave the jack alone) and instead of faster processors we need bigger storage.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#302

Post by StreamBright » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 7:58 PM UTC

wor3q wrote: post #123

StreamBright wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is not a serious alternative. It is pretty unbelievable that MS did not learn a single thing from Apple over 20 years. The result of this ignorance shows. Their software is complicated, bloated has 100000 features when people use 3 most of the time. Apple got this right with the mandatory app menu where the most used things are the same (like CMD+P). I think for developers Linux is a better alternative today…

> bloated has 100000 features when people use 3 most of the time And here's your MP3 player, iTunes...

Please have a look to the default screen of Outlook and iTunes. Which has more functionality showed into your face that you never use.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#303

Post by dwrodri » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 8:04 PM UTC

If you've never read Andrew Grover's "Only The Paranoid Survive" I highly recommend it. It really appears that Apple has reached an inflection point where they need to fix the core product design lifecycle. I think it's very possible that the C-level execs and the board of directors don't realize the pressing issues from the outside.

Sure, the typical software engineer isn't their target demographic. But I would argue that tech-oriented users should be the bellwether for key issues related to performance and usability since as a demographic they tend to do things that will identify the flaws of your product.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#304

Post by _asummers » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 8:12 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #37

_asummers wrote: post #19

Semi-related: But does anyone know why unplugging headphones while audio is muted causes the audio to become unmuted? This is easily my least favorite bug and results in a 10 second shuffle of frantically finding the mute button again, sometimes with the laptop closed. It seems like something that would never pass QA in previous iterations of Apple, though I could be remembering the past more fondly than was true.

It is not a bug. It is the default behavior. If you don't want to have sound after unplugging headphone, just set the volume of the speakers to mute.

This does not persist for me. I will mute, then unplug, and audio begins playing. I have to either explicitly pause audio or have muted before plugging in the headphones.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#305

Post by qntty » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 8:32 PM UTC

_asummers wrote: post #304

csomar wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not a bug. It is the default behavior. If you don't want to have sound after unplugging headphone, just set the volume of the speakers to mute.

This does not persist for me. I will mute, then unplug, and audio begins playing. I have to either explicitly pause audio or have muted before plugging in the headphones.

You have to mute while unplugged, then next time you unplug it will be muted.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#306

Post by PascLeRasc » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

deng wrote: post #93

gumbi_nz wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that truly bizarre. Would people seriously prefer to run a commercial studio and Pro Tools on a windows machine? I've run Logic across a number of versions on various Mac Pros and they're rock solid. I could almost guarantee a very different experience on a PC ....

I find it truly bizarre that there are people who actually still buy a Mac Pro. Just look at the shop page. They sell that thing for 4k$ with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. It's completely bonkers. If you need a high-powered audio machine with dedicated PCI-E ports today(!), there's simply no alternative to a Windows PC. And yes, Windows can do audio just fine; you either invest the work and carefully choose components an…

The difference between a $1.5k Windows machine and a $4k Mac, with the intention to use either for the next 4-5 years, is nothing compared to studio budgets. Audio engineers spend tens of thousands just on room treatments, thousands more on analog mic preamps, and you need a hefty collection of different microphones. This is all so that you can bill studio time at $500+ per hour and produce great recordings. Any time you're spending diagnosing blue screens and Windows driver issues is time not booking artists and preparing mixes. OS X happens to be the first-class platform for most DAWs like Ableton, and the only choice for Logic, so you're limiting yourself not using a Mac.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#307

Post by mmfl » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:42 PM UTC

Apple definitely have a major issue here - I upgraded from the 2016 MBP to 2018 MBP (max'ed out specs in both cases apart from SSD size) and audio dropouts etc when using Mainstage for live performance with virtual instruments (sound sources) have increased greatly. I'm a (piano) keyboard player and low buffer sizes and latency (Interestingly yes I experience issues with my USB2 interface (RME Babyface Pro) but also when using the MBP's headphone jack or the interface via USB ports on my LG Ultrafine 5K monitor (which has its own USB chip). I do wonder if the root issue may be along the lines of this poster's theory about poorly written Apple driver code (since Apple probably wrote new driver code to accommodate T2): https://www.gearslutz.com/board/showpost.php?p=13492144&post...

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#308

Post by ahakki » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 11:00 PM UTC

013a wrote: post #249

dharma1 wrote: post #215

Honestly, I'm really disappointed with Apple for pro use lately. 1) not testing stuff thoroughly - the i9 mbpro overheating saga ("fixed" by firmware upgrade), this T2 usb2 dropout (which probably isn't fixable at all) - unacceptable. 2) releasing significant GPU upgrade 2 months after a flagship mbpro release - I and many others were screwed by buying the latest and greatest (the most expensive laptop I've ever boug…

Most recently, I'd also include the "iPad Pro Shipping Without A Headphone Jack". It's different than ditching the headphone jack on the iPhone, which is mostly just an inconvenience and wireless headphones are becoming more popular anyway. Music production is literally one of their big advertising markets for the iPad, with a vast array of applications available. Wireless headphones are unusable for music production…

> the DACs inside the hub are shit compared to Apple's official ones

Nevermind the fact that Apple's official $9 audio dongle also only has a barely acceptable DAC in it.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#309

Post by oefrha » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 11:02 PM UTC

DamnInteresting wrote: post #268

013a wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is, many of us with this problem cant afford to give up the device for the amount of time it takes Apple to fix it. I've owned a 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018 MBP (most of them through work). I'm typing this message on a 2018 MBP, which wasp urchased 3 months ago, and I've decided that I'm not . going to go back and fix all of the sticky spaces that it errantly injects. I could take it in, but then I'd h ave…

> many of us with this problem cant afford to give up the device for the amount of time it takes Apple to fix it. This is my current situation. I am eligible for a free keyboard repair (2017 MBP), and I need one owing to sticky keys, but last I checked the estimated repair time was over a week. I would be hard pressed to go one day without this device. I cannot suspend my livelihood for 7+ days. The more this problem…

Last time my MBP (mid-2015 15'') was in the shop, I just "purchased" the latest model, only to return it when my old machine was sent back. The 14 days no questions asked return policy makes it possible even if the turnaround time is 7+ days. I did communicate my intent very clearly prior to the "purchase" (really just a loner), and multiple Apple Store employees I talked to were very supportive.

Incidentally I got to live with the new butterfly keyboard for a week or so. I've been hearing horror stories about it for years at that point, but turns out it was okay. Not gonna win any awards, but after a few hours I got used to it like any other keyboard, had no problem touch typing, and didn't notice any increased rate of errors. The arrow keys did take some getting used to, though, and the lack of physical Esc and function keys was a nuisance in a small number of scenarios.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#310

Post by egypturnash » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 11:21 PM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #143

egypturnash wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not alone, I seriously regret my six month old maxed-out touchbarless MBPro and really wish I'd managed to hold on a couple more months for the Retina Air. Its keyboard hasn't started sticking on me but its battery life is trash , half the time it dies after like an hour and a half while thinking it's at 20% battery so it doesn't even hibernate to disc like it should. Last week I started migrating back to the…

> it dies [...] while thinking it's at 20% battery This is definitely a manufacturing defect with your battery and you should take it in for warranty repair. It should never do that unless the battery is severely degraded (1000+ cycles)

Yep. Constantly says "service battery", too. I've made and cancelled a couple of service appointments due to Seattle basically shutting down for the snowstorms, hopefully I'll get it there at the next one and they will not wave me off with "oh just reset the nvram, also reboot your computer every week or so!" like they did the first time.

230 cycles, 65% capacity, seven months old.