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Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

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Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#171
post #92
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using macs since the 90s for "serious amateur" music production, and I listen to music while working on an MBP daily, both via the headphone jack and via a USB audio interface, and I've never encountered that. Is there no idea what triggers it?

Quickly changing the system volume while the system is under heavy CPU load, plus chance.

That's indeed something I've never done. So the culprit is that the volume knob sends multiple messages and they get lost or something?

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#172

as a long term apple user, their blatant disregard for fixing bugs is really starting to piss me off to the point where next time i upgrade my phone and computer, i'm probably going back to android/linux. their software is literally a microsoft-tier experience (maybe even worse at this point) across the board now, and i'm not going to keep paying a premium for non-premium bullshit full of stupid bugs any junior dev c…

On my iPhone 13 Pro, calendar notifications will fail, and the alarm clock will fail to ring. No idea why. I need to reboot my iPhone once a week to fix this issue, and it's been this way since I bought this phone a few years ago. No iOS updates has ever fixed this.

I also have issues with the sluggish interface. Some of my third-party email apps takes several seconds to just load the list of messages. They take milliseconds to load on a Pixel.

My lock screen can sometimes take a bit more than a second to unlock.

The browser dropdown will occasionally load the wrong page when I touch the URL.

The keyboard is more wrong than right, most of the time. Out of all the bugs and problems that make the iPhone almost unusable, it would be the terrible, auto-incorrect keyboard.

The analogy that comes to mind is when the auto industry consolidated to just three large players. Quality was never great to begin with, but it steeply declined after that. It took foreign companies to add real competition to the market.

Apple has been in decline for years now, especially since their only other competitors are Samsung and Google.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are so many bugs and even more poor ergonomic choices that have been unfixed for years on Apple Devices. It's fascinating considering the whole cult regarding the company's so called attention to details.

It’s because despite those issues, depressingly macOS still delivers an experience that to most Mac users is preferable over that of Linux or especially Windows. Increasingly it’s not that macOS is incredible, but that the alternatives are that much worse. And I say this as someone who uses Windows and Linux daily alongside macOS. Windows isn’t going to get any better so long as Microsoft’s betting on pushing service…

In my experience, people tend to say that macOS "looks good". I have not spoken with a mac user who said that macOS is more usable or the workflows are more productive. Also, Apple has convinced everyone that they always know what they are doing, so when something is wrong in the OS it's users who think they must be doing something wrong.

But with Microsoft turning Windows into a big advertising billboard, I can see it becoming a valid reason.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#174
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use an external DAC and encounter this crackling problem regularly. I have to unplug/replug my DAC to get it to go back to normal. I just thought it was a hardware problem with my DAC because it’s getting up there in the years, thought the caps might be going. Hmm…

I have 4 external all different sound cards and AMPs (USB), it's the same on all of them. There is no software remedy, only re-connecting physically works (temporarily)

“Amp” isn't an acronym

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#175
post #108

I have been producing music on macOS for 8+ years on multiple laptops (from x86 to ARM), different external DACs, wired and wireless headphones, etc. I am very sensitive to L/R balance and sometimes have to adjust the panning ever so slightly if my ears are off (e.g., after pressure change during a flight) in phone’s Accessibility settings. The fact that there is an Apple-specific L/R audio balance bug, which now see…

In terms of serious Mac audio issues, when I got my new M1 MBP I quickly noticed a faint crackling sound (unaffected by the volume setting) in the headphone jack when plugged in via MagSafe or a left side USB port. So I just have it plugged in to power on the right side instead. Other people have reported it too, so it's not just a one-off defect. I know electrical engineering is hard, but it's a really annoying prob…

Haven't noticed it affecting the audio, but you can definitely feel the grounding issue when touching the back of a charging MBP. You get a tingling / bumpy surface sensation. I've seen people complaining about getting actual shocks for it though.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#176
That's nothing. Even though the hardware has supported it for at least 15 years, MacOS still doesn't have support for MST (DisplayPort daisy-chaining). Instead of just plugging one cable in and having two externals connected to each other, we've all either had to use a cable per monitor (using two scarce ports on the laptop) or buy a $100-$300 box that will do the work for us.

Back when installing Windows on a MacBook with Bootcamp was pretty common, it was galling to have Windows support MST perfectly fine on the Apple hardware while MacOS reverted to simple (useless) mirroring.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are so many bugs and even more poor ergonomic choices that have been unfixed for years on Apple Devices. It's fascinating considering the whole cult regarding the company's so called attention to details.

It’s because despite those issues, depressingly macOS still delivers an experience that to most Mac users is preferable over that of Linux or especially Windows. Increasingly it’s not that macOS is incredible, but that the alternatives are that much worse. And I say this as someone who uses Windows and Linux daily alongside macOS. Windows isn’t going to get any better so long as Microsoft’s betting on pushing service…

> Generic PC laptops nearly all involve one or more major tradeoffs in day to day use, with none being as good all-rounders as MacBooks even if individual specs don’t measure up.

This also applies to smartphones. No matter the aspect, some specialty Android is 10x as good as your iPhone. However, it'll have bizarre drawbacks. iPhones are popular because they have right default balance for the broad audience out of the box.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#178

The left/right channels drifting randomly is one thing (SoundSource fixes it), but it gets worse.. I've been trying to raise awareness of Apples horrible audio issues for quite a few years now. Driver re-starts and USB re-connects, for no apparent reason. [0][1] I have the issue on Mac Mini (2018) Intel, Mac Studio M1, Macbook Pro M2, so it's not device specific. [0] https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/132423 […

I have just reported a bug where high memory pressure could cause memory pages from the real-time audio thread to get swapped out, causing audio glitches. I am not hopeful for a timely resolution now...

This is not fixable. You’d need an RTOS.

(You can’t mlock every single code page possibly executed by the thread for instance.)

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#179
post #42

The fact that this has existed for so long and is common enough to warrant a third party program devoted to resolving the issue is an embarrassment for Apple. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/balance-lock/id1019371109?mt=1...

Apple isn't 'embarrassed' by bugs at all - only if those bugs result in widespread public attention. Filing 100s of extremely detailed bug reports on their 'feedback assistant' will do less to change anything than one trending twitter post or news coverage.

Making bug reports extremely detailed doesn’t actually help; you don’t know which details are relevant and it could get it sent down the wrong paths from other people getting distracted by them.

Plus it gives you burnout. Rely on the system logs to have enough detail.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#180
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should they? Are these people going to abandon their Macs because of these bugs? Obviously not, so why should Apple spend any money at all fixing them?

In the Jobs years it was because the person at the tob intrinsically gave a shit about making a good thing. But you're right, it certainly seems that's the kind of game Cook is playing. Better than Windows, but no better, and keep the extra money.

The CEO doesn’t control the fix rate of audio bugs. There’s a few layers of management between those two things.
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