Live data from Hacker News

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

twitter.com

231–237 of 237 posts

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

#231

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…

I was an original Mac user (first computer ever bought) and was thinking this type of stuff too. My Windows experience was from schools, friends' computers or later client's computers.

Nowadays I had both but use a Windows PC quite a lot (was destined to be a hackintosh, but couldn't put up with the hassle later one) and the reason I use Windows more is precisely because I have found it to be more stable, less annoying and with less bugs usually.

I have a loaded Intel Mac Mini along and the audio bugs keeps happening on this system, I have particularly nasty crackling that is impossible to debug and particularly annoying for a machine of this price (and I can't swap the mobo like I could if it were a PC).

The Apple reputation is largely underserved nowadays and I find it frustrating because it is one of the reasons they use to justify their absurdly high pricing.

Considering those bugs are still not fixed in Apple Silicon Mac's, I am pretty sure this is a combination of bad software maintenance and poor hardware design, even though they pretend they know better.

Considering the price of their computers, it is unacceptable but to be honest it won't be my problem anymore because I'm not buying anything else from Apple for the foreseeable future.

MacOS is nice and had some cool stuff back in the days, but now Windows can offer an almost 1to1 alternative, at a much better price with much less hardware issues. If you put as much money into a PC than you do in a Mac, the warranty will outlast the Apple support for the equivalent Mac which is kind of funny considering the prices...

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

#232

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…

I have experienced all the bug you mentioned but special mention to the Apple Music bug.

I fixed it: I switched to Spotify.

I support your decision to switch to some other manufacturers; I'm doing just that as well. Apple is making way too much money to care and it will get much worse before it gets better, at current prices it is just not acceptable.

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

#233

Long ranty post. I'll use the occasion to crap on macOS because yes, I experienced this, not to mention random devices disconnecting in conditions of higher memory pressure (i.e. starting a k8s cluster and doing tests, then tearing it down, then starting another etc.) -- one time even my keyboard disconnected which was annoying to say the least. To this day my $300 dock sometimes doesn't at all get detected after I w…

People who have been doing hackintoshes or were installing Windows on Intel Macs have known for a while that macOS is rather slow compared to the competition and with of the lack of features/functionality you have to pay for on top of the way more expensive hardware it is a very bad deal.

I think people sticking with macOS are doing it for convenience and because it is hard to switch to something else when you have done things a particular way all your life. But considering the price of Macs, currently it is an unbelievably bad deal but as long as there are fools to pay the price nothing will change I guess.

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

#234
post #233

Long ranty post. I'll use the occasion to crap on macOS because yes, I experienced this, not to mention random devices disconnecting in conditions of higher memory pressure (i.e. starting a k8s cluster and doing tests, then tearing it down, then starting another etc.) -- one time even my keyboard disconnected which was annoying to say the least. To this day my $300 dock sometimes doesn't at all get detected after I w…

People who have been doing hackintoshes or were installing Windows on Intel Macs have known for a while that macOS is rather slow compared to the competition and with of the lack of features/functionality you have to pay for on top of the way more expensive hardware it is a very bad deal. I think people sticking with macOS are doing it for convenience and because it is hard to switch to something else when you have d…

Using my iMac Pro has objectively improved my eye health; the displays are amazing and my eyes are almost not getting tired.

But yeah, beyond that the deal gets worse and worse with time. Apple are dropping the ball, it's been visible.

As mentioned upthread, I'm very likely to start using my Mac as a thin client in the next years: get all the benefits of Linux (ultra speed included) with none of the drawbacks (insecure desktop environments; the X11 protocol literally allows you to capture all key presses once you connect), and all happening through the best displays there is.

So it's not about being a fool. There are objective benefits to using Macs. But, these benefits are dwindling with time, so the equation gets less and less in favor of Apple.

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

#235

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 […

And get ready for macOS 14.4 where apparently Apple's decided that we're no longer allowed to kickstart coreaudiod (or any other LaunchDaemons)

    $ sudo launchctl kickstart -kp system/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod
    Could not kickstart service "com.apple.audio.coreaudiod": 1: Operation not permitted

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

#236
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who have been doing hackintoshes or were installing Windows on Intel Macs have known for a while that macOS is rather slow compared to the competition and with of the lack of features/functionality you have to pay for on top of the way more expensive hardware it is a very bad deal. I think people sticking with macOS are doing it for convenience and because it is hard to switch to something else when you have d…

Using my iMac Pro has objectively improved my eye health; the displays are amazing and my eyes are almost not getting tired. But yeah, beyond that the deal gets worse and worse with time. Apple are dropping the ball, it's been visible. As mentioned upthread, I'm very likely to start using my Mac as a thin client in the next years: get all the benefits of Linux (ultra speed included) with none of the drawbacks (insecu…

I cannot agree with you more. The iMacs prior to Apple Silicon were actually pretty good computers at a decent price everything considered, especially for the display indeed. And if you went with the big one like you did, you could actually upgrade most of the stuff easily, no Apple tax.

I am actually rather mad they stopped making them because it was clearly the best value in the whole Apple lineup, but also lowkey one of the best computers you could buy for the price (unless you needed something exotic or massive amounts of power).

And to be clear, I'm not saying all Apple customers are fools but I am saying that Apple are taking all its customers for fools, including the ones who supported them in their hard times in the PPC days and it feels rather greedy and nasty to me. But some of them try to justify every penny-pinching decision Apple makes and those ones I do think are complete fools and they do not help the case...

TBH I was thinking of getting a 5K iMac to do something similar but T2 Macs are kind of a pain in the ass so it doesn't feel ideal, especially since the 5K LGs are less expensive second-hand than the iMacs.

My fear is that it's going to take quite a while after they go downhill to go back to something acceptable, the way I see it, Tim Cook is dilapidating the brand to make a quick buck but ah well...

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

#237

This is much older than 10 years https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/79384/audio-balanc...

Love how much older == 1 year

First comment:

>I've had this problem on multiple MacBooks (from my old Powerbook 15 from 2003 to prior to finding this question on my late 2011 MBP 13").

so about 21 years

Post reply on HN