Is there any Mac software that can:
Obviously, doing this will pick up background room sounds. But hopefully it can show any problems.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13
Try using the Balance slider to focus audio to one speaker at a time which makes it much easier to detect distorted speakers. Play some audio which you are familiar and know to have a clean sound. Having test audio with a range of frequencies is best (high, med, low) and play the audio slightly louder than normal.
Compare the sound from the internal speakers with headphones or external speakers. If it is the source audio, then headphones & external speakers should also have the issue.
I do know that the 2013 to 2014 and even 2015 MacBook Pros tend to have their speakers fail (usually distorted, but some have very weak/low audio). I haven't noticed any other Macs with speaker issues as that has been extremely rare except for the noted models. I've never seen so many speaker failures in any other Macs in 20 years. I've only encountered a couple of speaker failures with the USB-C models so far with our organization's Macs.
Edit: The Balance slider can be found in the "Output" tab of the Sound System Preferences.
Try using the Balance slider to focus audio to one speaker at a time which makes it much easier to detect distorted speakers. Play some audio which you are familiar and know to have a clean sound. Having test audio with a range of frequencies is best (high, med, low) and play the audio slightly louder than normal.
Compare the sound from the internal speakers with headphones or external speakers. If it is the source audio, then headphones & external speakers should also have the issue.
I do know that the 2013 to 2014 and even 2015 MacBook Pros tend to have their speakers fail (usually distorted, but some have very weak/low audio). I haven't noticed any other Macs with speaker issues as that has been extremely rare except for the noted models. I've never seen so many speaker failures in any other Macs in 20 years. I've only encountered a couple of speaker failures with the USB-C models so far with our organization's Macs.
Edit: The Balance slider can be found in the "Output" tab of the Sound System Preferences.
Hi there big_smile,
We'll need more information to see how we can help. Are you experiencing an issue with the built-in speakers or microphone on your Mac? You won't necessarily need an app to test the microphone or speakers.
If there's an issue with the speakers, try the suggestions here: If you can’t hear sound from your Mac speakers
Thanks!
Sometimes when I play certain soundtracks, I can hear distortions. But I am not sure if the distortions are there or it is just my hearing. I recently had the speakers replaced by Apple, so I just want to check everything is working.
The distortions I hear are very intermittent and random, so they aren't easy to reproduce if I take it back to the store (and it could just be my hearing). So if there was some test or something like that, that would be handy!
Thanks for your help!
Try using Voice Memos while playing a song- it'll pick up the sound from the device (and background noise too). However, this doesn't capture internal sounds, only noise that comes out of the speakers, then in to the microphone.
This is super helpful. Thanks!
Mac software to test speakers via microphone?
