Sonoma/Sequoia, M2Pro, Multi-Output Audio Dropouts

Can anyone reproduce this audio dropout problem on any multi-output device:

Setup a multi-output device with any 2 devices, e.g. Mac external headphones & internal speakers, HDMI & headphones, Headphones & NDI, etc. You can even create a multi-output device with only 1 device. Order and drift correction haven't mattered in my tests.


  • Play audio via Music, Spotify, etc.
  • Open TV app and page through the previews.
  • Opening TV and paging through previews cause short dropouts in the audio. Dropouts can be caused by loading news or content-heavy pages in Safari as well. How I noticed the problem was by hearing dropouts continually while listening to music. The problem occurs continually, but the way to force it is to use an Apple app to download a burst of media and other related info.


* Using wired or wireless network

* Firewall off, no antivirus software

* Mini M2 Pro 2023, 16GB 

* Observed in Sonoma 14.5 & above, Sequoia 15, 15.0.1  - clean install of Sonoma, reinstall of Sequoia

* First observed streaming music via Music app. Downloaded music - no change.  

* Can not reproduce problem loading pages via Chrome.  

* Noticed dropouts coinciding with Safari sitting on a new home page that was constantly loading new content. Can often reproduce problem with page refreshes in Safari, but always by using TV app.

* Problem was worse when Safari was default browser. Closing all foreground apps doesn't stop problem. 

* Mini i7 2012 ran same config for 10 years without this problem. Current i9 16" MBP, Monterey, does not have the problem. 


Have reported to Apple, but haven't had a meaningful update in 3 weeks.


Video example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z9KXZQNUNo


Mac mini, macOS 15.0

Posted on Oct 7, 2024 05:50 PM

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Sonoma/Sequoia, M2Pro, Multi-Output Audio Dropouts

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