Background noise (hissing/crackling) playing on Mac Music but not through VOX or Pine Player - transfers to burned CDs

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Background noise (hissing/crackling) playing on Mac Music but not through VOX or Pine Player - transfers to burned CDs

When I play Music, mainly through my MAC MINI M4 from USB into a DAC, there is often a relatively high frequency hissing/crackling in the background. It is obviously most apparent during quiet passages and doesn’t seem to be there always but it may be and the music is obscuring it. If I play the same tracks through VOX or Pine Players there is no background noise. That background noise is there also when I burn a playlist to a CD-R from MUSIC and play it on a CD player. Any ideas? Unfortunately the new Mini doesn’t have a toslink digital optical out so I can’t test if it’s the USB interface but if you use the headphone out the noise is still there. Any suggestions as I burn CD’s often and the noise can sound like distortion and become bothersome. Thanks for any help.

Mac mini (M4, 2024)

Posted on Dec 25, 2025 3:04 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 25, 2025 3:38 PM in response to spinosaurus

If the hissing/crackling is present on burned CDs, that would suggest that it is present in the music files stored on your Mac. I don't think there is any processing done for burned audio CDs other than minimal format conversion. (E.g., a lossy .MP3 or .AAC file must be expanded back to a full-size set of data with the same audio information.)

Perhaps the VOX and Pine Players apps or devices are doing some sort of signal processing to reduce the hissing that is present in the source material?!?

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Answer 2

spinosaurus Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 25, 2025 4:03 PM in response to Servant of Cats

That is true but if you play the original CD’s on the same stereo they sound fine without the background noise. I’m still doing some troubleshooting but so far not finding the answer. One of the problems is that the CD”s I’m working on are French CD’s and don’t show up so I have to enter all the data for the CD manually as it isn’t on the Music internet search. Hope I can figure out but open to suggestions. Thanks for the logical analysis as you say it may be in the transfer through Music and is permanently in the digital files that I’m playing back and not in the playback through Music. Odd it doesn’t show up in VOX or Pine though.

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Answer 3

Dec 26, 2025 5:39 AM in response to spinosaurus

If you imported the music from CD using a lossy compression format (MP3 or AAC) and a relatively low bitrate, you may want to import the music again, using

Lossy compression and a higher bitrate,
Non-lossy compression ("Apple Lossless"), or
No compression at all

The latter options would get rid of lossy compression artifacts entirely, while the first option might reduce them.

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