Apple has reportedly acknowledged that the company’s $1,599 Studio Display is experiencing audio-related issues, which include cutting out, audio playing at a high speed, distorted audio quality, and choppy playback, according to a report by MacRumors.
In a memo sent to authorized service providers and obtained by MacRumors, Apple acknowledges the problem with Studio Display and suggests a temporary fix.
“Apple says that customers facing issues should unplug the Studio Display from power, unplug any accessories or devices connected to the display, wait ten seconds, then reconnect the Studio Display to power,” reads the report.
Thankfully, the company describes the problem as a software issue, and not a faulty hardware issue. According to Apple, the speaker issue can be addressed in an update to Studio Display’s software.
The issues experienced with the premium Studio Display are surprising considering that Apple claimed that the speaker was the highest-fidelity speaker system it had ever created for Mac with four “force-canceling woofers” and two “high-performance tweeters”, along with the microphone and camera.
Apparently, the issue seems to be “relatively widespread” affecting hundreds of customers with a multitude of users reporting issues across Apple’s Support Pages (1,2,3,4,5), Twitter, and MacRumors own forums (1,2,3) looking for a permanent solution.
One user complained:
“For the last month or so, the speakers on my Studio Display have been broken. Whenever I start playing music (or any other audio), it works for a few seconds and then cuts out.
“Audio gets choppy and eventually just cuts out completely. Rebooting the Mac doesn’t help. You literally have to power cycle the entire Studio Display(s). Happens about every 5-6 weeks for me it seems.
“The audio on my Studio Display fails intermittently. The only way I can get it to work again is to unplug the display overnight. That resets the display and resolves the problem temporarily. Until the next time.”
While the other user complained:
After hours with Apple support and trying all kind of things to isolate the issue, it occurred to me that we did EVERYTHING except restart/reboot the display itself. because it has no power button and no software control to restart it, the only way to do it is to unplug it from the power source, wait at least 1 full minute and plug it back in. Of course it immediately solved all the issues.
Since yesterday my Studio Display will only play audio for a few seconds and then it stops. Audio playback works fine on the MacBook Pro that’s connected to the display. Not sure if it’s hardware or software related. I’m running the Ventura beta.
Anyone seeing something similar? pic.twitter.com/u4yO1bFubq
— Simon B. Støvring (@simonbs) July 28, 2022
Well I just had to reboot my monitor.
Welcome to the wonderful world of monitors with chips and (presumably) operating systems.
My Apple Display Studio Display was mangling audio this morning. Caused issues for a podcast. Had to reboot the old-fashioned way: power cycling.
— John Koetsier (@johnkoetsier) July 28, 2022
Audio recording from my Apple Studio Display microphone is still fundamentally broken in every app. Latest OS and display firmware versions.
— Seth Willits (@sethwillits) July 26, 2022
Apple has not provided detailed information about the software update or the problem in its memo. With no timeframe on when a permanent solution may arrive, it is advisable for the customers affected with audio-related problems in the meantime to try following the temporary fix given by the Cupertino giant. Also, ensure that your display is updated to the latest firmware.
This is not the first time that Studio Display is having a software-related problem. When Apple first released the speaker system in March 2022, the image quality of the built-in webcam was affected by a software bug, which the company eventually patched a couple of months later through a software update to improve the “noise reduction, contrast, and framing” of the webcam.
