Anyone using Thunderbolt Display without major audio problems?
I'm suffering from the problem described (here and here and here) whereby the audio coming out of the 27" thunderbolt display starts to degrade into pure static within minutes to hours of usage. Toggling the output back to my MacBook Pro w/ Retina seems to fix the issue temporarily but obviously this is not a good solution.
So is there anyone out there using the speakers on the thunderbolt display and not encountering this issue?
Any other thoughts or advice?
Comments
Can you route the Audio through USB instead? In System Preferences > Sound. I just got the non-Thunderbolt 27".
The Thunderbolt Display has a cable for its plug and a cable for Thunderbolt (plus MagSafe). That's sort of the point of the port.
Oh! I wonder if the Thunderbolt Display is shipping with a MagSafe-MagSafe 2 adapter… or maybe a slight modification with a MagSafe 2 port on the actual display and a MagSafe 2-MagSafe adapter (though that would be the only place such an adapter yet exists).
Yes it ships with a magsafe-magsafe 2 adapter.
And if I had external USB speakers I think that may be a work-around.
As it stands, this is what the sound panel looks like: http://grab.by/eNnO
For some reason it considers the TB Display's speakers USB too.
I have a 13" mid-2012 MacBook Air connected to a Thunderbolt Display, and at the moment, I don't have any problems with this setup. However, I did have problems the first few hours after I got it--I was intermittently hearing garbled audio and static, as described in this thread. However, after a few hours, or at most a day, this problem resolved itself. I have no explanation for this (something loose inside the display?) and I'm trying to forget it ever happened... It's a big display, and a pain to move--I don't want to take it back. (It was also intermittent, which means that it's very likely to work fine in the store.)
This problem just started happening with my monitor. Very random and it degrades very quickly into totally garbled robot static.
I have encountered this sound corruption as well with my new TBD. I run a MBP Retina tied to 2 Promise Pegassus Raid arrays. I took the monitor in for Apple to check and of course they were unable to reproduce the issue. I started nosing around the net an came upon Anandtechs TBD review.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4832/the-apple-thunderbolt-display-review/10
On that page listed, it seems Anand reveals the source of this issue (at least in my case). It stems from high I/O read and write of the Pegassus drives. In fact the issue most likely is with the Pegassus drives firmware.
I'm going to pick up my TBD from apple and will bring it up to the Apple tech. And I will also call Promise, to see what they know of the issue.
So do any of you also have a Promise Pegassus raid in your setup?
I have just discovered the source of my distorted audio issue. It is being created by my Drobo which is interfaced through iSCSI. I can replicate the issue every time when moving files to it. Granted the files are moving from my Pegasus array, so I guess there may still be some questions.
I have been in contact with Apple support, Promise support, and Drobo support. Hopefully a fix will be supplied from someone.
Oddly enough, I am having the exact same problem. The difference is that I am using an external USB DAC (Fiio E07k) on a Mac Mini. I thought the DAC was the issue, but it is flawless on other computers. The Mini has a 180GB Intel SSD and the original 500GB HD acting as a fusion drive. I'm wondering if it could be something I else I have connected that is causing the issue.
Update:
It wasn't the Drobo.
I no longer run a drobo and still encounter the issue. The problem seems to occur whenever there is high I/O through Thunderbolt. I have 3 Promise RAIDs and one Lacie 8Big all on one TB bus, with the TBD on the second bus and the problem still occurs. It really just points to a USB buffer issue. The same issue that Anandtech hypothesized in their review of the TBD in 2011.