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1 M1 MacBook Air speakers have distortion/rattling
My M1 MacBook Air speakers have strong distortion/rattling, most noticeable when listening to piano music. The distortion is present even at 25% volume.
I tried buying a used set of speakers on eBay, but they had the exact same distortion. My best guess is that the used speakers I bought on eBay were also damaged, but is it possible that my audio board is the problem? There is no distortion when using headphones, so it seems unlikely that the audio board is at fault, but I want to be sure that it's good before I buy another set of speakers.
crwdns2934109:0crwdne2934109:0
crwdns2889612:0crwdne2889612:0
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Hi Daniel, have you solved the rattling sound? My speakers have always been rattling, too, mostly with piano music, even at low volume. I'm amazed that the problem persisted even after you replaced yours!
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 Ulf Brandes crwdne2934271:0
@ulfbrandes Unfortunately I have not solved the problem.
When I was taking it apart, I noticed that the rattling sound went away when the speakers were plugged in but not installed into place, meaning that the speakers are good, and it's something else in the MacBook that is rattling because of the speaker vibrations.
Some people said that it was the keyboard and holding down the keys at the edges would make the rattling stop, but this did not work for me.
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 Daniel Korzhenevich crwdne2934271:0
Thanks Daniel. Same here: I had indeed ordered replacement speakers literally minutes before I discovered your post here, and the rattling sound persisted —while just holding the speakers in my hand gave great sound.
Pressing the keyboard helped me, neither.
What did help me a bit was to squeeze the speakers with a bit of rubber (actually the adhesive strips from underneath) at a specific position, so that they received pressure from the bottom cover once it's closed again. There's still enough rattle to be annoying (particularly with quiet piano music), but less.
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 Ulf Brandes crwdne2934271:0
@ulfbrandes Thank you, this reduced the rattling significantly!
I put a piece of thick double sided tape (approximately 1mm thick) on each speaker right next to the screw hole for the bottom panel. I didn't take off the film from the other side of the tape so it doesn't stick to the bottom panel in case if I need to open it again.
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 Daniel Korzhenevich crwdne2934271:0