The Case of the Singing Studio
I have something to whine about regarding the Mac Studio.
It wouldn't be an Apple product release if there weren't some sort of "-Gate" following its release. Perhaps the most famous of these was AntennaGate. This outcry erupted when it was reported that the iPhone 4 experienced reduced reception when the phone was palmed in hand, giving birth to countless "you're holding it wrong" memes.
Following that were a couple of other famous "-Gates" including "U2Gate", when U2's latest album, Songs of Innocence, appeared on every device without the ability to delete it; "BendGate" with the iPhone 6; & "BatteryGate" when Apple was accused that iPhones with aging batteries throttled their performance.
In addition to these controversies, smaller issues often get magnified to '-Gate' status in the echo chamber of tech communities in the initial weeks following a product release, though most of these die off just as quickly as they are declared. Does anyone remember "WalletGate", when the iPhone MagSafe Wallet could dislodge when placed inside tighter jeans? Or how about the concerns surrounding thermal issues with the M2 MacBook Air?
My particular issue might fit to fall into this latter category, the category of smaller, more controversial "-Gates" that blur the line between something being an actual problem or just someone being incredibly unrealistic and neurotic.
The Problem
Ever since I got the Mac Studio and placed it in the office, I have noticed that under with the fans operating at their idle speed of around 1,300 RPM, I would begin to hear a faint but rather annoying high-pitched whine coming from the back of the Studio around the 2,600Hz range. From a usability standpoint, this became incredibly irritating because I find this frequency almost impossible to ignore once I hear it.
Audio
The audio was captured to highlight the whine emitting from the Mac Studio. The recording was made on an iPhone 13 Pro placed directly behind the Mac Studio 1-inch away from the Mac Studio’s exhaust. Fans were both running at appoximately 1330 RPM.
When I looked online, there appears to be a small round of news about the issue, with a minority of folks sharing that they experienced a similar problem to what I observed; that's good and means I'm not alone. But since early May, the issue has largely disappeared from mention in forums and news sites.
Some speculate the whine originates from faulty fans, while others cite coil whine as the culprit. Some suppose it's more prevalent on the Max than the Ultra because of their different heat sinks, while others claim that using all the ports resolved the issue. And even if people have obtained a replacement, there's no guarantee the issue gets resolved, with some reporting replacements appearing to suffer from this annoying whine as well.
To complicate matters further, the whine appears more or less audible based on the person and placement of the Mac Studio. For example, I hear it more readily than my wife does, and I can't hear it in my left ear, only in my right. So hearing sensitivity, based on age, genetics, and how deep you shoved q-tips into your ears or blasted Metallica, all play a role here. Placement and ambient noise are yet more factors to consider. The ambient noise at home hovers around 15-20 dB, and running the dishwasher downstairs or having AC on can be enough to mask this whine. I also keep the Mac Studio on my desk & less than two feet from my ears, so perhaps those who place them under desks or further away lower their chance of experiencing this noise.
Clues
One potential solution I saw posted online was to get an app that allowed you to modify the speed of the fans inside the Mac Studio. And indeed, this helped to a degree. Manually lowering the Fans to 1,100RPM using an app like TG Pro seemed to solve the issue 60-70% of the time, as did turning up the fan past 1,500 RPM. Now at 1,500 RPM, the Mac Studio fans are potentially loud enough that even if the whine is present, it might be drowned out by the air rushing out the back. But the 1,100 RPM phenomenon was curious. If the whine is indeed caused by faulty fans or coil whine, it wouldn't explain why it would stop just because the fan speed was lowered. Complicating things was also that adjusting each of the two fans inside the Mac Studio to spin at different RPMs seemed to alleviate the issue most of the time. For example, if I ran the left fan at 1,300 RPM but the right fan at 1,100 RPM, the whine had a much lower chance of appearing.
The Sherlock Holmes Moment
Throughout this process, I have been conceptualizing the problem as an issue with the fans of the Mac Studio. However, when rewatching the keynote about the Mac Studio, the mention of the "over 2,000 precisely-machined perforations" was a lightbulb moment. I wondered, what if those were the culprit? What if moving air through all those tiny holes at just the right speed created the high-pitched whine I was hearing? Rather than a whine, what if the Mac Studio was whistling?
The whistling idea made sense. Try it yourself: start whistling and then change the amount of air you are forcing out, noticing that the whistle peaks at a certain point and stops altogether at others.
So the first thing I did was take my hand and cover the back of the Studio, covering as many of the holes as possible. The whistling instantly stopped, though that could have been due to me muffling it. But as soon as I removed my hand, the sound didn't immediately resume, like it would have the sound just been muffled. Instead, it took a second for the air to begin flowing again, and at that moment, the whistling returned. Eureka, the holes were the culprit!
The Fix
Now the most unhinged solution would be to cover the holes. No airflow, no whistling. But seeing as these are essentially the lungs of the computer, suffocating the Mac Studio seemed a flawed strategy. My options were: 1) take the Studio to a Genius and pray the employee diagnosing the Studio is sitting in a library-quiet environment and also has incredibly intact hearing to validate the noise (doubtful), or 2) experiment if perhaps some of the "precisely-machined perforations" are more responsible for the whistling than others.
Next, I did something that requires an obligatory "don't try this at home": I began taping closed small sections on the back of the Studio. I first experimented by blocking portions of the airflow with a small piece of cardboard to see if it stopped the whistle and would apply small amounts of electrical tape across the places that seemed most problematic.
With the first dozen rows largely blocked, the Mac Studio’s penchant for whistling has ceased.
Over the next few weeks, I would monitor the temperature and airflow to ensure no anomalies or overheating were occurring inside the Studio. I also made modifications to trim and reduced the taped portion to the bare minimum that still abated the whistle. In the end, covering the first dozen columns on the far left of Mac Studio reliably resolved the issue. Your mileage may vary; I'm not signing up to be responsible for anything that goes awry with your Mac Studio.
Audio
This recording demonstrates the reduction in whistling after taping the far left perforations of the Mac Studio (as pictured above). The iPhone was placed directly behind the middle of the Mac Studio, like in my first test. If I exaggerate the audio and strain my hearing, I can hear the faintest whistle at the 2600Hz range, but for all intents and purposes, the sound is inaudible in daily use. Fans were both running at appoximately 1330 RPM.
In Sum
I have not yet settled on whether or not this is the conclusive resolution to this problem. It's also not a solution I am happy with either. AppleCare in hand, I may visit the Apple Store one day and make the case that this issue affects me enough to warrant a repair of some kind. But like I said, I'm doubtful. There's no way any technician will self-diagnose this issue in a public work environment; it's just too noisy. And even if they do, it's subtle enough that I can see it being diagnosed as noise within the product's normal operations. The noise isn't above the operating levels of the Mac Studio; its the distinct spike at that precise high-pitched frequency that makes it so annoying. I've flirted with getting an under-the-desk mount for the Studio, thereby putting a physical barrier between the Mac and me, but I currently prefer its accessibility and how it looks on my desk.
In the end, the Mac Studio whistles. At least mine does. It's subtle and requires a quiet environment, sensitive hearing, and a low tolerance for noise, but it's there. Approximately 30% of people surveyed in a quick poll reported experiencing the problem, and I suspect more might be afflicted but haven't (luckily) noticed yet. I am also unsure if my issue relates to what others are referring to as coil or fan whine since this article is the first mention I've seen of someone referring to the problem as a whistling and blaming the perforations as the culprit. Based on my "rigorous" testing, the thousands of small perforations serving as the exhaust for the Studio, are precisely machined to the point that the air rushing through all of them at once risks producing a high-pitched whistle. Taping off a small corner section seems to have resolved the issue and not negatively impacted the system's cooling, but I highly advise against it - this is neither an ideal nor preferred method for resolving this issue.
