1

There is a similar question but it's for a different model.

I use these TRRS headphones with my Android phone and they sound fine when recording audio. But if I record audio on the MBP (Quicktime or Whatsapp) it's barely audible, even with the input volume turned all the way up. The headphone jack seemed defective so I took it in to the Apple store and they replaced a logic board (which was a bit of a time sink since they wiped the hard drive).

I tested the repair at the store with a set of headphones that they had (bluetooth earbuds plugged in to a headphone extender cable that had a mic pickup on it) and everything sounded fine, audio pickup volume was fine. But when I get to work and test with my earbuds the volume pickup is far too low. But the mic pickup works fine with my phone.

Also worth noting that the audio level is about twice as high when recording with the same earbuds and a 2015 MBP with the same audio settings.

It's hard to believe that the headphones that work fine with my phone simply won't work with my fancy Mac laptop. Is there something I'm missing here? Is this machine defective?

sound settings

headphones

jcollum
  • 888
  • 1
    they wiped the hard drive Unrelated to the question but still informative: In the new MacBook Pro's the SSD (Solid State Drive, better version of a hard drive, is soldered to the logic board. When the replaced the logic board the also replaced the SSD. – user7886229 Aug 23 '18 at 00:27
  • ah good to know; it sounds like the techs were like "well, it all seems fine but hey let's replace the guts anyway" – jcollum Aug 23 '18 at 00:30
  • 1
    Are these "Apple specific" headphones or do they say Android? The reason I ask is because the TRRS signals are in fact different: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/239564/119271 – Allan Aug 23 '18 at 00:41
  • Also, even though the headphone jack is connected to an Apple, it's still about the same garbage quality as a PC headphone jack. I use a quality USB DAC with analog inputs and outputs: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/259681/119271 – Allan Aug 23 '18 at 00:44
  • @Allan would that explain why they work fine on a 2015 MBP but not a 2017? They are not anything "specific" -- and that post you referenced is about the volume controls not working, which I'm not worried about – jcollum Aug 23 '18 at 04:44
  • The post is about volume controls, yes (which is why I didn't tag as a dupe), but the point is, the Mic and ground are swapped (reversing polarity). There are some Mics that simply will not work properly if the polarity is reversed. Did you try a different mic on the port on the MacBook? – Allan Aug 23 '18 at 09:31
  • @Allan, thank you very much for the link! It exactly explains the issue that I'm having. – edopelawi Dec 14 '20 at 01:49

0 Answers0