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Comment by TillE | Hacker News Reader

In terms of serious Mac audio issues, when I got my new M1 MBP I quickly noticed a faint crackling sound (unaffected by the volume setting) in the headphone jack when plugged in via MagSafe or a left side USB port. So I just have it plugged in to power on the right side instead.

Other people have reported it too, so it's not just a one-off defect. I know electrical engineering is hard, but it's a really annoying problem to exist on a super expensive laptop.

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Haven't noticed it affecting the audio, but you can definitely feel the grounding issue when touching the back of a charging MBP. You get a tingling / bumpy surface sensation. I've seen people complaining about getting actual shocks for it though.

Does your charger have three prongs or two? Try grounding the laptop properly with three prongs.

M1 MBP's only come with two prong chargers, except in markets that use the British plug. Depending on the cause of the issue grounding could help, but you'd have to buy an extension cord with a ground.

There had been a grounded tail for apple powerbticks back to the era of g4 laptops.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcSyVF...

It's still sold, just not included by default anymore (which is fine with me, since I have tons of them)

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK122LL/A/power-adapter-e...

You can find cheaper than paying the apple tax for that plastic and metal item that has been in production for 20+ years.

Ever seen a short version without a cord? Similar to the standard two prong attachment?

Edit: https://a.co/d/6yvKXPW

Yes, I have a few 'san francisco special' ungrounded power tails but to my knowledge they were only made during the PowerPC era and did not continue into the Intel era.

e. oh grounded short adapters. I wouldn't go for that due to the wall wort issue. I usually swapped out my apple bricks to grounded tails because it was usually easier to work into whateve ad-hoc power I encountered.

I'm aware, I have two M1s, but I had a static issue on my wired headphones at one point, and I fixed it with proper grounding.

Though I can't remember if it was my old Intel Mac, or one if the newer M1s. I haven't used the wired headphones lately.

I'll see if I can find them and report back here.

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