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Main description

The audio on my Macbook Air (2020, the last Intel model) is acting very weirdly. If I play this stereo test, I perceive the locations of the sounds like this:

  • "Left channel" is maybe around the middle of the laptop. Sound comes from both speakers, right speaker maybe a bit louder.
  • "Right channel" is on the right side, loud and clear. No sound from left speaker.
  • "Both channels" is towards right side of the laptop (I'd describe the location as being around the O and L keys). Sound comes from both speakers, right is clearly louder.

What it feels like is that the right channel works as normal, but the left channel is somehow "panned to the middle", i.e. mixed 50/50 between the left and right speaker.

Adjusting balance in sound preferences

For more information, if I go to the Sound Preferences and pull the balance all the way to the left, the results are:

  • "Left channel" is to the right.
  • "Right channel" is muted.
  • "Both channels" is all the way to the right.

If I pull the balance all the way to the right, the results are:

  • "Left channel" is barely audible, roughly in the middle.
  • "Right channel" is clear and loud where it should be.
  • "Both channels" sounds the same as right channel.
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  • Honestly, I would take it to Apple while still under warranty
    – cmason
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 13:30
  • Yeah I guess I'll take it in, it still has a few weeks of warranty left. I've been meaning to upgrade to a M1 so I'll probably be selling this one soon anyway. Better have it repaired before that.
    – Dronir
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 14:10
  • I don't think this is a hardware issue - something about it tells me something is feeding inverse phase of one channel to both channels. Without being able to actually mess with it myself to get it straight in my head, that's the only rational explanation i can come up with. I'd blame a 3rd party add-on of some kind. I think the chances of this being a physical wiring issue are very small. See if you can reproduce the same effect on headphones or external speakers. [headphones will perhaps distort your perception of a phase issue… but let's see.]
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 16:41
  • @Tetsujin The sound is totally fine with headphones. Also this is a relatively clean install of macOS. I've had it for 11 months and I don't think I've installed anything to do with audio. Everything I hear here makes me think the problem is somewhere between the OS and the speakers.
    – Dronir
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 21:38
  • I'd be tempted to let Apple have a look at it then. I really don't know how the audio circuitry works on laptops, but if it only appears when using internal speakers, it might be a short somewhere.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 10:33

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