The Fusion drive has been out for over a year. I highly doubt it's the problem.

I had a 2012 MacMini for a year and had no problems with the Fusion drive in that.

I suspect it's an oddball firmware thing with the newly integrated hardware. I do recall there being some issues with folks using the newly released USB3 ports last year (on its initial release).

I'm sure this will be ironed out. As of now, I'm not having too many issues, especially after making some adjustments.

Hopefully, it all gets sorted out in short order.

-Phil

I made some interesting discovery that you may want to give a shot too.

I remembered that the issues did not really started when I bought the new iMac but when I added an external HDD for Time Machine backups a few days later - in addition to the OSX Update. The HDD (Western Digital MyPassport 2TB) was directly connected to the iMac-USB-Ports. I now hooked it up to the USB-Port of the Thunderbolt Display that is connected to the iMac via Thunderbolt-cable.

I still have milliseconds of single dropouts every other minute or two BUT it is much less frequent than before plus I had no full distortion of the signal yet after 15 Minutes of music playing. Before rewiring, that distortions did not take more than 1-2 minutes to happen and were not recovering automatically but I had to switch sound output interfaces in the preferences.

So if you have Time Machine backing up to a HDD that is connected to the new USB3-Ports of the Late 2013 iMac, try unmounting it to see if it changes anything for you. I tend to believe now for sure that the source of the problem are the USB 3.0 ports and what combination of devices you hook up to those ports in addition to your sound interface.

-act

Among other bugs... unfortunately, none of the fixes below are for the problems with audio being reported here and elsewhere.

7 Known Issues With OS X Mavericks and How to Fix Them | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

but what if you record to an external HDD on one of the usb ports? is that an issue too? i was just about to jump on the new imac until i started reading about this and other problems, but now i'm scared.

sadly, the 2nd iMac i got in today w/o a fusion drive is still giving me pops and clicks on recording. can't believe it.....

well, i can, really...

Is anyone having this issue when using an Avid/Digidesign interface with ProTools?

Thanks.

Zero click/pop audio issues with itunes - youtube and pro tools (10.3.7HD, 11.0.0HD)

Late 2013 27" 3.5GHz i7 imac 256GSSD 16G ram
HDN TB and avid 16x16 for protools
Dangerous Source via USB for itunes
10.8.4 as shipped - Software update = OFF

Was thinking of cancelling my order. I ordered a 3.5GHz i7 imac with a 3TB 7200rpm drive. I use an Apogee Duet 2 with USB connection. I am getting very nervous about maintaining this order. Should I cancel or go through with it and see what happens? It seems not everyone is having these problems. From what I would gather, thousands upon thousands of people already have their iMacs... and only a few are reporting problems. Thinking I might gamble it...the worst that can happen is I return it back to Apple?

Can we talk about real problems and not "potential problems"?

I know people that have potential problems with life in general.

Exactly!

Hi guys - Thought I wanted to share this bit of good news on here...

I managed to find some sort of a workaround to this very annoying issue today. Been pulling my hair out because of frustration the past few days, trying all kinds of different drivers, AIs (Scarlett 2i2 and RME Babyface) different daws, class compliant mode etc.

No success what so ever, until I tried to press the 'volume up' button on my keyboard, and to my great surprise the computer reacted. Then I pressed 'volume down' all the way until mute. Then I turned up my output volume on my Babyface. And bingo. Crackle and pop free playback for more than an hour now.

Only issue left is my distorting inputs now. But they work flawlessly in the TotalMix Control, which leads me to think that my iMac might be doing some of the same thing there...

Hope this can help you out too!

... And I'm running an iMac i7, 16 GB RAM, with the 1 TB fusion drive in Mavericks fyi.

interesting... and good news!

my problem, however, is never on playback.. only on capture/record are pops being introduced into the file. playing back existing files i never get popping, but recording new files pops and ticks are recorded into the file and, thus, play back.. (and you can see them as well if you zoom into the sample level on the waveform).

this is with october 2013 i7 iMac and both Apollo 16 and Antelope Orion 32 interfaces.

Hmm... I'm not a tech wiz so correct me if I'm wrong, but I guess it still could be because of the iMac running the input of the internal mic (input) simultaneously with the external interface?

If this is the case, it looks like a software fix which is most preferable to everyone...

should i try it while setting the mac audio input preference to the Orion and not to internal mic?

edit: eh. just tested that. still doesn't work.

Is any one having this issue with 10.8.4 or are these all 10.8.5 and 10.9?

In pro tools land 10.8.5 broke a bunch of stuff.

But if you use the RME FF800 all is good?

What exactly is the recording chain at this point where a minimal system introduces clicks and pops?

RME Support informed me that only Apple is able to fix the problem and that the problem is existing across audio interfaces from multiple developers.

-act

I've now returned both my original iMac and the replacement one. Money is back in my account. I still need a new computer, so I'm eagerly watching any progress regarding this issue. The waiting game sucks...

Is there a consensus as to what is causing this issue yet?

Does anyone have a UAD connected firewire via TB adapter? If so still have issue? This sounds like a USB related issue to me.

I had one new iMac Fusion Drive and connected my Apogee Duet Firewire via TB adapter.
This is what I heard when I was listening to a song on itunes :

https://soundcloud.com/geronimo02197...es-apog-e-duet

I returned the iMac...

So not Fusion, not USB, not necessarily Mavericks related, only the new imacs though. That sucks. Very interested to follow this. I wonder if the new Mac pros will have this problem and why the new macbooks don't for instance?

I already presented a solution that clearly identified the Fusion Drive as being the problem. From what I read here, the people still thinking that it's not the Fusion Drive never tested my method.

So, please, if you have a new 27" iMac with Haswell processor and Fusion Drive:

- install Mac OS on an external HDD or USB Stick or SD Card
- boot from that external medium
- and tell us your results!

I highly doubt that I am the only one for whom this is the solution clearly identifying the Fusion Drive as the problem.

So, try before just guessing around. It's just one hour of work and at least you would know if it's the FD or not.

I did exactly that test (booting from an external drive) and had no audio problems on my original Imac 27 i7 late2013 with fd.
I then replaced the machine through Apple, getting an identical machine and identical audio problems.
I just rebooted the machine from an external drive, right now, with all my hardware connected and I'm starting the test, letting itunes play a long playlist.
Will post the results later on. Usually the problems start after 30/40 minutes at the max.

Ciao

In an Apple Support Community Thread someone quoted the Apple Logic Pro Support admitting that it is the Fusion Drive causing the problems:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23680097#23680097

Hope that is true since I have ordered an i7 iMac with SSD...

i had a fusion drive imac and went out and bought a 2nd imac without a fusion drive and had the same problems. so i ruled out the fusion drive as an issue in my case.

I have a late 2012 Imac 27" quad core 3.2 machine and I experience various noise issues. Sometimes even just moving the mouse creates zipper noise. Like some others have said I don't think these problems are related only to 2013 models. To add to the general disappointment of this new machine which replaced my 2009 Imac dual core, it sluggish compared to my old iMac. Moving to 64 bit a few months ago has not been of much benefit as far as I can tell.

That is just not true. I recorded an entire album on a 2007 MBP with a 500GB 5400RPM drive and had track counts in the 80s on the internal drive without a hiccup. I was running Live 7.

I wonder what in a fusion drive could cause audio noise. You know this is almost 2014 and we are STILL dealing with snap, crackle, pop? (One step forward and two steps back I guess)

Fusion Drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From what I read there, there is a possibility some files are tagged as 'infrequently accessed' and therefore re-allocated to 5400rpm partition. If the OS's handling is not so efficient, it would cause read/write delay, which could cause audio dropouts in some scenarios.

I'm not a user of recent Macs and no personal experience with iMac or fusion drive, so it's just my guess. Take it with a grain of salt...