I had extremly disturbing noises because the CPU load is above 121%
(3 AU Plugins running)
It dosen’t matter how high is the buffer size or Core Audio I/O Buffer.
Mac OS 15 (Sequoia) on a M2 MacBook Air.
What can I do?
Hi @Bujo12 Could you explain if you are hearding disturbing noises from your speakers/headphones or from your M2 MacBook Air?
I’m assuming it is from your speakers, as I have never heard a sound coming from my MacBook Air M2 even when running a number of Plugins. Speakers and headphones are another matter!
Looking at your RAM & CPU Load on your screenshot, i would say that is within normal parameters when you are running 3 Plugins. Remember that whilst 1 Core may be showing as 121% on your Activity Monitor, that workload is being shared across 8 Cores or more depending on your Configuration. ergo the CPU Load shows as 27%.
If it is your Plugins, stop and unlock Audirvana, then start again. You may find that the noise goes away straight away. If it doesn’t, close all 3 Plugins, make sure system is playing ok and then start adding in various combinations as it may just be that, a certain combination that is producing the noise.
I find that it will happen occasionally on mine, using GoodHertz Can Opener 3 when I upsample more than X2 Times and have been listening on the headphones for more than 6-7 hours. But rarely…
Hope that helps.
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It would be helpful if you would tell us what plugins you are using… Is there a way to manage gain staging within each plugin? In other words is there a way to adjust input gain and output gain with each plugin to insure you are not clipping within your signal processing chain (read your plugins)… You might also try the VST versions of each plugin… BTY a 27% cpu load does not seem excessive for 3 signal processors… And if you are watching a plugins interactive GUI in realtime that may be slowing things down, burning more cpu cycles… Hint, close those GUIs once you have things parameterized…
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Thank you for you help!
This problem is new, maybe after the update IOS 15…
The input/output gain is correct, there are no clippings. But when the CPU load ist high it sounds similar… they are high-frequency scratches.
The CPU load in Audirvana is ok, but in Activity indicator the AU Service it looks high.
Plugins I use Realphones, Fabfilter Pro Q3 and Fabfilter Pro R.
@ Focal or Beyerdynamic headphones.
I would try disabling the plugins then test each one at a time checking activity monitor each time to see which plug in is giving the issue. Unfortunately I don’t think there is a way to give a breakdown by plugin.
I assume when you say iOS 15 you mean macOS 15. I notice there are no comments on the Fabfilter webpage confirming Sequoia compatibility yet or on DSoniq’s website for that matter.
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Please paste your Debug information here, so folks can help you the best possible… It is found here: Settings–> My Account–> Help–> Debug info
Audirvana Studio 2.9.0 (20900)
macOS Version 15.0 (Build 24A335) with 16GB physical RAM
Connected account of : Joachim Buchholz
NETWORK
Status: available
SIGNAL PROCESSING:
Polarity Inversion:
Globally: OFF
Per track: ON
Effects plugins ACTIVE in realtime mode with new macOS API
AU plugin #0: Effekt - dSONIQ Realphones ()
AU plugin #1: Musikeffekt - FabFilter Pro-Q 3 ()
AU plugin #2: Musikeffekt - FabFilter Pro-R ()
AU plugin #3: None
UPSAMPLING:
r8brain not in use
r8brain filter parameters
Bandwidth = 99.5%
Stop band attenuation 218dB
Phase linear
AUDIO VOLUME:
Max allowed volume: 100
Replay Gain: None
SW volume control: ON
LIBRARY SETTINGS:
Sync list: 2 folders
Manual: (OFFLINE) /Volumes/SSD_Musik/Musik 2021
Manual: (OFFLINE) /Volumes/SSD_Musik/Musik 2022
iTunes/Music library synchronization: not synchronized
Library database path: /Users/joachimbuchholz/Library/Application Support/Audirvana/AudirvanaDatabase.sqlite
Local audio files fingerprinting
Tracks with no MBID: 10673
Remote Control server:
Listening on 127.0.0.1 on port 55314
ACTIVE STREAMING SERVICES
Qobuz: Connected as Qobuz Studio
TIDAL: Connected as PREMIUM
APPEARANCE SETTINGS:
UI theme: dark
Font size: regular
Language: Systemsprache
Show album covers in tracks list: yes
Source list sorted:
Meine Musik
Radios
Podcasts
Streaming
Lokal
Startup view: Meine Musik: Alben
Show local extended in source list: yes
Use media keys: yes
Use media keys for volume control: yes
Use Apple Remote: yes
Number of paired remotes: 0
Remote pairing code required: yes
Screen saver disabled: yes
=================== AUDIO DEVICE ========================
Active method: Local
Max. memory for audio buffers: 4238MB
Local Audio Engine: CoreAudio
Exclusive access: ON
Integer mode: ON
Use max I/O buffer size: ON
Actual I/O buffer frame size: 512
Preferred device:
Cayin Cayin RU7 Playback
Model UID:Cayin RU7:2D87:C002
UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:Cayin:Cayin RU7:Cayin RU7:1
Currently playing in Integer Mode:
Device: 2ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Signed Integer, 8 bytes per frame 192kHz
Active Sample Rate: 192kHz
Hog Mode is on
Bridge settings:
Sample rate limitation: none
Sample rate switching latency: none
Limit bitdepth to 24bit: OFF
Mute during sample rate change: ON
Selected device:Cayin RU7 Playback
Manufacturer: Cayin
Model name: Cayin RU7 Playback
Model UID: Cayin RU7:2D87:C002
UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:Cayin:Cayin RU7:Cayin RU7:1
USB Vendor ID: 0x2d87
USB Product ID: 0xc002
ID 0x85
8 available sample rates up to 384000Hz
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
Audio buffer frame size : 116 to 4096 frames
Current I/O buffer frame size : 512
Volume Control
Physical: Yes
Virtual: Yes
Max volume alert: Enabled
MQA capability
Auto-detect MQA devices: No
Not automatically detected, user set to not MQA
DSD capability
DSD via PCM 1.1
Device audio channels
Preferred stereo channels L:1 R:2
Channel bitmap: Ox3, layout:
Channel 0 mapped to 0
Channel 1 mapped to 1
Audio channels in use
Number of channels: 2
Use as stereo device only: No
Simple stereo device: Yes
1 output streams:
Number of active channels: 2, in 1 stream(s)
Channel #0 :Stream 0 channel 0
Channel #1 :Stream 0 channel 1
Stream ID 0x86 2 channels starting at 1
32 virtual formats:
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
48 physical formats
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
Local devices found : 7
Device #0: ID 0x85 Cayin RU7 Playback
Manufacturer: Cayin
Model UID: Cayin RU7:2D87:C002
UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:Cayin:Cayin RU7:Cayin RU7:1
USB Vendor ID: 0x2d87
USB Product ID: 0xc002
Model name: Cayin RU7 Playback
Device #1: ID 0x50 MacBook Air-Lautsprecher
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Model UID: Speaker
UID: BuiltInSpeakerDevice
Model name: Apple Inc. MacBook Air-Lautsprecher
Device #2: ID 0x67 MJAudioRecorder
Manufacturer: MJ Audio Inc.
Model UID: MJRecordDeviceModelUID
UID: MJRecordDevice
Model name: MJ Audio Inc. MJAudioRecorder
Device #3: ID 0x71 Microsoft Teams Audio
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
Model UID: MSLoopbackDriverDevice_ModelUID
UID: MSLoopbackDriverDevice_UID
Model name: Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Teams Audio
Device #4: ID 0x7b Realphones System-Wide
Manufacturer: dSONIQ
Model UID: RealphonesDriver_ModelUID
UID: RealphonesDriver_UID
Model name: dSONIQ Realphones System-Wide
Device #5: ID 0x5c Audiojingle
Manufacturer: Audiojingle x Software
Model UID: Soundtree
UID: com.audiojinglex.soundtree.mastereffect
Model name: Audiojingle x Software Audiojingle
Device #6: ID 0x62 Audiojingle (UI Sounds)
Manufacturer: Audiojingle x Software
Model UID: Soundtree_UISounds
UID: com.audiojinglex.soundtree.mastereffect.UISounds
Model name: Audiojingle x Software Audiojingle (UI Sounds)
UPnP
UPnP devices found : 2
Device #0: ID 0x0 : Marantz NR1609
UID: uuid:270e3bfe-9887-11bd-0080-0005cdf70c2a
Location: http://192.168.178.54:60006/upnp/desc/aios_device/aios_device.xml
Manufacturer: Marantz
Model name: Marantz NR1609
Device #1: ID 0x0 : 65PML9009/12(192.168.178.60)
UID: uuid:a6b37d44-446d-11ef-b73d-9e0f58ce981d
Location: http://192.168.178.60:49152/description.xml
Manufacturer: Smart TV
Model name: Smart TV
Chromecast
Chromecast devices found : 0
When I turn off the GUI’s the load reduce round about 15%.
Then the Sound is ok.
Tried the IOS 15.1 Beta. It’s a little better. If I start an another Programm the sound is shortly crackling, 2 Seconds.
Btw: Sonible EQ4 dont’t support Audirvana.
From what I see in this set-up, you have tangled yourself in a bunch of processing that is degrading the performance of Audirvana… 
What are you doing with all of this sub-routing and DSP?.. Are you remastering tracks in headphones and speakers? Is not the Realphones virtualization and processing enough?
The MJAudioRecorder, the Audiojingle software and RealPhones System-Wide are competing with Audirvana for Core Audio API’s
Audirvana is not really designed as a production or post-production DAW… or if you are using it for DJ work… there are better applications for this. And with all of these processes in operation you cannot give Audirvana enough System RAM for buffering so to get the best sound-quality with only 16GB available, especially at 192kHz… maybe at 44.1kHz you can get away with this conglomeration of processes.
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I use a couple of plugins with Audirvana, the Hangloose Convolver for room correction and Michelangelo EQ to flavor for taste (remastering on-the-fly)… I notice that the CPU usage of AUHostingService starts out at about 94% for several seconds and drops to 1 or 2 percent for the duration of a song… I don’t have either plugin GUI open during normal playback use… 44.1kHz to 192kHz, even 384kHz via Sox, and all points in between… This is with a MacBook Pro from 2015 running Monterey 12.7.6 with 8 GB of RAM via WiFi to a Lumin streamer (UPnP)… I experience no glitches with playbacks… This is just one datapoint in a world of chaos…
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You certainly know how to squeeze the most out of your MBP and Audirvana… 
How much pre-load buffer RAM are you allocating…?
I think we both understand that efficient coding in these plug-ins and applications, plays a huge part in the resulting performance under reasonable operating conditions… Clean, unfettered signal paths and accumulators translates into a more accurate representation of the data signal results…
I have a hard time believing that running multiple simultaneous 64 bit high-resolution digital-audio calculations/routines does not incur interrupts from error-correction requests from buffer overruns due to improper allocation of RAM and buffer under-runs because of wait-times and RAM requests precipitating spurious drop-outs due to bit-level misreads at the comparator under some circumstances…
These sorts of non-linearities may or may not be audibly perceived by a given listener… (not saying you can’t…) However, we all have a reference paradigm that we measure our subjective assessment of sound-quality from… I am always pleasantly surprised when, or if, I change something in my Audirvana playback system configuration scheme that subjectively improves the perceived quality of playback sound… and in my experience with digital-audio systems, ‘simpler’ translates into better sound. This is not a knock on those employing DSP in the management of room acoustics and the need for EQ in some specific hearing acuity circumstances… In fact in many scenarios this is an excellent strategy for realizing the most from those encoded bits lifted from the storage medium, and I’m so glad that Audirvana facilitates these tools…
My next computer purchase for Audirvana playback will be one of gross over-kill in regard to processing power, bus speed and available System RAM resources.
I’ve learned from using several different DAW’s in my career, that the accumulators used in the DSP calculations are a key factor in getting the best quality of sound reproduction… This is why ProTools and Pyramix are so powerful, because they offload virtually all DSP to vertically integrated processing cards, leaving the computer CPU to manage I/O bus traffic, graphics and lower-level processes.
The Apple ‘M’ series computers are fast and efficient…the operations on multiple streams of video signals that these platforms can calculate is fantastic to say the least… however they have not yet put an audio co-processor in the platforms… These platforms can do a lot, as we see in the Logic Pro DAW and even GarageBand and now with the iPad Pro M4 platforms running Logic Pro… However, RAM resources will always be a factor in the quality of the output signal.
The combination of the three plugins (Realphones for crossfeed) sounds best to me for most music genres. It is only intended for listening to music.
On my Windows Intel PC, it works flawlessly (except that the GUI for Fabfilter Pro Q3 doesn’t work). It also worked perfectly on the Mac.
The buffer size has no (audible) impact on my Mac in this regard. Of course, the additional load from the plugins is high (which is why I switched from Intel to M2 on the Mac, as the fan was always running on Intel)
Just keep checking the plug-in vendors website. The last update was June for Fabfilter so prior to the release of macOS (15) Sequoia. Sequoia has many bugs at the moment, mostly to do with networking but quite a few on core audio also. Everyone is waiting for 15.0.1 to fix some of the more glaring ones but it seems to be a while coming but then there is a lot to fix…
It seems from the websites that catalogue audio engineering most plug in vendors have yet to confirm compatibility. Sweetwater has a list for Sequoia compatibility which is updated daily. If you scroll down you will get to the list.
https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/macos-sequoia-compatibility-guide/
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So… what was this noise?
You need to clean-up the Core Audio signal path by removing other audio software that may be interfering, and get down to a basic Audirvana + plugin DSP playback scenario by removing all other competing audio applications… Take the advice of @ChiliHot and @Ddude003 and @Djm1960
I personally have plugins that have yet to be qualified for macOS Sequoia and Apple users have been notified by the developer to hold-off upgrading until they complete the compatibility qualification process and/or fixes… So who knows what your other audio applications are doing in regard to compatibility… My MBP/Audirvana playback system, is running macOS 12.9.6 Monterey.
Ok, I cleaned other audio software and updated the plugins…
So it’s ok now, the 192 kHz- Files the load rise up to 95%.
Without any noise.
(crackling, or when its massive: you slow down the record with your hands… one plugin or Audirvana slow down)