Wobbly audio

[bburd]

Heere's the scenario: I'm listening to an audio track in a web browser on the MacBook Pro. I click my mouse on a different app (so that the browser is no longer the active window) and the browser sound goes all wobbly. The only way to fix it is to return to the browser and make it the active window again. This means I can't multitask while I'm listening to audio. I've experienced this on more than one MacBook.
How can I diagnose the problem?

 

[chscag]

A lot depends on your download speed. It sounds like when you switch to another app while the browser is in the background, the sound is being buffered and thus the "wobbly" begins.

What is your download speed? And are you using WiFi only or ethernet?

 

[bburd]

My download speed is 400 Mbps Ethernet connection. My speed is fine.

 

[chscag]

Okay, we can rule that out then.

How about some specs on your Mac? And, version of macOS you're running? Browser?

Also, can you tell us what you're listening to? (YouTube, etc.) And the web site so we can test it here.

 

[bburd]

It happened on my Early-2015 MacBook Pro, but it's also happening on my new 2019 MacBook Pro with an i9 processor, 64 Gig of RAM, and macOS Catalina. It seems to happen in both Chrome and Firefox regardless of the number of tabs open. (Having only one tab open doesn't seem to help.) I've experienced it on YouTube and also on other sites. Today, I experienced it on hopin.to.

 

[chscag]

I don't know what to tell you.....

I just played a song via YouTube, switched back here to the forums, and then switched to a Christian Web Site to listen to an on line sermon. In all three, there was no wobbly sound. In fact I had all three going at the same time and they were clear. I'm currently using Chrome, but I know that I can do the the same thing with Safari.

I'm on a 2017 27" iMac running Catalina 10.15.6.

Whatever is happening with your sound, it may be local to you. You have a powerful 2019 16" MacBook Pro which should be able to handle just about anything audio and video.

I'm wondering if you're experiencing some kind of interference?

 

[chscag]

As a suggestion, try booting up in safe mode to see if you have the same result.