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Problem with the Strix 7.1 on Mac

nemesyssoft
Level 7
Just got my new Strix 7.1. I like it. However, I have a problem. When I start using it to say, watch a movie on my MacBook Pro, after 4-5 minutes, the sound starts to get distorted. After a few minutes later, the sound is completely inaudible.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Anyone using a Strix 7.1 with a Mac here?*
11,170 Views
19 REPLIES 19

Bill
Level 7
Hello nemesyssoft
Thank you for your inquiry, but I'm not sure what the problem is.
When did you start experiencing this issue?
Does this issue happens every time you play something via your Mac?
How do you recover? re-plug or reboot? Or does it only happen to individual clips or sound files?
Have you tried it on a different computer or Mac yet?
When you said that the sound is completely inaudible, can you describe the sound? Or do you mean that no sound is emitted completely ?
Thank you

Hello Bill.

I'll try to answer your questions.

I started experiencing this issue the very first time I used the headset after buying it. Initially when watching a movie but it also happens when listening to music or playing games. It doesn't seem to be related to a particular audio source.

It happens every time. 4 or 5 minutes after playing music or a movie, I start hearing that distortion. After a few more minutes, the sound is completely inaudible. I'm attaching a recording that I made.

The only way to recover is by completely unplugging the headset from my Mac. I tried turning amplification off and on, switching from 7.1 to stereo, nothing works until I unplug the headset. Like I said, it happens on every single audio source I have, different movies, different music songs and games.

The sound is basically distortion. I'm attaching the recording. It's very annoying. I don't know if there is something wrong with the headset, more specifically the DSP audio processing unit.

I have experienced this on both Mac OS X 10.12 "Sierra" and last weekend, I updated my Mac to the latest beta of 10.13 "High Sierra" and it's exactly the same.*

Now, it seems I'm unable to upload *ANY* file. I tried a m4a, invalid file. I zipped it and tried the zip file, invalid file.*

How can I send it to you? It seems your uploader is very restrictive to the type of file. The file is only 47KB in size so I don't think the size is the problem.

Bill
Level 7
Hello nemesyssoft
Thank you for your explanation. Can you upload to a cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive and send me the link?
Also, have you tried using it on a Windows? Does the issue still appear? By doing this, we can rule out the fact that the headset itself may be malfunctioning or it has compatibility issues with MAC and I'll report this to our team, thank you

Bill@ASUS wrote:
Hello nemesyssoft
Thank you for your explanation. Can you upload to a cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive and send me the link?
Also, have you tried using it on a Windows? Does the issue still appear? By doing this, we can rule out the fact that the headset itself may be malfunctioning or it has compatibility issues with MAC and I'll report this to our team, thank you


Hello.

I did have bootcamp installed on my MacBook Pro which allows me to reboot in Windows. I have Windows 10 Pro 64bits. The problem doesn't seem to manifest itself. I played songs for some time and played a game for 2-3 hours and the sound never got distorted.

I put the recording onto Google Drive and the link is https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_KZlCfL94HDc2VpR0JKdDVfZGc. Note that this is the worst part of the problem, when the sound is inaudible. It doesn't start like this but, like I said, it plays normally for 4 or 5 minutes. Then I start hearing that distortion in the background. As the time progresses, the distortion gets louder and the sound from the music or the game gets softer until all I hear is distortion. It feels like it's some static buildup somewhere, but I'm not an electronic engineer, just a software engineer. I recorded the sound with my iPhone tucked inside one of the cup with the Voice Memos app and then exported the memos as a standalone sound file.

I have done a bit of work with USB on the Mac. I know for a fact that Apple enforces to the letter the USB specification. We were having problems with a device in one of my previous job and we finally discovered that the device was sending some kind of ID in all caps (or maybe it was all lowercase) where the USB specification and the Mac OS were expecting lowercase (or all caps, I can't remember which one).

Final note: the Mac seems to recognize that the headset is self-sufficient in that it will not allow me to adjust the volume or the mic input level.*

Bill
Level 7
Hello nemesyssoft
Please reinstall or update your USB driver
Also, what's your model or year of your Macbook Pro?
Did you connect both USB to the system?
Thank you

Bill@ASUS wrote:
Hello nemesyssoft
Please reinstall or update your USB driver
Also, what's your model or year of your Macbook Pro?
Did you connect both USB to the system?
Thank you


Bill, how can I reinstall the USB driver? There were no driver with the headset. When I go to the support section on the Strix 7.1 webpage,*go to support, then "Driver & Tools", I cannot even select the Mac OS from the popup because it's not listed there.*And there were no CD with the headset, so, I'm not sure which driver you want me to re-install.

My MacBook Pro is:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,5*
Processor Name: Intel Core i7 Processor
Speed: 2.8 GHz*
Number of Processors: 1*
Total Number of Cores: 4*
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB*
L3 Cache: 6 MB*
Memory: 16 GB*
Boot ROM Version: MBP114.0177.B00*
SMC Version (system): 2.30f2

I didn't connect both USB to the system. I followed the instructions with the headset but since there were no mention of the second USB connector on the split USB cable, I didn't connect it. Should I connect it?*

Bill
Level 7
Hello nemesyssoft
Please plug in both USB to your system and try again.
If possible please try it on a different Apple device with the same MAC OS version so we can verify if it is the device problem.
Please give us some feedback after your test, thank you

Hello.

I did try plugging the 2 USB connectors to my hub (the splitter is not long enough to reach each side of my laptop. My laptop has 2 USB ports, one on each side). There was no difference, the distortion was still present.

I connected the headset to another Mac, a MacBook Pro 17" from early 2011. Same result. After a few minutes of listening, the distortion starts and then covers the music.

I think there might be something in the firmware that communicates to the Mac some invalid information. The USB ports should be standard so I can't imagine that they are not providing the correct current to the devices. I also have many other USB devices, including a Turtle Beach PX21 headset and I never had any problem with any other devices.*

nemesyssoft wrote:
Hello.

I did try plugging the 2 USB connectors to my hub (the splitter is not long enough to reach each side of my laptop. My laptop has 2 USB ports, one on each side). There was no difference, the distortion was still present.

I connected the headset to another Mac, a MacBook Pro 17" from early 2011. Same result. After a few minutes of listening, the distortion starts and then covers the music.

I think there might be something in the firmware that communicates to the Mac some invalid information. The USB ports should be standard so I can't imagine that they are not providing the correct current to the devices. I also have many other USB devices, including a Turtle Beach PX21 headset and I never had any problem with any other devices.*


Hello nemesyssoft
Please try refresh the firmware of the device, you can download the files in our official website
https://www.asus.com/us/Headphones-Headsets/ROG-Centurion/HelpDesk_Download/
Thank you