"Apple Has Decided To Discontinue iSub Support For All Intel Macs
I had submitted a few bug reports regarding the lack of iSub support
on, initially my Intel iMac, and as time went on, all of my Intel Macs.
Summary:
The Harman Kardon iSub is not working on Intel Macs without the use
of other USB audio hardware.
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Plug in iSub.
2. Check Apple System Profiler. Device is listed in Apple System
Profiler, but does not work, and does not have separate volume control
Expected Results:
Expected iSub to work in conjunction with internal speakers, or with
external non-USB speakers, as it should.
Actual Results:
Device is listed in Apple System Profiler, but does not work, and
does not have separate volume control
Regression:
This bug does not occur on PowerPC based Macs, just on Intel based
Macs. Tested on a Power Mac G4 400 Sawtooth, Power Mac G4 867, Power
Mac G5 Dual 2GHz, Intel Mac Mini 1.5GHz Core Solo, Intel iMac 20"
2.0GHz Core Duo, Intel MacBook Pro 17" 2.16GHz Core Duo, Mac Pro Quad
3GHz.
Workaround:
Attach another USB audio device (sound card, USB headset) and select
that for sound output. The iSub and it's volume control will
magically appear. Once you select Internal Speakers or another non-
USB output, the iSub and it's volume control will disappear, and will
cease outputting audio.
Initially, for bug # 4590777, Apple had listed it as a 'duplicate'
bug, so there was some hope of having this fixed. As 10.4.4 was the
initial OS X build that shipped on the first set of Intel Macs, maybe
10.4.5 would remedy this. Then the updates kept coming. And still, it
wasn't working.
Once 10.4.9 was released earlier this week, I tried the iSub again on
all my Intel Macs. Again, no dice. So I sent in another bug report
for Apple to fix. I was hoping this would be fixed prior to Leopard's
launch. To my dismay, I received the following email from Apple.
"Hello Anthony, This is a follow-up to Bug ID# 5061928. We have received the
following update regarding this bug:
<GMT14-Mar-2007 23:41:32GMT> Vanaja Pasumarthi:
Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue:
Unfortunately, we have had to discontinue the support for iSub for
built in audio. This is behaves (sic) as expected. Please disable
iSub on yellow machines for all configurations.
We have closed this report as resolved. Thank you for taking the time
to notify us of this issue.
Best Regards,
Vanaja P.
Apple Developer Connection
Worldwide Developer Relations"
This has been an issue for quite some time. As an owner of a few
Intel based Macs, I'm disappointed that Apple has decided to
discontinue support for their quickly emerging platform. It sort of
goes against the statement from Apple that "Everything just works."
Funny how the iSub does work in Windows Vista, however.
Please post this for the other iSub owners who might as well know
this now instead of waiting even longer.
-Anthony V."
An iSub owner reply on using an iMic as a workaround. (this was before OS X 10.5/Leopard was released
- see top of page for notes on iSub problems in Leopard.-Mike)
