I hooked up my Mackie MR5 Monitors to my MacBook Pro through an audio interface, I use it to record my band in the studio I use out of my basement. Except everytime I try to use the monitors they give me this crackle sound and it makes it incredibly hard to listen to my recordings and mix them. Except i think it is a problem with my mac because i hooked them up through the headphone jack and the crackling still happened...

I would go for getting someone else to record at studio, means they have all the professional ideas to bring to the table, solve problems, but if your just playing around in home a small focusrite 2/2 should do you, with 2 inputs for left and right mono from desk, or also dual linking in two separate channels via xlr.

Yes, get some TRS to XLR (Male) cables or adapters and plug them into either the monitor or alt outs, set your routing and levels and away you go.

yes - trs or xlr inputs will give you the same result, as long as you use the correct cables.

Make sure the mackies are off when you plug them in or you'll get a nasty thump. Equally, make sure the volume is down on your interface initially.

You may have blown a fuse in the amplifier. Refer to Appendix A: Service Info in this guide http://www.mackie.com/products/mr5/pdf/mr5_om.pdf under No Power section, and if the fuse it not blown, try some of the solutions under No Sound. Hope this helps!

The internal audio systems in the PC's are inadequate for high quality work. You should get an external audio system that attaches via firewire or USB to your MAC. Then use balanced cables from the mixer to this audio interface. There are MANY different audio interfaces... Search the music equipment suppliers in the "recording" section of their catalog...

Swap speakers to find if the problem is the speaker. If the problem follows the speaker it will require repairing.

IF that speaker runs noticeably hotter than the other channel speaker, you need to take it to an authorized repair center. Your monitors are apparently active types, so unless you are a trained audio technician, you should refer service to the pros. Apparently, the problem is in one of the power amplifiers in the affected monitor.

I would contact Mackie and see what they say. The MR5 is already protected internally by the built in amplifier circuitry as far as I know.They can be reached here:http://www.mackie.com/support/index.html

My best advice to you is to get your stands where I get mine - on eBay. They usually have a great selection of stands, tripods (although I personally would not put my nice Mackie reference monitors on tripods - too unstable).

Also, you will most likely find them for quite a lot less on eBay.

However, I believe Musiciansfriend.com (my favorite web site) may be having a fall sale very soon, or end of summer sale, and they have been known to reduce their prices heavily on things like stands, sound reinforcement, and other accessories during a big sale.

If FixYa sold such things, I wouldn't be sending you anywhere off site, but since you cant get them through us, I am giving you my absolute number 1 and number 2 choices that should solve your problem well.

If looking on eBay, be sure to measure your monitors, or get the information from the literature that came with the monitors. It's bit easier on Musiciansfriend.com, and here is a link to the stands they havce available there:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=monitor+stand

Another option is monitor wall mounts, as we have to two of four reference monitors in our home studio wall-mounted, and it's great getting them out of the way and not taking up floor space or valuable desk space.

I hope whatever decision you make will be one you are happy with.

Thank you for using FixYa.

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