Apogee Thunderbolt devices experience audio dropouts, stutters, and generally decreased audio performance when connected to the 2020 MacBook Pro 13" model with Intel's 10th Gen Ice Lake processor.
We are investigating this issue, but in the meantime, we recommend customers who own our Thunderbolt devices to avoid using it with this model Mac computer.
To find out whether you have a Mac affected by this issue, click , then "About This Mac". If your Mac's About This Mac matches Size (13-inch), Year (2020), and Processor (Intel), your Mac is affected.
We will update this article as we have more information and/or an update ready.
Oct 05, 2020 - We have also had 1 user report similar issues on the 2020 MacBook Air 9,1 model with the 10th Gen Ice Lake processor, so we are adding that computer to this page. As this seems to be specific to Ice Lake processor series, please avoid any other new Macs with Ice Lake until we resolve this issue in a future update.
Dec 16, 2020 - We had a new piece of information today, as a customer with this specific laptop reported having full Kernel Panics, when unplugging and replugging the Element. Oddly, the Kernel Panic does not show reference to any drivers, as we would expect if it was due to a software or driver issue.
Searching the crash string, "Intel CrashLog recorded due to unexpected reset" we have found reports from many other users who own this 2020 13" MacBook Pro having severe issues with all variety of Thunderbolt devices, from full crashes, to issues waking from Sleep, loosing all connection to USB devices, etc.
One user wrote to CalDigit, a reputable maker of Thunderbolt Hubs, who replied:
"Our engineers have been investigating into the brand new 2020 MacBooks as we’ve had detailed reports from several of our customers who have tried many different brands of docks, from OWC, Kensington, Elgato and ours and none of them have been able to function correctly via the latest chipsets in these Macs."
Thus it is becoming more clear this is a deeper issue with Thunderbolt on these 10th Gen Ice Lake processors, rather than something specific to our Thunderbolt driver. Please stay tuned for more information.
Links to others with 13" MBP 2020 Thunderbolt issues:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251654275
https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/i0m9si/mbp_13_2020_intel_crashlog_recorded_due_to/
Sept 22, 2021 - Antelope and PreSonus report exact same issues, crackles and pops on these 10th Gen Ice Lake Macs. We ask that owners of these Macs please request Support from Apple on this issue.
https://support.antelopeaudio.com/support/solutions/articles/42000083672-macbook-pro-2020-clicks-pops-on-catalina-and-later