Take a note, Google already acknowledged the issue but we are curious why this is happening. Here’s what a Pixel Community Manager had to say about the issue:
Thanks for continuing to report examples here. The team is aware and continuing to investigate. I’ll post an update as soon as there is some meaningful info for you all.A Redditor by the name of ‘badmark’ and other people on the Google Product Forums are reporting this issue, which happens when listening to videos, using apps, or playing music at the highest volumes. Take a note, It doesn’t happen all the time, but only when certain frequencies are playing. One user seems suggests that the issue is happening regardless of audio output source.
“Both my Pixel XL (purchased from Google) and my wife’s Pixel (purchased from carrier) are showing the same issue. The audio is popping or clicking on talk radio or music played in Chrome, Facebook, TuneIn Radio, YouTube, etc,”. Another user on the Google Product Forum said “At first I thought it was my headphones, so I put on my noise cancellation headphones and the same issue… Then I just played the music out of the speaker itself and it still happened.”
“I am also having the popping/crackling noise on my Pixel XL. Safe Mode has not solved the issue,” another chimed in.
Interestingly, one user reports that the issue is even reproducible when casting audio to a Chromecast device. That, combined with the fact that it seems to affect the device’s hardware speakers and headphones, would suggest that this is a software issue rather than a hardware issue. If that’s the case, Google should be able to resolve it in a future update.
Redditor says that this issue is happening on his fifth replacement Pixel, and has found that all five of them have the issue — again suggesting this is not just a rare manufacturing defect. While I can’t reproduce the issue myself but you can check out this video to hear it more clearly on Badmark’s device:
Is this happening to your device? If so, is it only happening in the speakers? Or is it also happening through headphones? Let us know in the comments below. We’ve reached out to Google for comment on the matter, and we’ll update when we hear back.
Source : Google Forums