A lightweight macOS menu bar utility that keeps your speakers awake by periodically sending an inaudible audio signal — preventing the hardware sleep delay ("pop") that occurs when audio resumes after silence.
| Active | Inactive |
|---|---|
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| Keeping speakers awake | Speakers may sleep |
Menu bar icons
| Active | Inactive |
|---|---|
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- Lives in the macOS menu bar — no Dock icon
- Plays a near-silent 440 Hz tone via AVAudioEngine to keep audio hardware active
- Configurable ping interval: 15 s, 30 s, 1 min, 2 min, 5 min
- On/off toggle with live status indicator
- Launch at Login support
- Persists all settings across launches
- Native Swift + SwiftUI — minimal CPU and memory footprint
- Marshall Acton III and All Marshall, JBL, Bose and other Bluetooth speakers that exhibit a sleep delay after periods of silence
- Any other macOS-compatible audio output device that exhibits a sleep delay after periods of silence
| macOS | 14.0 Sonoma or later |
| Xcode | 15.0 or later |
| Architecture | Apple Silicon (arm64) · Intel (x86_64) |
git clone <repo-url>
cd speaker-awake
open SpeakerAwake.xcodeprojPress ⌘R in Xcode to build and run. The app appears in the menu bar — no Dock icon.
For a full setup guide, build instructions, and DMG packaging see SETUP.md.
AVAudioEngine runs a AVAudioPlayerNode that loops a 4410-sample buffer containing a 440 Hz sine wave at −120 dBFS (completely inaudible). The buffer length is chosen so the sine wave completes exactly 44 full cycles, ensuring a click-free seamless loop.
The audio hardware stays continuously active as long as the engine is running, eliminating the brief silence and amplifier "pop" that occurs when macOS wakes a sleeping audio device.
SpeakerAwake.xcodeproj
SpeakerAwake/
SpeakerAwakeApp.swift — @main entry, hides Dock icon
AppDelegate.swift — NSApplicationDelegate lifecycle
StatusBarController.swift — NSStatusItem + NSPopover management
AudioKeepAlive.swift — AVAudioEngine keep-alive logic
ContentView.swift — SwiftUI popover UI
LaunchAtLogin.swift — SMAppService login item registration
Info.plist — LSUIElement = YES (menu bar only)
Assets.xcassets/
AppIcon.appiconset/
SpeakerOn.imageset/ — menu bar icon (active, template)
SpeakerOff.imageset/ — menu bar icon (inactive, template)