How to play audio through multiple outputs on a Mac.

Updated October 2026 · tested on macOS 26

What a Multi-Output Device is

A Multi-Output Device is a combined output you build in Audio MIDI Setup, the audio tool that comes with every Mac. Apple’s guide sums it up: audio sent to the primary device also plays through the other devices in it. Choose it as your Mac’s sound output, and most apps play on all of those outputs at once: AirPods and a speaker, two pairs of headphones, or an HDMI or DisplayPort TV and the Mac’s own speakers.

How to create a Multi-Output Device in Audio MIDI Setup

These steps follow Apple’s Play audio through multiple devices at once in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac, and the last one Apple’s Set up audio devices in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac:

1. Connect the outputs you want to use. Bluetooth headphones and speakers must be connected, and AirPods show up only while someone wears them.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup. It’s in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
3. Click the Add button (+) at the bottom of the sidebar in the Audio Devices window, then choose Create Multi-Output Device. The new device appears in the sidebar; to rename it, click it, then enter a new name.
4. Select the new multi-output device. On the right side of the window, select the Use checkbox of each output you want in it.
5. Click the Primary Device pop-up menu, then choose an output device.
6. Make it your Mac’s output: Control-click it in the sidebar and choose Use This Device for Sound Output, or choose it in System Settings › Sound › Output.

The primary device and drift correction, in plain words

Each output keeps time with its own clock, and separate clocks slowly drift apart. The primary device is the output whose clock the others follow. Drift correction, also called resampling, adjusts another output’s audio to keep it in step. Apple’s multi-output page points to its page on aggregate device settings. That page says to turn drift correction on for devices that aren’t synchronized through hardware, and headphones and speakers that each connect on their own aren’t. So choose the primary device, then select the Drift Correction checkbox of every other output in the Multi-Output Device (Apple’s guide for newer macOS calls it Sync).

Drift correction keeps outputs from slowly drifting apart. It doesn’t remove Bluetooth’s fixed delay: see delay between outputs.

What a Multi-Output Device can’t do

• It has no volume of its own, so the volume keys and Control Center can’t change it. You set each output’s volume in Audio MIDI Setup: see why a Multi-Output Device has no volume control.
• You set the primary device, drift correction and sample rates by hand in Audio MIDI Setup; users report crackling when the rates differ.
• It holds one combination: one device for the desk, another for a party.
• When you’re done, you switch your Mac back to its usual output yourself, and remove the device by hand.

A simpler alternative to Audio MIDI Setup: Quwire

While it plays on two or more outputs, Quwire creates a combined output called “Quwire” and makes it your Mac’s output: in effect, a Multi-Output Device set up for you from the menu bar. Here’s how the two compare, limits included.

With Quwire, it takes three steps:

1. Connect your outputs the way you always do.
2. Click Quwire’s q in the menu bar, then click each output you want in the mix.
3. Turn Quwire on. Apps that use your Mac’s sound output now play on all of them.

Quwire picks the output that keeps time, preferring built-in and wired outputs over Bluetooth, and turns on drift correction for every other output.

Quwire’s limits. The volume keys can’t change its combined output either. It doesn’t remove the Bluetooth delay. AirPlay speakers, HomePod and AirPlay TVs can’t join a mix yet, and macOS plays Bluetooth audio on at most 3 devices at a time. It plays the same sound on every output.

Multi-Output Device not working: a checklist

• Nothing plays. Check that the Multi-Output Device is your Mac’s output in System Settings › Sound › Output.
• One output is silent. It may have disconnected: AirPods back in their case, or a speaker that went to sleep. Connect it again; Bluetooth outputs play only while connected.
• Your AirPods aren’t in the list. macOS hides connected AirPods that nobody is wearing. Put them on, and they appear within a few seconds.
• A Bluetooth output gets no sound. On macOS 26, a Mac gave Bluetooth sound to at most 3 devices at a time in our tests. Connecting another one can leave it without sound, or take sound from one that was playing. Connected headphones count even when nobody wears them.
• It crackles. Select each output in the sidebar and set the same sample rate in its Format pop-up menu. Users report crackling when the rates differ.
• One output plays late. That’s Bluetooth’s delay, not a fault: see delay between outputs.

Multi-Output Device delay: why outputs play out of sync

Bluetooth headphones and speakers play a moment later than built-in and wired outputs. Heard in the same room, the two can sound out of sync, like a short echo. Neither drift correction nor Quwire removes that delay; Quwire tells you when a mix has both kinds. When each person hears only their own output, such as their own pair of headphones, there’s no echo. More in support: why there’s an echo or delay.

How to remove a Multi-Output Device and get your normal sound back

1. Choose your usual output in System Settings › Sound › Output, or in Control Center › Sound.
2. In Audio MIDI Setup, select the Multi-Output Device in the Audio Devices window, then click the Remove button (–).

A combined device that another app left behind, a Multi-Output or Aggregate Device, goes the same way. Quwire removes its own “Quwire” output when you turn it off, puts back your output, input, volumes and sample rates, and leaves alone any Multi-Output Device you made yourself.

Multi-Output Device vs Aggregate Device

Both live in Audio MIDI Setup. A Multi-Output Device plays the same sound on several outputs, for listening. An Aggregate Device combines several audio devices into one with all their inputs and outputs: Apple’s example is an eight-channel device and a two-channel device working as one ten-channel device, for recording and other multichannel work. Apple explains it in Combine audio devices into a single aggregate device.

Good to know

• The keyboard’s volume keys can’t change a combined output, whether it’s a Multi-Output Device or Quwire’s.
• Up to 3 Bluetooth audio devices play at once, a macOS limit. Wired outputs don’t count toward this limit.
• No AirPlay yet: AirPlay speakers, HomePod and AirPlay TVs don’t appear in Quwire for now.
• Turn Quwire off, and your output, input, volumes and sample rates come back, without a trip to Audio MIDI Setup.
• Free to try in the TestFlight beta. On the Mac App Store: a free trial, then a one-time price, no subscription.

Related guides

• Volume

  Why a Multi-Output Device has no volume control.

  Set each output’s volume, and what Quwire’s sliders and shortcuts add.

• Headphones and speakers

  Headphones and speakers at the same time.

  Your AirPods with a speaker for the room, or with an HDMI or DisplayPort TV.

• Two AirPods

  How to connect two AirPods to one Mac.

  Both pairs play the same sound, each at its own volume. Two ways to set it up.

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