Yes. Once a Mac's Sound settings lists an HDMI display as a working output, it can join a Multi-Output Device with a separate speaker exactly like any other pair of outputs. The one thing worth knowing first is that many HDMI displays add their own processing delay, which can turn a clean two-speaker setup into a faint echo.
This guide assumes HDMI audio is already working: the display or TV shows up in Sound settings and makes sound on its own when selected. If it doesn't get that far yet, our guide to why there's no sound over HDMI even though the picture works covers the five real causes first. Once it's working, combining it with a speaker is genuinely no different from combining any two ordinary outputs, with one real technical wrinkle worth understanding before you build the group.
How do I combine an HDMI display and a speaker into one output?
Open Audio MIDI Setup, found in Applications > Utilities. Click the plus button in the bottom-left corner of the window and choose Create Multi-Output Device. Every audio output the Mac currently sees appears in the list on the right, and the HDMI display sits in that list the same as any other speaker. Tick the display and tick the speaker you want to add, then select the new Multi-Output Device as the Mac's output, either in Audio MIDI Setup itself or from System Settings > Sound.
From that point, anything the Mac plays goes to both at once. macOS makes no distinction between an HDMI display and a normal wired speaker here: both are simply entries in a list of outputs it knows how to send a stream to, so the process is identical to grouping two speakers that have nothing to do with a display at all.
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Download for MacWhy does the HDMI display's sound lag behind a directly connected speaker?
This is the part that makes HDMI a different case from grouping two ordinary speakers. Many HDMI displays and TVs process audio before they play it: decoding a surround format, running room correction, or applying their own upmixing. That processing takes real, measurable time, commonly somewhere between 30 and 150 milliseconds depending on which processing modes are switched on, and it happens entirely inside the display, separate from anything the Mac itself is doing. A speaker plugged directly into a headphone jack or a USB or Bluetooth adapter has none of that extra step, so the two outputs that are supposed to play in unison drift apart. The result sounds like a faint echo or a doubled note rather than one sound coming from two places at once.
This is worse, on average, than grouping two similar wired speakers, because a pair of plain speakers usually adds little or no processing of its own on either side, so there's nothing for the delay to grow from. An HDMI display's decoding step is the one genuinely different link in the chain. We cover exactly where every kind of Mac audio delay comes from, Bluetooth codecs, HDMI processing, and grouped outputs together, in our guide to why Mac audio lags behind video. Chorus cannot close this particular gap. Reducing a display's own processing delay is entirely its own hardware behaviour, outside any app's control.
Can I reduce the delay on the display's own side?
Sometimes. Some displays and TVs include a setting, buried in their own on-screen menu rather than anywhere on the Mac, that trims most of the internal audio processing down to close to nothing. It goes by different names depending on the manufacturer, Pure Audio, PCM, Bypass, or a plainly labelled "reduce audio delay" option, and it generally works by skipping surround decoding and room correction in favour of passing the signal through with minimal handling.
This is genuinely worth checking in the display's audio or sound menu before deciding the setup won't work. It is just as genuinely not something every manufacturer offers. Budget monitors and older TVs often have no equivalent setting at all, and even where one exists it can only reduce the gap rather than remove it completely, since some decoding step usually still has to happen. Treat it as worth trying, not as a fix you can count on finding.
Where does Chorus fit in?
Audio MIDI Setup builds the group for free, but it has no memory of it as a saved setup. If you sometimes want just the HDMI display, sometimes just the speaker, and sometimes both together, macOS treats each of those as a group to rebuild from scratch, and whichever app is playing has no way to be kept out of a group the rest of the Mac's audio joins.
Chorus turns each combination into a Group you switch to by name or with a keyboard shortcut, so "HDMI plus speaker" and "just the HDMI display" are two saved setups rather than something rebuilt by hand every time. Per-App Audio can also keep one app, a call or a game where timing matters, off the HDMI group while everything else plays through it, and Auto-Switch can select your usual setup automatically whenever the display reconnects. None of that touches the display's own processing delay: no app can, since that delay is fixed in the display's hardware, not in macOS.
For the step-by-step on building a Multi-Output Device, see Apple's own guide to Audio MIDI Setup.
Frequently asked questions
Can I combine an HDMI display's audio with a separate speaker on a Mac?
Yes. Once an HDMI display or TV appears as a working output in Sound settings, macOS treats it like any other output, so it can be added to a Multi-Output Device alongside a separate speaker and both will play together.
How do I set up an HDMI display and a speaker as one output on a Mac?
Open Audio MIDI Setup in Applications > Utilities, click the plus button, choose Create Multi-Output Device, then tick the HDMI display and the other speaker in the list. Select the new device as the Mac's output in System Settings > Sound.
Why does audio from an HDMI display lag behind a separate speaker?
Many HDMI displays and TVs process audio before playing it, decoding surround formats or running room correction, which commonly adds somewhere between 30 and 150 milliseconds of delay depending on which processing is switched on. A directly connected speaker in the same group has none of that delay, so the two drift apart and can sound like an echo.
Can I reduce an HDMI display's own audio delay?
Sometimes. Some displays and TVs offer a mode in their own settings, often called Pure Audio, PCM, or a similar minimal-processing label, that skips most of the internal processing and cuts the delay. Not every manufacturer includes one, so it is worth checking the display's own menu rather than assuming it exists.
Does Chorus fix the delay between an HDMI display and a speaker?
No. The delay comes from the display's own hardware processing, entirely outside any app's control, including Chorus. What Chorus does is make it fast to switch between an HDMI-plus-speaker group and a single low-latency output with a keyboard shortcut, instead of rebuilding the group by hand each time.
