Apple has never published a hard number for how many devices a Multi-Output Device can hold. There is no documented spec to look up, and no setting anywhere that shows a ceiling. What actually limits you is a mix of Bluetooth connection capacity, wired channel capacity, and how much sync drift macOS can quietly correct for before you hear it.
That is a less satisfying answer than a single number, but it is the accurate one. Anyone quoting you a precise maximum, such as "a Mac can combine exactly six speakers", is stating a practical observation from their own setup, not an Apple-documented limit. Below is what the real constraints are, what tends to break first, and how many devices actually hold up in normal use.
Does Apple document a maximum number of outputs?
No. Multi-Output Devices are built and managed through Audio MIDI Setup, part of macOS since before Multi-Output Devices existed as a feature, and Apple's own documentation describes how to create one without stating a device-count limit anywhere. Search Apple's support pages or developer documentation for a number and you will not find one, because there isn't one to find.
That absence is not an oversight. A Multi-Output Device is a software construct, not a fixed piece of hardware with a rated capacity, so there is no single spec sheet for Apple to publish. The real ceiling, such as it is, comes from the devices you are actually trying to combine, not from a rule baked into macOS.
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Three separate things, and they cap you well before any theoretical software limit would:
- Bluetooth connection capacity. A Mac can only maintain a limited number of simultaneous Bluetooth audio connections at once, generally a handful, though the exact number varies by Mac model, Bluetooth chip generation and macOS version. If most of your devices are Bluetooth speakers, this is usually the first wall you hit, not anything to do with Multi-Output Devices themselves.
- Wired channel capacity. Devices connected via USB or an audio interface are capped by however many output channels that hardware actually exposes. A basic USB DAC might offer one stereo pair; a multi-channel interface might offer eight. macOS can only route to channels that physically exist.
- Practical audibility. Every device you add to a Multi-Output Device is another clock macOS has to keep synchronised with all the others. More devices means more correction work happening in the background, and that correction is what causes the stutters and glitches covered in our guide to why audio stutters on a Multi-Output Device. Reliability tends to degrade gradually as you add devices, especially once Bluetooth is involved, rather than failing cleanly at a fixed count.
None of these three interact the same way twice. A group of four wired speakers on one interface can be rock solid; a group of three Bluetooth speakers can start glitching before it even finishes connecting. The number of devices matters less than what kind of devices they are.
How many speakers can you realistically combine?
For most home and desk setups, two to four devices in a single group works reliably: a pair of desk speakers, a set of headphones, and maybe a Bluetooth speaker across the room. That range covers the overwhelming majority of use cases people actually have, and it is where Multi-Output Devices tend to behave the way you expect.
Going noticeably beyond that in a single group is technically possible, but it becomes increasingly likely to introduce the sync issues described above, particularly once more than one of the devices is Bluetooth. If you are already seeing dropouts or stutter with three or four devices, adding a fifth will not help, and the fix usually isn't "find the exact limit and stay under it", it is to reduce how many clocks macOS has to reconcile at once, or to keep Bluetooth devices out of the same group as wired ones where you can.
So what's the real question to ask?
Not "what is the maximum number of speakers a Mac supports", because there isn't a documented answer to that question. The useful question is "how many can I reliably combine for my specific mix of devices", and that depends far more on what those devices are, wired or Bluetooth, how many Bluetooth connections you already have open, what hardware they're plugged into, than it does on a raw count.
If you're building a group and want to know whether it will hold up, the fastest way to find out is to build it and listen, starting small and adding one device at a time. Chorus groups devices through the same mechanism as Audio MIDI Setup, so it carries the same practical ceiling, but it makes that testing far less tedious: save a group once, switch to it with a shortcut, and you're not rebuilding the list in Audio MIDI Setup every time you want to try a different combination.
For the step-by-step on building a Multi-Output Device, see Apple's own guide to Audio MIDI Setup.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official maximum number of speakers on a Mac?
No. Apple does not publish a fixed, documented limit for how many devices a Multi-Output Device can contain. It is not a spec you can look up. In practice, reliability runs out well before any theoretical wall does, so the real limit is a practical one rather than an official number.
What actually limits how many devices you can combine into one group?
Three things. A Mac can only hold a limited number of simultaneous Bluetooth audio connections at once, roughly a handful, and that varies by Mac model and macOS version. Wired devices are capped by whatever channels your USB hub or audio interface actually has. And every extra device adds clock-sync work macOS has to manage, so audible glitches tend to show up before you hit any hard ceiling.
How many speakers can I reliably combine for everyday use?
For most home or desk setups, two to four devices in one group holds up fine. Going noticeably beyond that is technically possible but increasingly likely to introduce sync issues, particularly if more than one of the devices is Bluetooth.
Does Chorus let me combine more speakers than Audio MIDI Setup can?
No. Chorus groups devices using the same underlying mechanism macOS already provides, with no kernel extension and no audio driver of its own. Whatever practically limits a Multi-Output Device built in Audio MIDI Setup limits a group built in Chorus too. What Chorus changes is how easy the group is to build, save and switch, not how many devices it can technically hold.
Why does adding more devices make a group less reliable, even under any theoretical limit?
A Multi-Output Device has to play every device from one shared clock. Each additional device is another clock macOS has to keep in step, and Bluetooth devices in particular carry their own variable timing. More devices means more correction work, and that correction is what you hear as a stutter or a drift, long before any connection limit is reached.
