I have a Bose speaker system connected to my Audio Out port of my mid-'10 Macbook Pro but I can no longer control the volume: System Preferences has the sound controls set to the maximum but the sound output is weak and the microphone icon at the top of the display is grayed out (but shows it at maximum when I click on it). Apparently, then, the sound is only coming out of the laptop. MacBook Pro :: Sound Level Microphone Icon Is Grayed Out Sep 2, 2014