diff --git a/src/gui/midi_coreaudio.h b/src/gui/midi_coreaudio.h
index 9c675742..05aa3e18 100644
--- a/src/gui/midi_coreaudio.h
+++ b/src/gui/midi_coreaudio.h
@@ -28,6 +28,31 @@ do {                                                                \
 		goto bail;                                                  \
 } while (false)
 
+// With the release of Mac OS X 10.5 in October 2007, Apple deprecated the
+// AUGraphNewNode & AUGraphGetNodeInfo APIs in favor of the new AUGraphAddNode &
+// AUGraphNodeInfo APIs. While it is easy to switch to those, it breaks
+// compatibility with all pre-10.5 systems.
+//
+// Since 10.5 was the last system to support PowerPC, we use the old, deprecated
+// APIs on PowerPC based systems by default. On all other systems (such as Mac
+// OS X running on Intel hardware, or iOS running on ARM), we use the new API by
+// default.
+//
+// This leaves Mac OS X 10.4 running on x86 processors as the only system
+// combination that this code will not support by default. It seems quite
+// reasonable to assume that anybody with an Intel system has since then moved
+// on to a newer Mac OS X release. But if for some reason you absolutely need to
+// build an x86 version of this code using the old, deprecated API, you can
+// simply do so by manually enable the USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API switch (e.g.
+// by adding setting it suitably in CPPFLAGS).
+#if !defined(USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API)
+#   if TARGET_CPU_PPC || TARGET_CPU_PPC64
+#      define USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API 1
+#   else
+#      define USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API 0
+#   endif
+#endif
+
 class MidiHandler_coreaudio : public MidiHandler {
 private:
 	AUGraph m_auGraph;
@@ -46,7 +71,12 @@ public:
 		RequireNoErr(NewAUGraph(&m_auGraph));
 
 		AUNode outputNode, synthNode;
+		// OS X 10.5 SDK doesn't know AudioComponentDescription desc;
+#if USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API || (MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED <= 1050)
 		ComponentDescription desc;
+#else
+		AudioComponentDescription desc;
+#endif
 
 		// The default output device
 		desc.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Output;
@@ -54,13 +84,21 @@ public:
 		desc.componentManufacturer = kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple;
 		desc.componentFlags = 0;
 		desc.componentFlagsMask = 0;
+#if USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API
 		RequireNoErr(AUGraphNewNode(m_auGraph, &desc, 0, NULL, &outputNode));
+#else
+		RequireNoErr(AUGraphAddNode(m_auGraph, &desc, &outputNode));
+#endif
 
 		// The built-in default (softsynth) music device
 		desc.componentType = kAudioUnitType_MusicDevice;
 		desc.componentSubType = kAudioUnitSubType_DLSSynth;
 		desc.componentManufacturer = kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple;
+#if USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API
 		RequireNoErr(AUGraphNewNode(m_auGraph, &desc, 0, NULL, &synthNode));
+#else
+		RequireNoErr(AUGraphAddNode(m_auGraph, &desc, &synthNode));
+#endif
 
 		// Connect the softsynth to the default output
 		RequireNoErr(AUGraphConnectNodeInput(m_auGraph, synthNode, 0, outputNode, 0));
@@ -70,24 +108,57 @@ public:
 		RequireNoErr(AUGraphInitialize(m_auGraph));
 
 		// Get the music device from the graph.
+#if USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API
 		RequireNoErr(AUGraphGetNodeInfo(m_auGraph, synthNode, NULL, NULL, NULL, &m_synth));
+#else
+		RequireNoErr(AUGraphNodeInfo(m_auGraph, synthNode, NULL, &m_synth));
+#endif
 
-                // Optionally load a soundfont 
-                if (conf && conf[0]) {
-                  soundfont = conf;
-                  FSRef soundfontRef;
-                  RequireNoErr(FSPathMakeRef((const UInt8*)soundfont, &soundfontRef, NULL));
-                  RequireNoErr(AudioUnitSetProperty(
-                                                    m_synth,
-                                                    kMusicDeviceProperty_SoundBankFSRef, 
-                                                    kAudioUnitScope_Global,
-                                                    0,
-                                                    &soundfontRef,
-                                                    sizeof(soundfontRef)
-                                                    ));
-                  LOG_MSG("MIDI:coreaudio: loaded soundfont: %s",soundfont);
-                } 
-
+		// Optionally load a soundfont 
+		if (conf && conf[0]) {
+			soundfont = conf;
+			OSErr err;
+#if USE_DEPRECATED_COREAUDIO_API
+			FSRef soundfontRef;
+			err = FSPathMakeRef((const UInt8*)soundfont, &soundfontRef, NULL);
+			if (!err) {
+				err = AudioUnitSetProperty(
+				                           m_synth,
+				                           kMusicDeviceProperty_SoundBankFSRef,
+				                           kAudioUnitScope_Global,
+				                           0,
+				                           &soundfontRef,
+				                           sizeof(soundfontRef)
+				                          );
+					}
+#else
+					// kMusicDeviceProperty_SoundBankFSRef is present on 10.6+, but
+					// kMusicDeviceProperty_SoundBankURL was added in 10.5 as a future prooof replacement
+					CFURLRef url = CFURLCreateFromFileSystemRepresentation(
+					                                                       kCFAllocatorDefault,
+					                                                       (const UInt8*)soundfont,
+					                                                       strlen(soundfont), false
+					                                                      );
+					if (url) {
+						err = AudioUnitSetProperty(
+						                           m_synth, kMusicDeviceProperty_SoundBankURL,
+						                           kAudioUnitScope_Global, 0, &url, sizeof(url)
+						                          );
+						CFRelease(url);
+					} else {
+						LOG_MSG("Failed to allocate CFURLRef from  %s",soundfont);
+					}
+#endif
+					if (!err) {
+						LOG_MSG("MIDI:coreaudio: loaded soundfont: %s",soundfont);
+					} else {
+						LOG_MSG("Error loading CoreAudio SoundFont %s",soundfont);
+						// after trying and failing to load a soundfont it's better
+						// to fail initializing the CoreAudio driver or it might crash
+						return false;
+					}
+				}
+		
 		// Finally: Start the graph!
 		RequireNoErr(AUGraphStart(m_auGraph));