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Apple Studio Display - Owners Thread

justmadeupname said:
Anybody with a Studio Display have a pair of HomePod Mini's as well? If so, are they better sounding than the built-in speakers?
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God lord I hope so for the $$$.

FWIW - I think the reviews of the ASD speakers are a bit too positive. They are very good for monitor speakers but that's a really low bar IMO. I ended up buying a set of Kanto YU2 and the matching sub. Humungous upgrade over the ASD internal speakers.
 
jdee2wheels said:
I had the exact same experience at Best Buy the other day. Tried out the Studio Display, thought the camera looked fine, then tried an iMac M3 and the camera was A LOT better. It does make the pricing hard to swallow knowing that there is some dated tech in it.

That said, I still bought the Studio Display and I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep it. The screen is really nice, everything just works, and the setup is very clean. A side thing I didn't expect is that the display turns on immediately vs waiting 3-5 seconds when my Macbook is connected to 4K monitors at work. It's a little thing, but delightful.

Oh and after using the webcam for a few days, it's certainly not the best, but it's a solid upgrade from the one in my 5K iMac and still better than most of my coworkers on the other end of video calls. I also like that the latest update allows you to manually zoom and pan to frame yourself exactly how you want.
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Thanks for the feedback. So, my wife has a new ASD at her office to use with her Air. I went in with her today and took my laptop to try out the screen and webcam with our Webex app. The camera is a step up from the one in my Dell lid, even if it's not as good as those new Pro cameras. I think it will be sufficient for what I want to do. Basically unplug the Studio and plug in the thunderbolt cable from my dock during the work day, then swap back for personal. I also have a 27" 4k LG that I can use with my Mac on the side if I need to during the day so it won't be completely headless. I just can't wait to be able to do video calls on a giant high res screen and not have to stare at a 14" laptop anymore to make eye contact. My 2014 iMac now has terrible screen ghosting and it can barely touch editing those new 48mp iPhone photos. Time to put it out to pasture.
 
tstafford said:
God lord I hope so for the $$$.

FWIW - I think the reviews of the ASD speakers are a bit too positive. They are very good for monitor speakers but that's a really low bar IMO. I ended up buying a set of Kanto YU2 and the matching sub. Humungous upgrade over the ASD internal speakers.
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@tstafford thanks for your input I'll keep your suggestion in mind.

However, does anybody else have actual real world comparisons between the ASD in built speakers and a pair of HomePod Mini's?
 
iPhisch said:
So, question for all of you owners. Do you really think the webcam is acceptable in the ASD? I thought I was pretty ready to pick up a new ASD with a M2 Mac Studio next month. The plan was to also use the display with my Dell work laptop on the days I work from home. My coworker is doing the same thing right now and it's working well for him on his side. His picture image seems to look fine, no better or worse than the others we work with using their Dell built-in cameras. So today I went to Best Buy to mess around with stuff, sure the ASD webcam looks somewhat grainy, especially if you try to go full screen with a self video, but then I tried out FaceTime with the new M3 iMac, holy crap the webcam looks bright and sharp! Like my beard didn't look like it was drawn on with crayon. It's making me question whether i want to invest in the screen if it has components that seem pretty outdated. I know this has been discussed on here ad nauseam, but it did really get me rethinking my decision. Coming from a 2014 27" retina iMac so everything is technically an upgrade. Thoughts???
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I don't disagree with what you said about quality. When I am on a Zoom/Meet call on my MacBook's webcam the quality is better BUT no one has even commented about the quality of my video when I'm on calls using the ASD webcam.

The ASD is a great display and I myself would never let the webcam be the deciding factor. If image quality for calls was that important to me I would buy a magsafe holder to mount my iPhone at the top of the ASD and use continuity camera. That is going to be significantly better image quality than any webcam in a computer.
 
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I was about to buy a 5k Studio Display this weekend but I started to read reports about a buzzing sound coming from the monitor. Some people are saying its bad shielding or coil noise. Anyone have this problem. Just odd stuff like people saying when they charge their EV it makes the monitor buzz, or dim the lights in another room in the house. Really odd. I hate dragging stuff home and then having to return it so I was just trying to get a feel if this is really an issue or if its being blow out of proportion. Thanks
 
bejaxn0623 said:
I was about to buy a 5k Studio Display this weekend but I started to read reports about a buzzing sound coming from the monitor. Some people are saying its bad shielding or coil noise. Anyone have this problem. Just odd stuff like people saying when they charge their EV it makes the monitor buzz, or dim the lights in another room in the house. Really odd. I hate dragging stuff home and then having to return it so I was just trying to get a feel if this is really an issue or if its being blow out of proportion. Thanks
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Mine never has made a noise like that.
 
bejaxn0623 said:
I was about to buy a 5k Studio Display this weekend but I started to read reports about a buzzing sound coming from the monitor. Some people are saying its bad shielding or coil noise. Anyone have this problem. Just odd stuff like people saying when they charge their EV it makes the monitor buzz, or dim the lights in another room in the house. Really odd. I hate dragging stuff home and then having to return it so I was just trying to get a feel if this is really an issue or if its being blow out of proportion. Thanks
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my ASD is dead silent.
no buzz, no fan noise.. for now :oops:
next month I'll receive the 2nd ASD: I hope it will also be silent. :eek:
 
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I am looking at getting one for work, would go through the Apple refurbished store. Seems lately the only thing on the refurbished store is the nano textured screens. Anyone have both nano and standard, are the colours a little muted on the nano textured screens? My office is not in a situation where I am worried about glare, so I am assuming the standard is going to pop more and be more vibrant in colours?
 
wonderings said:
My office is not in a situation where I am worried about glare, so I am assuming the standard is going to pop more and be more vibrant in colours?
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I have both.

I’d say the difference is more about sharpness, and less about color.

That said, if you have full control over the lighting in your environment I’d definitely wait for one without nano-texture.
 
Arctic Moose said:
I have both.

I’d say the difference is more about sharpness, and less about color.

That said, if you have full control over the lighting in your environment I’d definitely wait for one without nano-texture.
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That is kind of what I was thinking, but without having the ability to compare side by side I was not sure what the differences would be like.
 
Can anyone check if their thunderbolt port is flakey? I've had a couple of times when readjusting my monitor arm would make the display flicker or disconnect briefly.

I thought it was the cable but I just tried with a new one and if I wiggle the cable back and forth around the port a bit it starts to cause connection issues, as if it wasn't hugging the connector properly. I'd like to figure out if its something that happens to everyone or if I should bring it in for warranty repair.
 
Spybreakjj said:
Can anyone check if their thunderbolt port is flakey? I've had a couple of times when readjusting my monitor arm would make the display flicker or disconnect briefly.

I thought it was the cable but I just tried with a new one and if I wiggle the cable back and forth around the port a bit it starts to cause connection issues, as if it wasn't hugging the connector properly. I'd like to figure out if its something that happens to everyone or if I should bring it in for warranty repair.
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What cable are you using?

I've noticed the Apple Pro cable is a LOT more solid than some of the random cheaper/unlabeled cables I've tried.
 
JDHiro said:
What cable are you using?

I've noticed the Apple Pro cable is a LOT more solid than some of the random cheaper/unlabeled cables I've tried.
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The first one I had is a Razer TB4 cable and the new one is a CableMatters one. The new one seems to cause less disconnects so it could be a combination of a weak port and not-so-great cables. Would still like someone to check theirs just in case.
 
Spybreakjj said:
The first one I had is a Razer TB4 cable and the new one is a CableMatters one. The new one seems to cause less disconnects so it could be a combination of a weak port and not-so-great cables. Would still like someone to check theirs just in case.
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Doesn't the Studio Display come with the Apple TB Pro cable? Have you tried that?

I just noticed that the TB cable LG packed with the UltraFine 5K was quite wiggly, while the Apple TB Pro cable was pretty solid. Upon close inspection, the construction of the connector was very different between the two.
 
Spybreakjj said:
Can anyone check if their thunderbolt port is flakey? I've had a couple of times when readjusting my monitor arm would make the display flicker or disconnect briefly.

I thought it was the cable but I just tried with a new one and if I wiggle the cable back and forth around the port a bit it starts to cause connection issues, as if it wasn't hugging the connector properly. I'd like to figure out if its something that happens to everyone or if I should bring it in for warranty repair.
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I wiggled two of mine and didn't notice any drop outs of any kind. One is connected via the Apple cable the other a Cable Matters TB3 (the Apple one is too short to connect a second ASD to where my machine sits).
 
tstafford said:
I wiggled two of mine and didn't notice any drop outs of any kind. One is connected via the Apple cable the other a Cable Matters TB3 (the Apple one is too short to connect a second ASD to where my machine sits).
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Interesting. Thanks for checking. My ASD was an Amazon return with a nice discount so maybe the port is slightly defective. It's under warranty anyway so I might take it in for repair. While it doesn't cause issues most days it made my MBP kernel panic once when I was FaceTiming and decided to readjust the arm and I've been bugged about it since.
 
wonderings said:
That is kind of what I was thinking, but without having the ability to compare side by side I was not sure what the differences would be like.
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I just upgraded from an LG 5K to the nano-texture ASD.
Yes, you can see a difference in text sharpness. But it’s not bothersome unless you’re really looking for it. In actual *use*, the finish is amazing. The benefit of having absolutely no distracting reflections or glare at any angle outweigh the very slight reduction in sharpness in my opinion.
 
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Spybreakjj said:
Can anyone check if their thunderbolt port is flakey? I've had a couple of times when readjusting my monitor arm would make the display flicker or disconnect briefly.

I thought it was the cable but I just tried with a new one and if I wiggle the cable back and forth around the port a bit it starts to cause connection issues, as if it wasn't hugging the connector properly. I'd like to figure out if its something that happens to everyone or if I should bring it in for warranty repair.
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Using a 6ft Cable Matters TB3 with my vesa mounted ASD, just gave it a few wiggles and no flickering here. The table it's mounted to get bumped often and never any issues either.
 
Thinking about converting my two Studio Displays to VESA mounts. Does anyone have experience doing this through the Apple Store? Any estimate of costs?
 
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