iMac 2015 21" 4K speakers - damaged right-hand speaker?

[Nubben]

Hi All,

I have the above desktop which I bought end of 2015.

When I listen to (for instance) YouTube music clips or any other music I find the left-hand speaker being more dominant than the right one. Indeed, when I open System Prefs and drag the balance slider to either the left or the right (when to the right) I find the right-hand speaker more "tinny" and less bass than the left-hand speaker.

Is this how the left-hand/right-hand channels are mixed on the source material or could it be that the right-hand speaker has a damaged bass element?

Is there some software I can use to check that the hardware is not damaged?

Thanks in advance!

H

 

[maflynn]

Your best bet is to take it in and have apple check it out.

The only way I know how to check these things is to play music with the balance set to the left, and then the right and compare the two.

The other option is get a pair of external speakers and ignore the problem.

 

[Nubben]

Thanks maflynn. Will try with different sources of music before taking it in.

 

[MrAverigeUser]

In MBP there is something installed they call "subwoofer". One day also me, I though there is a problem with the right speaker who was much less loud, I even thought he might be dead.

In fact, the so-called "subwoofer" runs not like a subwoofer but augments the lower frequencies of the extremely tiny Stereo- "Speaker" inside up to some hundred hertz, which is totally different from REAL subwoofe: the latter you cannot locate because the human ability to locate sound beneath 50-80-100Hz is ZERO.

As for the "subwoofer" in MBP and perhaps as well in iMacs apple doesn´t care at all that the unilateral installation at the very left is definitely easy to locate as it augments frequencies humans can locate easily and so this will disturb people who are used to hear very intensively and "conciently" Music or sound.
It would be more logic to place this "subwoofer" (who is in fact everything but a subwoofer) more in the mid of the machines to at least avoid the impression of lateralized source of the very important frequencies of 100-300 Hz (voice). But they don´t care.

I think this is perhaps also the problem of the iMacs as it is with the MBPs ?
Volume of the MBP and iMAc do NOT enable real subwoofer technology.

You can easily test this with your ears: Youtube has some sinus-signal tests in mono and stereo. Just go for them and get near with your ears in MONO mode (talking about the original YT-Signal in MONO).

To exclude a hardware problem with the apple "sound card" just add a test with ear/headphones plugged in.

edit:have a look here (see also posting #33):

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2015-imac-speakers.1933700/page-2

edit #2:

Seems that both speakers of the iMac have the same size - so lateralization because of unilateral "sub"woofer like in MBP seems now to be nearly excluded… but there are lots of complaints of iMac users…. evidently there is an issue...


….

 

[Nubben]

Many thanks for that lengthy reply MrAverigeUser!

Question for you - when I try the YouTube tests what should I be looking for? Should I use the balance in System Prefs to see what the speakers pick up - more bass etc?

Many thanks!

 

[MrAverigeUser]

Many thanks for that lengthy reply MrAverigeUser!

Question for you - when I try the YouTube tests what should I be looking for? Should I use the balance in System Prefs to see what the speakers pick up - more bass etc?

Many thanks!

put your head in the mid of the 2 speakers and do the mono-test with whole sinus-spectrum.
So you can exactly verify WHAT frequencies are NOT acoustically resting located in the mid of the screen.
At what Frequencies the signal is getting out of the mid and does it to the right or left?

This will give you (and the apple service) already an idea of what problem/issue might be the case.

As it seems (look at the linked Thread) apple technicians like also to send a acoustic or technical file to do already diagnostics BEFORE you pick the heavy and bulky iMac to the next "geeniius".

So - do the test and talk with apple by phone/email before stopping work with your iMac and starting transportation..

 

[Nubben]

Ok thank you!