M1 iMac 24" left and right speaker sound different

[wilberforce]

As I concluded on my first day of M1 iMac ownership: the speakers are absolute sh*te.
For a feature that Apple boasts about during the launch, the sound is by far the biggest let down of the new iMac. My iPad Pro and even my 8 year old Macbook sounds better than the muffled, "trying-too-hard-to-bass-heavy" tuning from the iMac.

How are the speakers for speech?
I pretty much only use my computers for things like Zoom calls and youtube videos, almost never for music.

The speakers on my 13" MPB are about as bad as you can expect - quite annoying and barely tolerable, but better than using a phone.
The speakers on my 27" iMac are excellent for speech.

How are the 24" iMac speakers for speech? Muffled speech would not be good.

 

[ignatius345]

As I concluded on my first day of M1 iMac ownership: the speakers are absolute sh*te.
For a feature that Apple boasts about during the launch, the sound is by far the biggest let down of the new iMac. My iPad Pro and even my 8 year old Macbook sounds better than the muffled, "trying-too-hard-to-bass-heavy" tuning from the iMac.

Sadly I have to agree. I was coming from an iMac 5K which had surprisingly great (and loud) speakers. And also the speakers on my M1 Air seem better -- similar volume, but incredible stereo separation somehow.

These M1 iMac speakers are not powerful enough. Plenty of times I've put on a movie and just left the sound at 100%, which I would never do with the 5K because it would be far too loud.

I'd say quality and volume-wise it's analagous to the difference between the full-sized HomePod and the HomePod Mini.

 

[ignatius345]

How are the speakers for speech?
I pretty much only use my computers for things like Zoom calls and youtube videos, almost never for music.

The speakers on my 13" MPB are about as bad as you can expect - quite annoying and barely tolerable, but better than using a phone.
The speakers on my 27" iMac are excellent for speech.

How are the 24" iMac speakers for speech? Muffled speech would not be good.

Fine for that. Per my post above nowhere near as full and loud as the 27" iMac, but definitely good enough for calls.

The mic is good too. I have a Blue Yeti attached and use that, but just for kicks I did quick test recordings of the M1 iMac's mic vs the Yeti mic -- and the difference was actually not glaring. The Yeti was better of course, but the iMac one seemed surprisingly close to me.