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Why are Mac laptop built-in speakers not that great?

I am speaking strictly about the lack of amplitude from the speakers.

I have headphones, but I really dislike carrying around my Grado RS1's because of some fairly obvious reasons (not to mention the fact that running them off the built in headphone jack would be laughable).

And mastering engineer/audio editor/whatever the title they like today, there is still too much compression in audio today. :p
 
I think the quality of the MBP speakers is significantly higher than the MB's.

I have a MB and find the sound quality sub-standard. The speakers actually point away from the user! IMO, Apple has built their consumer notebook with a goal of lowest production cost, sacrificing quality. It's a shame that it's the only small notebook they make.

Take a look at HP's consumer models in a store as I did recently. Yes, they're the #1 computer maker, but when you look and play with the laptops, there's a certain quality feel to them. I especially like the super smooth trackpad material they use on even the cheapest models. They seem to be paying more attention to detail, which is what Apple used to do. No, I won't buy an HP b/c there's no OS X.
 
I had an iBook and the speakers were lame, now I am on a 12" PB and they are so much better, I compared my speakers to a my housemates and she has a windows laptop. If you thought Apple skipped on the sound department then windows users have it worse. I couldn't believe the sound that was coming out from behind the grill. I've heard mobile phones with better sound.

Anyway, the 15" which I had once, has better sound quality and the 17" should be even better than that.
 
CRAZYBUBBA said:
Whatever, I shouldn't be straining to watch a movie or listen to music on my PB... Apple are you listening???
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I had a 17" PB before my 17" MBP. The new speakers are much improved! The same is true on my wife's MB. So, I agree the older speakers were pretty weak, but Apple seems to have addressed it.
 
I agree - though I remember discussion about this when the MacBooks started shipping: crap sound. As I remember, a lot of people were saying that the ibook speakers improved with each rev. and that they expected the same of the macbook. Anyway, I'd say it's a real problem and one that really only requires using better quality components.


yt
 
Normally higher quality speakers are heavier... and since Apple puts a lot of emphasis on weight, I guess speaker sound quality isn't of utmost importance.

My 15" MBP speakers distort when I push the volume to its limit when listening to music.
 
I have a MacBook and I find the speaker volume is just fine. Granted, it's not the best, but it's good for my uses. I guess some people are just sound snobs ;) Also is it just me or is the sound louder after the 10.4.9 update? I might be imagining it, but I know it is on my iMac and I think it is on my MB too.
 
localoid said:
Speaking of "science"... :p

Did you know:



In simple terms: Tiny little 1 inch speakers stuffed into a laptop will always sound like crapola, compared to "real" speakers.

Go out to a club and listen to real musicians play, and make note of how they're not using a couple of 1-inch speakers for their PA. Small speakers = crapola. ;)
Click to expand...


I completely agree with this. if you want good sound, buy a decent set of external speakers. there is only so much you will get out of a set of tiny laptop speakers. that said, when compared to just about any other laptop, the MBP sounds terrible. then again, i would never invest in expensive little speakers in a laptop as i would never use them. headphones or external speakers.
 
xparaparafreakx said:
My 17" speakers are great. I do say though, other mac laptop speakers are not that good.
Click to expand...

The 17" PPCs and Intels both sound decent. But the 17" models were designed to have some portable multimedia presentation ability -- a feature some "professionals" might need. On the other hand, the Macbooks were designed for more consumer-oriented use. That said, either the MBs or the MBPs can be used in the real world of business. You'd just have to learn to live within the limits of the Macbooks. Sound/audio is obviously not the MB's forte. ;)
 
would you rather have a small light laptop, or something that weighs 10 pounds because they have huge speakers in them.

how about mounting them beside the monitor to make all computers alot thicker.

when apple was designing these laptops, sound quality was definitely at the bottom of their priorities.

who want to listen to music without headphones anyways when using it as a portable. you will just annoy everyone around you.
 
All the Mac laptops I have used (white G3 iBook, 15" Titanium G4 PB and 12" PB) have good sounding speakers. I have never heard a Windows laptop with better sounding speakers, including some compaq laptops our school has with JBL speakers. Not heard a MB or MBP but quite happy with my current PB's speakers.
 
siurpeeman said:
if you want "audiophile quality" sound, you should be using external speakers or headphones like are you. a laptop's main purpose is to be a portable computer not a portable jukebox.
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Noone is even sugesting "audiophile quality" sound but at least something useable. Maybe my hearing is seriously impared but I cant watch DVD on MB whithout headphones cos I just cant hear anything. Some improvments in that area would be welcome..:rolleyes:
 
whateverandever said:
Obviously you missed the joke...

http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html
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Err... I didn't miss it, or I wouldn't have mentioned the "amazing" $1000 3-2-1s... ;)

The real "joke" is the avoidance the fact that "size does matter" in many areas of the real world. Sorry, it's not fair, but that's just how life is sometimes. :p

You could seal a decent quality 1" speaker (like the one below) into a tiny-enclosure, but it'd still sound rather crappy compared to speaker systems using larger drivers. At 100Hz it'd probably be about 32db down... Ack! Why bother? :p

 
Wow...

my own wors could not have expressed it better. its really my only gripe with their laptops
AK
mick4394 said:
Here are the reasons I can come up with.

1. Apple puts a premium on style over substance. They do not want speaker vents to be seen, so Mac laptop speakers, basically, shoot the sound in the opposite direction of where the user would be.

2. Cheap/small speakers. Apple wants their computers to be as thin as possible. As such, they put very small speakers in their computers. I tend to put the emphasis on cheap, in this example, because I have had cell phones with smaller speakers than my Macbook that output stronger sound.

3. They don't care. They think that most people will be using headphones on a portable any way.

Sound quality in Apple laptops has always been a problem, and it seems to be getting worse. My iBook had much better sound output than my current Macbook. I hope the next generation of Apple laptops produces stronger sound than the current models, heck I'm not even asking for high quality sound. I just want to be able to hear it.
Click to expand...
 
afd said:
All the Mac laptops I have used (white G3 iBook, 15" Titanium G4 PB and 12" PB) have good sounding speakers. I have never heard a Windows laptop with better sounding speakers, including some compaq laptops our school has with JBL speakers. Not heard a MB or MBP but quite happy with my current PB's speakers.
Click to expand...

They don't make them like they used to. The sound on my G3 iBook is much better than the MB.
 
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