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Audio quality of G5 and PB?

N

NewToMac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi all,

I will get a G5 or PB to replace my PC, as a new comer, I do have one conern about the audio quality of either one. Music has been a big part of my life, so how do they compare to say PC audigy sound card? If i remember it right, G5 has "onboard" sound, from a PC's perspective, "onboard" usually means bad. As G5 claims to be the most advanced computer, how can it not have a dedicated sound card?

And how is PB's audio quality? of course i am not expecting it to out perform audigy, but as in general is it adequate? thanks all. 🙂
 
NewToMac said:
Hi all,

I will get a G5 or PB to replace my PC, as a new comer, I do have one conern about the audio quality of either one. Music has been a big part of my life, so how do they compare to say PC audigy sound card? If i remember it right, G5 has "onboard" sound, from a PC's perspective, "onboard" usually means bad. As G5 claims to be the most advanced computer, how can it not have a dedicated sound card?

And how is PB's audio quality? of course i am not expecting it to out perform audigy, but as in general is it adequate? thanks all. 🙂
Click to expand...

i can only vouch for the powerbook... speakers suck... sorry just that simple. and when hooked up to my klipsch pro medias.. still sounds worse than my sound blaster live 5.1 on the pc... if you want great audio, invest in a good audio card after the fact, you may need to if you have surround sound of any kind... i don't think the powermac supports anything more than stereo outta the box (i could be wrong, and someone will correct me if i am)
 
Creative sells USB sound cards which are amazing quality - don't know if they work for Macs... but they are great sound cards...

Also, if you get that, get 5.1 speakers if you really need sound, or Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers, which are amazing.
 
Oh, and does the G5 claim to be the most advanced computer?

Because... its kind of not. Even though I love the G5 there are computers out there that are much better - just with a worse OS.
 
www.m-audio.com check their soundcards out, im running the 5.1 Revolutions high definition card... 192Khz bit rate.. DTS Passthrough ... awesome configurations and supports the Mac OS/X very well
 
The optical digital output of both computers is pretty good, no computer audio card that shares it's power supply with the main CPU is going ot sound too good, what you need to do is source an audio interface that is self powered and not buss-powered.

Even Digidesign's M-box is not that good, particularly in the microphone inputs.

In the end it depends on what you're plugging it into, good audio is only as good as your amps and speakers.

Mac's onboard audio from a 17" PowerBook is comparable with a portable CD player.
 
I agree the PB's speakers aren't great but when I want to listen to music, I just set off Airtunes and listen to my music through my stereo's amp and speakers with Airport Express.

Unfortunately it doesn't help if you're planning on using your computer to play games with lots of music or to watch DVDs on. But if it's mainly 'real' music you want to listen to, it's an option to consider.
 
17" are eh

Well I'm listening to the Wallflowers right now on my 17" the speakers on this thing are just eh. It's not so much that they sound bad cause they dont I just wish they were louder. The only way to really crank them up is by upping the pre amp in iTunes but then they start cracking. When I am at home its plenty loud but I take this thing to work with me (a gym) and the drink coolers are overpowering when I try to watch a dvd usually depending on the movie I can barely hear it.
 
My iMac G5 is hooked up to a set of Boston BA735 (over the analog connection, since the digital on the Mac and on the speakers are different) and sounds good. I assume a Power Mac or PowerBook is comparable in that regard.

But if you can afford it I'd suggest hooking up digitally to a receiver.
 
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