Unibody MacBook Speakers

philipxz · May 23, 2009

Is it just me or are the MacBook speakers this bad?

There seems to be something wrong with my speakers. Every time I play a short sound like the "Funk" alert sound there this sound that comes from the speakers that sounds like a crunchy, crispy, muffled sound. I don't know how to explain it. Funny enough when I try to record the issue with GarageBand the issue goes away.

To reproduce this issue I go to "System Preferences" and to "Sound" and play the alert sounds.

Eidorian · May 23, 2009

They're notebook speakers. Don't expect a miracle out of them.

The low and high ends are going to be muffled and crunchy. The new Aluminium MacBook's do have slightly better speakers than the previous plastic models.

Even the system alert sounds can be a small struggle to hear at higher volumes on them. I have to agree with how Funk sounds.

peepboon · May 23, 2009

Mine are on the same level as BEATS by DRE... lol

they're just laptop speakers, what do u expect?

philipxz · May 23, 2009

How come though, the issue goes away when I try to record it with GarageBand, the muffled and crunch sound goes away?

keith1569 · May 23, 2009

haha i bet laptop speakers would be better of Bose made them

philipxz · May 23, 2009

OK! I just downloaded Voice Candy and have it recorded.

Hear for yourself! On the normal.mov GarageBand is active while it is being recorded and you can hear that that is what it should sound like!

NewMacbookPlz · May 23, 2009

keith1569 said:
haha i bet laptop speakers would be better of Bose made them

You're funny...

firewater · May 23, 2009

Well they better then the macbook air speakers

glitch44 · May 23, 2009

firewater said:
Well they better then the macbook air speakers

Speakers? The macbook air only has one speaker!

philipxz · May 23, 2009

Is it same for you unibody MacBook owners?

pellets007 · May 23, 2009

Haven't noticed anything with mine. They're not divine, but they're well off in my book considering that they're notebook speakers.

philipxz · May 23, 2009

This isn't just problem with the "Funk" alert sound but also short sounds like Adium event sounds, so yes this gets infuriating because I chat a lot. There must be a fix to this.

OK I'm assured that they're notebook speakers and are not the best but if it plays normal when GarageBand is active then there should be a way to sound normal even if it isn't active. God, this means running GarageBand every time...

INCONVENIENCE!

Unless it's a hardware issue.

DeusInvictus7 · May 23, 2009

Does the issue happen every single time the sound triggers? If it is only every so often, it might be because the macbook sound card "sleeps" if it is inactive for like 30 seconds, and then when a sound is triggered say in Adium, or Facebook Chat, there is a "pop" or whatever you wanna call it before the actual sound...kinda annoying, but that's how the sound on the macbook works.

Also, the reason it doesn't have the "pop" while Garageband is running might be because while that app is running, the soundcard is also always active, so it will never sleep and wake and cause that "pop."

Hope that helps

Ivan P · May 23, 2009

philipxz said:
This isn't just problem with the "Funk" alert sound but also short sounds like Adium event sounds, so yes this gets infuriating because I chat a lot. There must be a fix to this.

This definitely happens to me on my unibody MBP with the Funk sound effect. It annoyed me so much that I ended up changing the default effect to Sosumi. It sounds fine on my iMac, but on my MBP it sounds muffled, and (if this makes sense) 'electronic'...basically as if it's at the incorrect volume and it's playing much louder then it should (kind of like when someone edits the volume on a track in iTunes so it plays much louder then it should and it ends up sounding horrible). In fact, the first time it had to use that sound effect I thought my speakers were screwed.

DeusInvictus7 said:
Does the issue happen every single time the sound triggers? If it is only every so often, it might be because the macbook sound card "sleeps" if it is inactive for like 30 seconds, and then when a sound is triggered say in Adium, or Facebook Chat, there is a "pop" or whatever you wanna call it before the actual sound...kinda annoying, but that's how the sound on the macbook works.

Does it every time for me, but like I said it's only that one sound effect, but it was enough to make me change it (and it kept doing it even after a few reinstalls that I've done).

DeusInvictus7 · May 23, 2009

Ivan P said:
Does it every time for me, but like I said it's only that one sound effect, but it was enough to make me change it (and it kept doing it even after a few reinstalls that I've done).

Yeah, but of course different sounds will respond differently to the awakening of the sound card if it had fallen asleep to save power.

philipxz · May 23, 2009

DeusInvictus7 said:
Does the issue happen every single time the sound triggers? If it is only every so often, it might be because the macbook sound card "sleeps" if it is inactive for like 30 seconds, and then when a sound is triggered say in Adium, or Facebook Chat, there is a "pop" or whatever you wanna call it before the actual sound...kinda annoying, but that's how the sound on the macbook works.

Also, the reason it doesn't have the "pop" while Garageband is running might be because while that app is running, the soundcard is also always active, so it will never sleep and wake and cause that "pop."

Hope that helps

For the Funk sound, yes, the issue happens every time it is triggered. For Adium, every other event sounds, sometimes actually it wouldn't play at all when I receive a message, I don't know if it's just Adium.

I guess that helps.

Ivan P said:
This definitely happens to me on my unibody MBP with the Funk sound effect. It annoyed me so much that I ended up changing the default effect to Sosumi. It sounds fine on my iMac, but on my MBP it sounds muffled, and (if this makes sense) 'electronic'...basically as if it's at the incorrect volume and it's playing much louder then it should (kind of like when someone edits the volume on a track in iTunes so it plays much louder then it should and it ends up sounding horrible). In fact, the first time it had to use that sound effect I thought my speakers were screwed.

Does it every time for me, but like I said it's only that one sound effect, but it was enough to make me change it (and it kept doing it even after a few reinstalls that I've done).

Exactly what it sounds how you explained it. But I'm having issues on most of my alert sounds. So it's definitely a Leopard issue, yes? If an MBP is having the same issues as me with better speakers then, that answers it!

I hope Snow Leopard will be a solution.

localoid · May 23, 2009

philipxz said:
... There seems to be something wrong with my speakers. Every time I play a short sound like the "Funk" alert sound there this sound that comes from the speakers that sounds like a crunchy, crispy, muffled sound. I don't know how to explain it.

That crappy sound you hear is the result audio distortion because you've exceed the limits of the very low-powered amp and tiny speakers in your Macbook and you're driving the amp's output into clipping. The signal from an amplifier operating in clipping could permanently damage your Macbook's speakers. Turn the volume down to a point within the limits of the amp/speakers and the distortion will be reduced. The Macbook isn't a boombox.

philipxz · May 24, 2009

Been Googling around and found this: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/antipop-cures-portable-macs-snap-crackle-pop-syndrome/

Yes!! It workded!! I highly recommend this now.

secondfox · May 24, 2009

This whole thread is hilarious.

I'm glad there is a solution out there.

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