how good are the 12" powerbooks speakers

[Mord]

i would like to know how good the 12" powerbooks speakers are compared to a 12" ibook which is what i am going to upgrade from :D and also i'd like to know where the heck the things are.

[Darwin]

In switching from the iBook to the PowerBook I haven't noticed difference in the quality of the speakers, even with the speakers being at the back of the machine, the bouncing off the display seems to work quite well

Rest assure I don't find it worst then the iBooks sound IMO :)

[brap]

i would like to know how good the 12" powerbooks speakers are compared to a 12" ibook which is what i am going to upgrade from :D and also i'd like to know where the heck the things are.
I think they sound quite a lot better (read: less tinny, more lower range is reproduced). There is more room, and (apparently) there's a "subwoofer" under the right-hand side of the hinge.
Personally, I'd rather have had more cooling, but meh. It's fairly loud for a laptop, the bouncing thing does work rather well.

Send me a message if you're up for sending that iBook across the pond, I'm in the market for one for my missus.

[Mord]

bounceing thing?

ps. sent you a pm

[brap]

bounceing thing?

ps. sent you a pm
The speakers are located on the edge of the PB - they point at the screen, and the sound bounces off in the direction of the user. Novel, it softens the sound a little too.

[KevRC4130]

The speakers sound very good. The only thing is, they don't get THAT loud. I mean theyre plenty loud for personal use inside, but if you're outside (in a populated area), in a car, etc, you might want some headphones. When you're inside, they are plenty loud and sound good enough to be able to listen to all kinds of music while working and not have to cringe at all.

[Mord]

i'm thinking more of dvd and divx sound, and how often dose the fan come on? on my ibook it only comes on when it's on a soft surface like a bed or a sofa and even then it only comes on during games or when i'm watching a film. and can you be comftable useing it on your lap? i live in the uk so it's a bit cooler than the usa so it shouldent come on often.

[brap]

i'm thinking more of dvd and divx sound, and how often dose the fan come on? on my ibook it only comes on when it's on a soft surface like a bed or a sofa and even then it only comes on during games or when i'm watching a film. and can you be comftable useing it on your lap? i live in the uk so it's a bit cooler than the usa so it shouldent come on often.
DVDs are quiet so long as you're not using it on your lap in bed. DIVX through both VLC and Mplayer doesn't cause enough cpu use to ramp the fan up.

It's comfortable to use on your lap, so long as you're not doing anything really CPU hungry like Photoshop. Then it gets warm. the fan is nowhere near as efficient as the iBook's, so once it gets hot, you're stuck until you can move it into a better environment/turn it off. It doesn't have the handy 'exhaust' of the iBook (the hole in the middle of the hinge) - it's solid, so the air has nowhere to go.

[russed]

in my opinion the speakers in the pb are not bad. i have heard far worse in many other laptops. they are fine for when you are not at your desk or are unable to plug into a set of external speakers.

[Darwin]

It doesn't have the handy 'exhaust' of the iBook (the hole in the middle of the hinge) - it's solid, so the air has nowhere to go.

It does actually, same as the iBook I believe :cool:

[Mord]

edit: dosent matter

(my 1000th post yippy, id like to know how many people there are with over 1000 posts on mac rumors i want to know how high up i am. and who is the most active user ranking system or somthing, it would probably make noobs start to spam oh well

[brap]

It does actually, same as the iBook I believe :cool:
No, it doesn't. trust me, I've owned both.

My PB... and my old iBook. :cool:

The exhaust of the iBook blew up over the LCD through the hole (in blue...), thus allowing it to escape somewhere. The fan is placed the same on the PB, but the air hits the hinge, and just heats it up.

[johnnowak]

IMO the speakers are awful for listening to music. They'll get the job done for movies though... but they're not loud.

[Darwin]

No, it doesn't. trust me, I've owned both.

My PB... and my old iBook. :cool:

The exhaust of the iBook blew up over the LCD through the hole (in blue...), thus allowing it to escape somewhere. The fan is placed the same on the PB, but the air hits the hinge, and just heats it up.

Ok I get you now, I was simply saying that there was an exhaust (or a vent) at the back like the iBook but of course what you were talking about was that the iBook design did a better job of actually cooling the machine since the air could simply flow out of the back

(PowerBook Fan running) Is it warm in here or is it just me? :D

[Nspace]

Hopefully the difference in the laptop speaker quality isn't going to affect your decision to switch. To me a laptop speaker is a laptop speaker. If you wan't really good sound quality, plug in a nice set of headphones or a connect it to a sound system.

The Powerbook speakers are fine for just normal things like system sounds etc, maybe a radio station or sampling a couple songs, but you don't get near the same quality you would with the other alternatives. This is espcially true for bass definition. The bass lacks on laptop speakers in general.

[Applespider]

IMO the speakers are awful for listening to music. They'll get the job done for movies though... but they're not loud.

But that's when you buy an Airport Express and listen through proper speakers...

[bigsteve3]

Having owned a 12" iBook 500 in the past and currently owning a 12" PB 1GHz, I will say that the speakers on the PB were better. As someone said above, there is significantly more middle/low range, although bass is still very limited.

Speaking of limited, the max volume is simply not enough when you are outside (even just in the woods, etc.). I tried to listen to music through the speakers while at a retreat with friends, and you couldn't even hear it well while you sat in front of it! Inside, the volume is fine.

I found that often if I needed audio louder (mp3s, etc.) I could select the boost volume in iTunes to double the volume. This can also be done with movies in QuickTime Player through getting information about the currently playing file and boosting the volume. But, this often causes clipping/static :(

[vraxtus]

Having owned a 12" iBook 500 in the past and currently owning a 12" PB 1GHz, I will say that the speakers on the PB were better. As someone said above, there is significantly more middle/low range, although bass is still very limited.

Speaking of limited, the max volume is simply not enough when you are outside (even just in the woods, etc.). I tried to listen to music through the speakers while at a retreat with friends, and you couldn't even hear it well while you sat in front of it! Inside, the volume is fine.



I'd have to heavily agree with you here. I owned the same two models and the difference in sound quality from the built in speakers is very much noticeable. The sound on my iBook I could only best describe as "hollow." The midrange was lacking, as was the bass. While the bass from the Powerbook is nowhere near "good," it's been far more acceptable than what was present on my iBook. I don't know about the new ones but I had always thought the sound out on the iBook was so bad there wasn't even much point in putting speakers in it in the first place.