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Are the Retina Macbook Pros Speakers that mcuh better than the normal macbook pro?

I

iLikeTurtles!

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 22, 2012
439
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i know alot of you audiophiles bring down laptop speakers, which obviously compare to external speakers, but i always found my 2011 macbook pro 15" speakers to be good for internal speakers.

i was curious if the retina macbooks speakers were signifncatly better?

thanks
 
Anandtech's impression:

Apple is proud of its new speaker design in the Retina MacBook Pro. There’s not a whole lot you can do for tiny laptop speakers but despite shrinking the overall volume of the chassis, Apple has managed to deliver much better sound out of the new speakers in the rMBP. Like most of the upgrades to the next-gen MacBook Pro, you really need to do an A/B comparison to appreciate the difference. And keep your expectations in line with reality, a good set of external speakers are always going to sound better. With that said, the new speakers definitely deliver a fuller, more rich sound than their predecessor. You can still tell you’re listening to some form of integrated speakers, but now they sound distinctly less like they’re coming from a inside a notebook.
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-review/13
 
Subjectively? They're way way way way better.

They're much clearer and louder than my 2010's.
 
if sound quality actually concerns you, just know that these are still laptop speakers. they will still relatively sound like ****.
 
I have my Late-2011 MBP next to me. Subjectively, the rMBP's speakers are not any better (or worse), they just have a sound signature that is different. Not sure why all this hype about it sounding "better".

All my portable and workstation equipment is subjectively much higher quality so I rarely use the on-board speakers.

Shure SE535 headphones
Sennheiser HD650 headphones
Denon D2000 headphones
Random CMOY amplifier I bought from eBay
Little Dot Mk III w/ EF92 tubes
Logitech Z-2200

On a sort of related note. The hiss from the headphone jack is much worse with my SE535 on my rMBP than my Late 2011 MBP.
 
they sound bigger and have a wider soundstage than most laptops i know, but will lose to any random desktop speaker.
 
As I've been saying for the past month: The frequencies that are present are very good.

It still has typical anemic bass response, but I guess I wouldn't say they are "tinny." The mids and highs, though, are very rich.
 
oyebto said:
they sound bigger and have a wider soundstage than most laptops i know, but will lose to any random desktop speaker.
Click to expand...
Every time I use my headphones to play TF2 I get accused of cheating because I could "hear" them walk by me.
 
the soundstage is wider and the treble extension is better, but the old MBP 15" had much better midrange (because of the midrange subwoofer), but bass remains pretty much the same.
 
jaqueh said:
the soundstage is wider and the treble extension is better, but the old MBP 15" had much better midrange (because of the midrange subwoofer), but bass remains pretty much the same.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, is there no sub in the retina?
 
my aging Macbook Pro 17" from 2007 still has the best laptop audio quality I've heard.
 
R3k said:
Wth did you resurrect this 3 year old thread with a useless comment?
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lol.. well lets keep it going then. It shocked me yesterday in how loud my mid 2014 rMBP speakers got. I took it into the bathroom and had one of my best singing sessions in the shower yet!
 
mdlooker said:
lol.. well lets keep it going then. It shocked me yesterday in how loud my mid 2014 rMBP speakers got. I took it into the bathroom and had one of my best singing sessions in the shower yet!
Click to expand...

Wow thats just asking to trip the moisture sensors in your mac and have apple refuse to fix it under warranty if anything goes wrong.....
 
mdlooker said:
lol.. well lets keep it going then. It shocked me yesterday in how loud my mid 2014 rMBP speakers got. I took it into the bathroom and had one of my best singing sessions in the shower yet!
Click to expand...
Probably not a good idea to use your laptop in a damp environment like that.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
Wow thats just asking to trip the moisture sensors in your mac and have apple refuse to fix it under warranty if anything goes wrong.....
Click to expand...
jermy4 said:
Probably not a good idea to use your laptop in a damp environment like that.
Click to expand...

Yeeeaaaa I didn't think about that :oops::eek:

I did have the door open so hopefully that helped a lot as well.

Won't do that again
 
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