Can anyone w/ a new MBP 13" tell me how the speakers sound?

[ncdasa]

I am a big fan of the 13" macbook, i still have an 'older' black plastic one and I am still very happy with it even though its '15 minutes of fame' seem to be passing. It is still such a good computer.

That being said, a few things completely sucked that werent just on my computer but were widespread to all of them at least this generation. I havent really followed the developments so closely since i bought mine and now that iam looking at the new ones I am wondering if some of the flawed aspects that were in my generations model have been corrected.

The two main things that i can think of now (and maybe the only ones) are the built in speakers, and the optical drive.

The built in speakers just suck, they sound the same as a pair of headphones when you take them out of your ears and lay them on the table - small inaudible noise you keep having to ask your self if you are actually hearing or not.

And the optical drives that just stop working. When it happened to me i thought i would check some forums for advice etc. On apple.coms own site they had hundreds of thousands of forums just about how macbooks optical drives just stopped working. I thought I would kick of something of a stink my self but then i saw that no one was even responding to the posts anymore. THere were so many dead threads it was like the black plague had hit.


Anyway i would like to know about the speakers and the optical drive but i dont think there will be many comlaints about the optical drive in the span of 2 days so at least i would like hear what someone can say about the speakers.


And i dont know, maybe all these problems were already addressed in later generations and i just never checked it out. If anyone can say anything about the record of the later model plastic MB or the first model unibody I will appreciate it.

 

[MacOCD]

That machine does not exist.

 

[Martin C]

That machine does not exist.

Yes it does...?

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

That machine does not exist.

Missed WWDC yesterday/the updated apple.com/store?

OP, I imagine they'd be the same as the just past Unibody MB, which are pretty darn good for a small laptop

 

[localoid]

Apple (nor anyone else) cannot defy (or change) the laws of physics. Therefore, tiny little speakers, of convention design, about the diameter of your thumb, are never, ever going to be able to produce "room filling sound" across the entire frequency range of human hearing simply because tiny speakers cannot physically move a large enough volume of air to do so.

 

[reallynotnick]

Apple (nor anyone else) cannot defy (or change) the laws of physics. Therefore, tiny little speakers, of convention design, about the diameter of your thumb, are never, ever going to be able to produce "room filling sound" across the entire frequency range of human hearing simply because tiny speakers cannot physically move a large enough volume of air to do so.

What about those nano tube flat speakers? I guess idk how they sound but I think there is room to defy the laws of physics.

 

[techpr]

MBP 13" Speakers sound

I would like to know this too. I have a Macbook and the sound is way "too low!!" and poor.

The New MBP 13" has better audio speakers?, new MBP 13" owners, please report to this thread.

 

[ncdasa]

I know I already mentioned it above but i will ask again. Can anyone who owns or owned any of the later plastic macbook models or the first version of the unibody ones for sometime tell about the track record of the optical drive. Has anyone experienced it starting to excessively spit disks back out for no apparent reason and then eventually not read anything anymore. If this unknown to the newer macbook users that is a really good sign.

thanks

 

[GeekGirl*]

I know I already mentioned it above but i will ask again. Can anyone who owns or owned any of the later plastic macbook models or the first version of the unibody ones for sometime tell about the track record of the optical drive. Has anyone experienced it starting to excessively spit disks back out for no apparent reason and then eventually not read anything anymore. If this unknown to the newer macbook users that is a really good sign.

thanks

They are much better then the white, and a little better then the Uni.

 

[unagimiyagi]

I would like to know this too. I have a Macbook and the sound is way "too low!!" and poor.

The New MBP 13" has better audio speakers?, new MBP 13" owners, please report to this thread.

The unibody macbook 13" had improved speakers over the plastic white/black ones. The newest unibody macbook pro 13" probably has the same speakers.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

I know I already mentioned it above but i will ask again. Can anyone who owns or owned any of the later plastic macbook models or the first version of the unibody ones for sometime tell about the track record of the optical drive. Has anyone experienced it starting to excessively spit disks back out for no apparent reason and then eventually not read anything anymore. If this unknown to the newer macbook users that is a really good sign.

thanks

Never had a problem with my Unibody's optical drive and burning to DVD+R media. I think the discs I bought are Maxwell brand

 

[jecapaga]

The new 13" does have better sounding speakers. I only did a mild test last night but it was a noticeable improvement over the blackbook.

 

[kap09]

I have a plastic macbook and just got my 13 MBP yesterday. The speakers are a major improvement in terms of quality and volume.

That said, they're not even close to what a set of proper speakers should sound like. Just much more usable now.

 

[ncdasa]

The speakers are a major improvement in terms of quality and volume.

That said, they're not even close to what a set of proper speakers should sound like. Just much more usable now.
Today 10:31 PM


yeagh its kind of sad. There must be a way to get better sound in the 13" macbook. As soon as you get to the 15 and 17 " you get such good sound it not even funny. Its loud, its clear, etc etc. But anyway if the new ones are an improvement then thats still really good. I hope i get a chance to hear them some time soon.

 

[airplaneman]

Never had a problem with my Unibody's optical drive and burning to DVD+R media. I think the discs I bought are Maxwell brand

Hehe, isn't it Maxell?
Anyway...
I would think the speakers are the same as the Unibody MacBook.

 

[unagimiyagi]

I can tell you that the 13" unibody speakers are a definite upgrade from the plastic macbook speakers. I could hear that in the store when it was quiet.

The 15" unibody speakers are also an upgrade from the matte macbook pro (2 gen ago). They are louder but have more bass. They sound more full. Mind you, the macbook pro speakers were already good. For such a thin notebook, the speakers are very good. They are absolutely fine for me to watch a movie. Coupled with online tv and a tv card, I use the 15" as my personal tv now and think that the quality is superb.

I feel confident in saying that the 13" unibody macbook pro speakers are as good as you'll find in any 13" laptop, and the 15" speakers are as well save for those 1" thick monsters with subwoofers, etc. I'm not willing to carry around such a behemoth. Knowing I've got about as good as it gets is enough for me. For multimedia, I think that the macbook pros can't be beat. The glare is distracting, though. I am on the fence about techrestore. The $200 just may be worth it.

 

[J53119]

Comparing my 13" MBP to my "classic" 15" MBP, the classic sounds a little better, considering the speakers are on each side of the keyboard and can direct their sound out. Not enough to complain though.

 

[unagimiyagi]

Then that's pretty darn good. I've heard the macbook plastic ones and they are indeed terrible, even by laptop standards. I think the classic macbook pros have quite nice speakers. The unibody ones take it a step forward in the low end, but it's not night and day like going from plastic to unibody macbooks.