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How do you like the speakers on the iPad Pro?

M

macbook123

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 11, 2006
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One reason i switched to Android a while ago was that I absolutely loathe rear/bottom facing speakers on tablets and phones, as the whole point of a speaker should be to send the sound toward the user, not toward other people in the vicinity. With the iPad Air I still have, I found the speakers virtually useless since my family hears more of a movie than I do.

While the iPad Pro speakers are still pointing the wrong way (Apple designers, are you drunk?), it sounds like they are somehow internally directed in a way that sends more of the sound to the user, less to bystanders. Is this true? Are the speakers useful?
 
Speechless said:
Yeah. I usually never use my devices without headphones but the speakers on the pro shocked me because they were so good.
Click to expand...

Oh, sorry, misread your initial post and got confused. Suppose I need more coffee...;-)

Thanks for the responses everybody. That's good news. So do the speakers actually orient the soundstage in such a way that the user hears more than people sitting on the other side?
 
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macbook123 said:
Thanks for the responses everybody. That's good news. So do the speakers actually orient the soundstage in such a way that the user hears more than people sitting on the other side?
Click to expand...
Some one directly behind you if you hold the screen vertically to your face may hear the slightest increase, if any at all.

Someone to the left or right will only receive sound directly from one(two speakers) of two sets of speakers. Even though the speaker orientation will direct a louder dB wave to them, you'll get the benefit of two sets(4 speakers).

So basically, yes, you'll benefit and hear "more".
 
It's quite amazing what they've done with the speakers. I would say it is on par with some 30-40 dollar Bluetooth speakers. From a tablet, it's excellent.
 
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macbook123 said:
Thanks for the responses everybody. That's good news. So do the speakers actually orient the soundstage in such a way that the user hears more than people sitting on the other side?
Click to expand...

My mom and my partner both complained when I played music through the iPad Pro speakers. What was comfortable volume to me, holding the iPad, they said were too loud to them, who had the back of the iPad pointing at them.
 
Yeah, the speakers sound great, especially considering the size of the device. They're now loud enough to play music and listen to while showering for instance, watch Netflix and listen while prepping dinner, play a video and allow family to listen comfortable in a semi-noisy family setting etc.

I recently went on a trip back home for the holidays, and ordinarily I would have taken my MacBook Air, iPhone, camera, and Bose Soundlink bluetooth speaker. This year I only took my iPhone and iPad, and I never found that I needed any of the other devices.
 
Yeah great speakers. I rolled my eyes during this part of the pitch - never be as good as real speakers anyway - but they definitely impressed out of the box. Not sure how often I'll use them, since I have Sonos at home and headphones for travel, but it's a nice feature to have when you're just on the road and have some time to use it as a stereo. Just another element that makes the Pro feel like one of the most versatile and "complete" computers I've ever used.
 
Received mine today. I agree the speakers are incredible!

That said, they're still pointing more to the back than to the front, so people I'm sharing a room with get most of the listening experience. That can be undesired when e.g., I'm watching a movie and they're reading a book. Hate to be nit-picky about this, but I just don't understand the rationale for not making the speakers front-facing.
 
I am a bit hard of hearing, not enough for hearing aids, but I have trouble clearly understanding much of what I hear on my iPad Air 2. When I got my iPad Pro I went to You Tube and found my favorite Andre Rieu clip and when I played it I was amazed, I could understand it clearly, and actually had too turn it down slightly.

The speakers are just amazingly great! Fantastic!
 
macbook123 said:
but I just don't understand the rationale for not making the speakers front-facing.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the engineers at Apple know that front-facing speakers are more desirable, but they do have a bunch of design goals to meet. Like keeping it thin, keeping the overall dimensions down, keeping the battery life a certain length, etc. They probably just couldn't find a way to fit the speaker grill facing forward while meeting all the other goals.
 
macbook123 said:
Received mine today. I agree the speakers are incredible!

That said, they're still pointing more to the back than to the front, so people I'm sharing a room with get most of the listening experience. That can be undesired when e.g., I'm watching a movie and they're reading a book. Hate to be nit-picky about this, but I just don't understand the rationale for not making the speakers front-facing.
Click to expand...
That would interfere with the aesthetics that apple was trying to design into the tablet. The front is a beautiful late of glass, and having speaker holes showing up would be less desirable.

FWIW, my SP3's speakers are not front facing AFAIK
 
maflynn said:
That would interfere with the aesthetics that apple was trying to design into the tablet. The front is a beautiful late of glass, and having speaker holes showing up would be less desirable.

FWIW, my SP3's speakers are not front facing AFAIK
Click to expand...

I agree that Apple was most likely trying to adhere to a common design theme. It is possible to integrate front facing speakers and still look good. Microsoft does a good job on the SP3/SP4/SB models integrating front facing speakers. The IPP is light years ahead of those models as far as sound is concerned.
 
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