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migeru29

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2010
33
0
san diego
and connect my keyboard directly.. are the internal speakers of the imac enough? or i should buy the imac with some good external speakers?
 

Blaine

macrumors 6502a
Dec 3, 2007
792
97
Abilene TX
IMO the speakers sucked on the previous gen speakers and even on the LED Cinema display.

But I've heard that the speakers on the new 21 and 27" speakers have been improved.


Edit to add clarity: I actually like the speakers on my MBP 15" unibody because the sound it produces is very crisp. It just has no bass.

The reason why I disliked the iMacs speakers is because the sound wasn't crisp at all. It sounded really muffled.

Hopefully, the newer ones (as mentioned above) are better.
 

Hrududu

macrumors 68020
Jul 25, 2008
2,300
628
Central US
Built in computer speakers are typically good enough to get by if you really are not looking for bass response and volume. Apple has traditionally included decent speakers in their computers, but an inexpensive 2.1 system will make a world of difference.
 

mike.coulter

macrumors regular
Jun 10, 2008
188
38
The late 2009 iMac has rather impressive inbuilt speakers. But getting a good 2.1 or 5.1 speaker system couldn't go a miss.
 

robby818

macrumors 6502a
May 2, 2007
587
6
They are surprisingly good on both my 24" (2008) and 27" imacs. They are both plenty loud enough for most people. The 27" has more mid range and bass which improves the sound quality a tad. I use an old cheap 2.1 Logitech system with my 24" iMac. The 15" unibody MBP is good for a laptop although it has always sounded a little unbalanced to me.
 

newuser2310

macrumors regular
Feb 16, 2010
195
2
if your looking to use logic express, I would recommend some monitors.

You want speakers with a flat frequency response.
 

mr.thedaniel

macrumors regular
Feb 15, 2010
115
0
Just got my new 27". The speakers are great for built-ins. Fine for listening to music or watching a movie at your desk. For any sort of recording, you'll want external monitors. You really should get actual studio monitors, even if they're cheap ones. M-audio and Yamaha both make some decent cheap pairs.
 

Sir Cecil

macrumors 6502a
Mar 31, 2008
793
0
and connect my keyboard directly.. are the internal speakers of the imac enough? or i should buy the imac with some good external speakers?

If you haven't the budget to go for worthwhile monitors, you must at least get a decent pair of studio quality headphones. The Sony 7506 model is sensitive and works well straight out of the headphone socket of the iMac. I think you can get them online for around $80. These will give you sound quality of a level that would cost many hundreds of dollars to achieve with speakers.
 
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