I'm currently using a first gen white macbook and the speakers are terrible. I've heard that the MBP speakers are a good deal better, but it's impossible to really tell in a noisy Apple store. What have people here found?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How much better are the speakers on the new MBP vs the older white mb?
- Thread starter Whackintosh
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Laptop speakers in general are usually garbage. We have a lot of the white Macbooks here at work and I can tell you first hand they are laughable. I owned a 12" PowerBook and it was very similar.
My new Unibody MacBook Pro sounds much better in comparison to the two above (and MUCH louder) however I can't listen to my music on it for extended periods. I find myself using a good pair of headphones instead.
My new Unibody MacBook Pro sounds much better in comparison to the two above (and MUCH louder) however I can't listen to my music on it for extended periods. I find myself using a good pair of headphones instead.
I own Rev. C white MacBook and UMBP 17". I'm no expert on music or sound, but I'd say the difference in sound quality between them is quite noticeable. Everything sounds deeper and clearer on my UMBP.
That said, I don't think the speakers are good enough to listen to music and whatnot. After all, they're laptops.
That said, I don't think the speakers are good enough to listen to music and whatnot. After all, they're laptops.
I have a white macbook and a 15" unibody MBP sitting side by side right now, and the MBP's speakers are crazy loud compared to the white macbook. While neither of the speakers are great quality, and if you're an audiophile both of them will sound crappy. However, the MBP's speakers are definitely louder.
im using the pre-unibody mbp and i'd say in terms of internal laptop speakers? they do the job well
although i usually listen to music with my UE earphones but i play music when my friends are around, and they are say it's the best laptop speakers they've heard.
although i usually listen to music with my UE earphones but i play music when my friends are around, and they are say it's the best laptop speakers they've heard.It depends on your taste. I would rather put the $50 towards a set of nicer speakers than to buy some software that mimics nicer speakers. Nicer speakers will always sound better than speakers with software that mimics nicer speakers.
Do you mean the 15" or the 17"? I remember thinking how much better the speakers sounded on my blackbook compared to the single speaker on my Thinkpad X30. Then I got a 15" UMBP and found the sound was much better, even though it seemed more sound was coming from the right. Now I think the sound on my 17" is much better than the 15". Yes, you'll notice a difference.
John B.
Toshiba Qosmio pack Harman Kardon (aka JBL Multimedia) loudspeakers and they are outstanding. But I guess this is rather exception confirming the rule. Good loudspeakers require lots of space. Unless your laptop is as think as Toshi Qosmio (which in fact has holes on its back for subwoofer(!)), forget about quality stereo.
I can't compare directly, but I have a feeling that my past iBook G4 loudspeakers' were better than those in my actual UMBP17. I heard that MBPs use some sort of flat speakers but compared to everything else, I'd say MBPs sound relatively good. Just keep headphones your laptop bag and you'd be fine.
P.S. BTW, does anybody have positive experience with Bluetooth headphones (yeas, headphones - not headsets) and Mac OS 10.5?