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Is it possible to BLOW the 15" Macbook Pro 2011 Speakers?

R

randomrazr

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2011
1,209
1
I dunno about everyone eles, but i think the speakers on the 15inch macbook are decent and loud for laptop speakers. I dotn use my external speakers to often (there harman kardon soundsticks) cause my mom gets pissed when i play to loud.

anyways miley cyrus and some JB sound awesome on the 15inch macbook pro speakers. (LOL jk)

My question is, i always play them to the max and they sound decent to me, is it bad to play them loud all the time? can i blow them? will the vibrations from the speakers screw up the harddrive or any other moving parts in the macbook?
 
I've NEVER heard of laptop speakers blowing and causing damage to internal components, especially not because they were played loud. So, although I can't comment on the 2011 15" MBP's, I wouldn't say it's too big a concern.
 
randomrazr said:
I dunno about everyone eles, but i think the speakers on the 15inch macbook are decent and loud for laptop speakers. I dotn use my external speakers to often (there harman kardon soundsticks) cause my mom gets pissed when i play to loud.

anyways miley cyrus and some JB sound awesome...
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You haven't lived until you've blasted Rebecca Black's Friday through your MBP! Just set it to repeat and turn it up all the way! ;-)


-P
 
i think rebecca blacks friday song would kill my speakers rtaher than blow them lol
 
all in all though guys, is it possible to ruin the speakers or macbook playing them max out?
 
randomrazr said:
all in all though guys, is it possible to ruin the speakers or macbook playing them max out?
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I'm new to Macs, but in my over 20 years experience with fixing computers (i'm about to turn 41 this May), I've never, not once had to replace laptop speakers. Ever.

The components in laptops are selected after thorough consideration of the entire machine's focus. I mean there is not much space in there at all, these things are engineered tight so all the components must co-exist in harmony.

No, it is my professional opinion that you cannot blow the built-in speakers on a laptop without some sort of modification. Day to day use, even at full blast will not harm them at all.
 
However, listening to some of the crap music suggestions posted in this thread will cause you to wish they had blown out.
 
on a dell and a toshiba laptop that i had whenever i played music loudly the music would skip for some strange reason... dunno if that was to due with insufficient processing power or ram or what but it was very annoying. the dell i could understand but the toshiba had harmon kardon speakers so you'd think it could play music at full blast

my current macbook pro is fine with playing music loudly but if i am doing something in the background it can skip too. i dunno why i'm so unlucky with music and laptops :mad:
 
edifyingGerbil said:
on a dell and a toshiba laptop that i had whenever i played music loudly the music would skip for some strange reason... dunno if that was to due with insufficient processing power or ram or what but it was very annoying. the dell i could understand but the toshiba had harmon kardon speakers so you'd think it could play music at full blast

my current macbook pro is fine with playing music loudly but if i am doing something in the background it can skip too. i dunno why i'm so unlucky with music and laptops :mad:
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did u take it back to get it checked or replacedm?
 
randomrazr said:
did u take it back to get it checked or replacedm?
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toshiba took it back a few times and replaced various things including, strangely, the cd drive...

as for the macbook, the one i currently own works wonderfully apart from that one slight annoyance. i don't listen to music much anyway but it's odd that i should be so unlucky with music/laptops lol

i don't even know what would cause it tbh, i'm getting more RAM anyway so i'll see if that sorts it out (not because of the skipping music of course)
 
It's probably not possible for you to blow the internal by playing them too loud because Apple would make sure that the Amp isn't powerful enough to do so and may even go so far as to put additional software limits in their volume controls or device drivers. Playing your computer at any given volume is considered a normal use, so they'd have to pay a fortune in warranty fees if they didn't do things right and people caught wind of it. It might be possible for you to destroy any and all parts of the computer if you drop it or similarly abuse it in some other fashion but that's way different than what you're talking about, I do so believe. It's probably going to remain stationary when playing music, right?
 
There is no way you can blow the speakers because by default you cant turn the volume loud enough, but Selena Gomez is much prettier than those other singers you mentioned.
 
I miss my laptop speakers from my old 17". The 15" is decent but looses a lote more full range once you turn it up. Given it is only a laptop but when you get used to the 17....
 
YES you can blow laptop speakers. They are configured so the POWER does NOT blow them, but DISTORTION CAN blow speakers even when being used below their max operating load. This is usually how factory car speakers are blown. This also depends on the design of the speaker to handle THD.

You can blow any speakers, but the odds of blowing those in the MBP are probably small given at full volume the distortion is only moderate. Also, laptop speakers are made knowing they will sound like crap and distort.

Finally, no, the vibration from your laptop speakers will not harm your computer as the vibration they make is nothing...it's high and mid only. With that said, bass will DESTROY things. I once had a car that had one of the most powerful subwoofers of its time (Kicker Solo X (12)), and over the period of a year, the car began to rattle, creak, and bolts and screws were coming lose and falling out. License plates became loose, my spoiler almost fell off, the window lost its waterproofing and more. My buddy had an even larger subwoofer and he literally destroyed at least 15 phones in under a year. So vibration can destroy your computer, but not unless you are talking about some serious base that you won't get unless you are an audophile.

And yes, bass has been known to outright destroy hard disk drives if they are operating at the time when exposed to bass.

Finally, large, higher end, speakers have very powerful magnets in them and this can affect electronics in a negative fashion as well.
 
NickZac said:
YES you can blow laptop speakers. They are configured so the POWER does NOT blow them, but DISTORTION CAN blow speakers even when being used below their max operating load. This is usually how factory car speakers are blown. This also depends on the design of the speaker to handle THD.

You can blow any speakers, but the odds of blowing those in the MBP are probably small given at full volume the distortion is only moderate. Also, laptop speakers are made knowing they will sound like crap and distort.

Finally, no, the vibration from your laptop speakers will not harm your computer as the vibration they make is nothing...it's high and mid only. With that said, bass will DESTROY things. I once had a car that had one of the most powerful subwoofers of its time (Kicker Solo X (12)), and over the period of a year, the car began to rattle, creak, and bolts and screws were coming lose and falling out. License plates became loose, my spoiler almost fell off, the window lost its waterproofing and more. My buddy had an even larger subwoofer and he literally destroyed at least 15 phones in under a year. So vibration can destroy your computer, but not unless you are talking about some serious base that you won't get unless you are an audophile.

And yes, bass has been known to outright destroy hard disk drives if they are operating at the time when exposed to bass.

Finally, large, higher end, speakers have very powerful magnets in them and this can affect electronics in a negative fashion as well.
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the 15inch macbooks do have a sub woofer inthem, but im assuming, not eough to do any harm?

when i play songs on itunes at max, and put my palms on the macbook, i can kinda feel it vibrating, or rattling.
 
Yes of course you can blow the speakers but it is very hard to do on laptops. All you have to do is clip the amp that is built in to the laptop which will then damage the speakers. With day to day use its not going to happen but with the right signal and and amplitude its definitely possible.
 
randomrazr said:
the 15inch macbooks do have a sub woofer inthem, but im assuming, not eough to do any harm?

when i play songs on itunes at max, and put my palms on the macbook, i can kinda feel it vibrating, or rattling.
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No the 'subwoofer' in the MBP is a joke. The MBP speakers are probably 2-3 watts absolute max, with a continuous power of less than 1 watt...and I am being generous. They couldn't hurt a dust mite. Real subwoofers move a lot of air and cause destructive vibration. In comparison, the subwoofer in my car was rated to well over 1,500 watts, and some production subwoofers are over 10,000. You start setting off most car alarms at about 1,000 watts in garages and after you are passing the 3,000-6,000 barrier, you better reinforce your car or home, as it can break glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQPaeaRoniE&playnext=1&list=PLB7004EAA75AA1EA7
 
Mix said:
Yes of course you can blow the speakers but it is very hard to do on laptops. All you have to do is clip the amp that is built in to the laptop which will then damage the speakers. With day to day use its not going to happen but with the right signal and and amplitude its definitely possible.
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So then for all intents and purposes its not a yes its a no.

You said you have to clip the amp right? Well you can't! The built in amp, like all modern consumer amps, and like stock sound systems in cars, have limiters that are rated for such safety.

First of all, any standard professional mastered song does not have clipping or frequencies that could cause such damage, you would need to be outputting raw samples that are designed with damaging a speaker in mind. It would have to be something straight out of a DAW and is compressed so hard at unhealthy frequencies with no limiters that after a sustained period it would cause damage pushing the speaker way beyond its boundaries. The OP is just listening to Disney Pop stars.

Second, you would need to bypass the internal amp which I am sure is protected or somehow brick-walled against such spaz-ing and yod have to somehow output more wattage to those laptop speakers than what is normally possible.

Considering the unlikely scenario and the hoops you'd have to jump through to have the risk of this even be physically possible, the answer might as well be a simple no.
 
You're welcome to call me a liar, but I had to get a replacement base model 2011 15" because a week after I got it a random web music player blasted a ridiculously loud mp3 over the internal speakers and the sound was noticeably distorted and lower volume after that. So I'd say you can, but I've also never had that happen on previous macbooks.
 
Bkraft said:
You're welcome to call me a liar, but I had to get a replacement base model 2011 15" because a week after I got it a random web music player blasted a ridiculously loud mp3 over the internal speakers and the sound was noticeably distorted and lower volume after that. So I'd say you can, but I've also never had that happen on previous macbooks.
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I believe you...The odds of it blowing from working factory settings is small though. It likely had a manufacturing defect or some type of surge. It can happen, especially since the speakers used in these things are usually not highest quality components.
 
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