Late 2015 iMac 5k 27 Speaker quality?

[guacjack]

Hello,

I'm a long time Mac user however, the last time i owned an iMac was in 2013 then soon after went back to notebooks for the portability, with external speakers for when used at home. I've recently upgraded from my Macbook Pro to the iMac 27inch 5k the one with the R9 M395 2gb graphics chip and just wondered what any other owners though of the speaker quality. Unless its anything with a lot of bass it seems to be fine, but if im listening to any kind of electronic music or just anything with any bass it sounds quite distorted.

I returned the iMac back to the Apple store and i honestly cant fault the service, they swapped the iMac straight away no questions asked, I got home to find the speakers are the same as the first one so i thought maybe its just a wider issue, I called the Apple store again and they told me to come back in, We tested a song with a lot of bass on one of the in-store display iMacs on full blast and to my suprise this was also the same. In total by the end we had tested 4 brand new 5k Late 2015 iMacs and they all had the same quality speakers.

Just wondered if anyone here is experiencing the same issue? I don't remember having this issue with the iMacs i've owned in the past (late 2013 + mid 2010). Im a little paranoid that its just me who sees the issue cause im used to hearing music via external speakers albeit come crappy logitech 2.1 ones as well as the fact ive had the same issue on 4 iMacs now.

Thanks

Jack

 

[varian55zx]

They're built in speaker to an all in one. Ok. I don't know what you were expecting. But they're better than average for their class but not exactly exceptional in terms of every speaker out there.

My speaker system is Logitech Z680 alright from multiple years ago but IMO it transcends home quality, and honestly, rivals professional quality on a certain scale. Sub is better than anything Logitech has put out by a mile. A wide one. Sure it cost me >$500 new but I left in the garage and didn't use it for multiple years. Alright. So it's still good to go.

It's so much better than anything Logitech has in the current times I laughed, IMO. It was funny.

So anyway. The point of my anecdote is if you think of yourself as an audiophile, to ANY extent, you'd just buy new speakers and not rely on the speakers (which are above average) in the all in one to be supreme in any way.

Good luck!

 

[guacjack]

I am by no means an audiophile at all, I literally just werent keen on the distortion on the bass. Just wondered cause the iMac i had from 2 years ago was much better yet still was a slim model.

Cheers for the reply

 

[MadDane]

My personal opinion: Any speaker you find in (almost) any product sucks (pardon my French). From iPad, iPhone, MacBook, iMac, any tv (except for Bang & Olufsen and a Bose) that I have experienced. If you care one bit about sound quality, you should get yourself some external speakers or headphones or whatever.

If the sound distorts, just turn down the volume. That will keep them from distorting.

 

[guacjack]

My personal opinion: Any speaker you find in (almost) any product sucks (pardon my French). From iPad, iPhone, MacBook, iMac, any tv (except for Bang & Olufsen and a Bose) that I have experienced. If you care one bit about sound quality, you should get yourself some external speakers or headphones or whatever.

If the sound distorts, just turn down the volume. That will keep them from distorting.

Yeah, if I turn it down it stops distorting, just a little annoying thats all considering I've never had this problem before on any of my other Apple products. I guess it must just be how all the current year iMacs are considering even the instore iMac did the same.

Cheers for the reply

 

[varian55zx]

Oh ok yeah. Because I've tested some popular studio monitors (don't remember the brand, but it's the one everyone has now) but mine gave it a run for it's money and literally beat the hell out of it in terms of bass (without the subwoofer).

I find it intriguing when I see rave reviews about the bass out of the iMac because really, I don't see it. But my standard is relatively high. I have somewhat of a history in high quality audio. Including many high quality audio systems.

I'd recommend to buy studio monitors or some sort of hi fi speaker if you're looking for the best quality. My sound system was more or less a fluke that Logitech later corrected because it was too high performance for their target market.

But when these die, I'm going studio monitor.

 

[Serban]

The ipad pro and macbook are one class above in their category in term of speakers quality
I think apple will update this year all the rest since they bought beats
Next ones are ipad pro 9.7" the macbooks pro iphone 7 and later the imacs