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Macbook Pro subwoofer

alphaod

alphaod

macrumors Core
Original poster
Feb 9, 2008
22,194
1,260
NYC
So I took apart my 17" MBP today to upgrade the HDD, replace the thermal paste (which they used enough for like 10 CPUs).

I noticed the 4 speakers which is nice and the subwoofer.

Now is there a way I can tune the subwoofer to boost the bass?
 
alphaod said:
I noticed the 4 speakers which is nice and the subwoofer.
Click to expand...

there are only two speakers EDIT: as bartelby points out this is not true on the 17" there are four speakers

the two red almost circles, ignore the yellow square that was already on the pic
 

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squeeks said:
hmm, interesting, i assumed they used basically the same logic board, its still not a subwoofer though;)
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Odd because the 15" Powerbooks had them.
pbal15spks.jpg

This assembly includes the left, right & sub-woofer speakers, the microphone and associated cabling. The unit connects to the DC-in/sound card via a single connector.
Click to expand...

But the 17" Powerbooks didn't.
 
that one looks a bit more like a subwoofer notice how the woofer is concave insted of convex, they do that a lot with subwoofers, but i cant imagine a speaker that small being useful as a subwoofer at all, it might be that its specifically for lower frequencies and they devoted all of the higher range, say 1000mhz up to the smaller tweeters, and used that for anything below, where as now a days they just send all of the signal to all of the speakers

this thread talks about subwoofers in the macbook
 
It looks like the Powerbook had a tweeter+woofer setup, which would theoretically sound better but didn't get very loud from what I've heard. With the 17" MBP Apple went with two of the same size drivers to maximize volume output (each driver only has to work 1/2 as hard). But yeah, I didn't see a subwoofer when I took my 17" apart.

The subwoofer on the Dell 17 inchers are a joke anyway. Also, Apple did a pretty good job with letting the MBP enclosure itself provide some low end. Notice the bass drops off if you lift the MBP off of a flat hard surface.
 
rezonat0r said:
The subwoofer on the Dell 17 inchers are a joke anyway. Also, Apple did a pretty good job with letting the MBP enclosure itself provide some low end. Notice the bass drops off if you lift the MBP off of a flat hard surface.
Click to expand...

That actually occurs with any sort of speaker to a degree, it's a natural function of how sound waves bounce. Put a speaker in a corner, for example, and you can get significant (+6 db not uncommon) increases in low frequencies as compared to in the middle of the wall. Cool that it can be noticed in a laptop, though :)
 
I bought the 15" Macbook Pro i5 which was advertised with subwoofers. 15" Macbook Pro i5 (check the specs). I loaded a song with some very low frequencies and, admittedly, it sounded way better than the old PC notebook I have, but I didn't really appreciate the bass. I thought, like some of you guys, how can such small speakers put out that kind of sound?
Then I plugged in my cheap old headphones whose speakers can't be any bigger and wondered why such a difference? The sound was amazing from the headphones.
I dunno what to think.
 
So why would it be listed in the specs? And why would cheap headphones sound so much better?
If little headphones can sound great, why shouldn't I expect it from a laptop as promoted?
 
My gf had one of the toshiba laptops with Harmon Kardon speakers. It was a nasty bulky thing but damn it sounded fantastic, similar performance to a decent ipod dock. Not sure if it had a sub, but there was proper bass coming out of it.
 
Actually the MBP has the subwoofer, but only 2 speakers not four.
here is an excerpt from an apple kb article,
Products Affected

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)
Resolution

This MacBook Pro uses a sub-woofer speaker in addition to the left and right speakers to enhance the midrange sound characteristics.

There are no settings in the Sound pane of System Preferences to adjust the subwoofer speaker independently of the left and right speakers. Increasing and decreasing the system volume adjusts the left, right, and subwoofer speakers at the same time. The subwoofer is located to the right of the spacebar (shown by the arrow in the picture below). The locations of other speakers are highlighted in the picture below.
Click to expand...

here is the full kb article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3336
 
Wow old thread. Doesn't looks like they changed a bit with regards to the thermal paste! Still way too much.
 
alphaod said:
Wow old thread. Doesn't looks like they changed a bit with regards to the thermal paste! Still way too much.
Click to expand...

LOL!!! i didn't see the date!!! it's quite old!!! like a bloody vampire waking up after a long slumber!

anyways new KB article updated 30th april 2010
 
How to turn off the sub woofer.

I have, for a long time, been trying to get back the wide sound I had on my 2008 MBP this new one sucks, You cannot get a left channel from the internal speakers, Although it says stereo speakers, Its not stereo sound, due to the sub woofer , So I was thinking , if i could turn this thing off,

I would get back true Stereo, Apple mack really need to go one of those chat shows, Like on the spot, And answer to the public , And we should get a re bate for the stupid super drive and this None stereo sound. They conned us with.

Any one know how to resolve this , With out buying external speakers?
I have down loaded and played Stereo test sound and sub woofer demos,
the sub woofer does give some poof off sound, Not much to get exited about. You just google sub woofer sound test . Appreciate any refection on this.
 
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Adidas Addict said:
My gf had one of the toshiba laptops with Harmon Kardon speakers. It was a nasty bulky thing but damn it sounded fantastic, similar performance to a decent ipod dock. Not sure if it had a sub, but there was proper bass coming out of it.
Click to expand...

Yes it has a little subwoofer in the bottom of it, I used to have one.
 
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