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rMBP sound quality

U

UBS28

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 2, 2012
2,893
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I have a pair of Shure SE535 in ear monitors but they have a hissing sound if I put them in the headphone out on my MBP. I can solve by overriding the headphone out, but I don't like carrying an other device just for listening to some music on my MBP.

How is the quality of the rMBP? If I use low impedance in ear monitors like a Shure SE535, I won't experience hiss?
 
The DAC is part of the same Cirrus Logic solution they've been using for several years now and could best be described as 'nothing special'. The chip in the rMBP is the same one as they've been using since 2010. I can hear a bit of hiss with even cheap headphones.
 
The speakers are a huge improvement over the old Pro. If you're an audiophile you will want to get a USB DAC and maybe a headphone amp.
 
Yep, that's the part that Apple really could (and should) improve across their devices line-up. I wait for those improvements during every conference they do and always stay with nothing.
 
robvas said:
The speakers are a huge improvement over the old Pro. If you're an audiophile you will want to get a USB DAC and maybe a headphone amp.
Click to expand...

Agreed on the speakers. Stereo differentiation is better, distortion is negligible even at high volumes and frequency response is great across the high-to-mid (no bass to speak of, but these are notebook speakers).

Just kind of a shame that they stuck with the same CL audio chip as the past 3 generations.
 
As for the speakers... they are the best sounding laptop speakers I've ever heard.
 
Just reiterating, audio ports are the same. I'm an audio engineer and, yes, just get external hardware.
However, the speakers are mind-blowing for a machine of these dimensions. Huge difference from the previous generation. You honestly can't believe such a sound comes from a laptop...and a thin one too!
 
dark knight said:
Just reiterating, audio ports are the same. I'm an audio engineer and, yes, just get external hardware.
However, the speakers are mind-blowing for a machine of these dimensions. Huge difference from the previous generation. You honestly can't believe such a sound comes from a laptop...and a thin one too!
Click to expand...

I was at the Apple Store drooling over the 15" retina about 6 months ago when I had a thought. The Apple laptops have never been loud enough. I've owned 5 of these things, and have never been close to being satisfied. So I decided to put the newest cMBP next to the rMBP, I went to YouTube and brought up identical Rolling Stones videos. On the cMBP I could barely hear it, as the Apple store is very loud, on the rMBP it was blaring so loud people were all looking at me and I was asked to turn it down after a while. I'm blown away by the sound on this machine, even with the loss of bass that has been compromised due to the thinning of the machine (Enough Apple-If I want a thinner laptop I'll buy an Air)
 
I'm afraid i can't comment on the 13" rMBP.
Having had the cMBP in both sizes, most people would agree that the sound was just as poor as you would expect. Certainly the 15" cMBP even had a speaker rattle that most people seemed to experience. 15" rMBP is great.

The most annoying thing i find about the ports, on any MBP, is that you can hear the audio device power up and down as it saves power. And as mentioned, when active, it is quite noisy. If you need ins/outs, sound quality etc Just go external.
 
This is a common issue with the electric current passing through the DAC.

It cannot be fix with software, since it's a hardware issue.

What I did to fix it is to buy one of those volume control and put them on low volume to lower down the hiss. At the same time turn up the volume on your computer. This way you can lower or remove the hiss while not sacrificing anything else.
 
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