Soundcards in the Macbook Pros....

[No Regrets]

I was wondering if anybody knew if the sound cards are the same in all MBP's whether they be the 13", 15", or 17".

I'm asking because I like to hook up my laptop to my home stereo at times to play Pandora internet radio. So, I'm wondering when doing this if the sound quality will be the same no matter which MBP I use.

I've listened to the MBP's built in speakers and definitely prefer the 17' MBP speakers the best, but am more concerned about when hooking up the laptop to external speakers at the moment.

Thanks

 

[eagandale4114]

I was wondering if anybody knew if the sound cards are the same in all MBP's whether they be the 13", 15", or 17".

I'm asking because I like to hook up my laptop to my home stereo at times to play Pandora internet radio. So, I'm wondering when doing this if the sound quality will be the same no matter which MBP I use.

I've listened to the MBP's built in speakers and definitely prefer the 17' MBP speakers the best, but am more concerned about when hooking up the laptop to external speakers at the moment.

Thanks

I very much doubt it would be different. I think they use the one boult in on the intel logic board?
Anyways they should be the same.

 

[kjos8035]

I believe they actually are different depending on model, and year for sure. I'm interested as well, as I use both optical and hdmi out on my 2011 17" on a very high end 5.1 system, and I can tell a difference between sound cards and audio bit rates because of it.

 

[negativzero]

The built-in speakers and the line-out/toslink have no relation to each other. If you are aiming to get good sound from hooking your mac up to your stereo, make sure your stereo is good. Otherwise if you're playing music from the built-in speakers, the 15" and 17" are the best.

 

[No Regrets]

I believe they actually are different depending on model, and year for sure. I'm interested as well, as I use both optical and hdmi out on my 2011 17" on a very high end 5.1 system, and I can tell a difference between sound cards and audio bit rates because of it.

So is there a way to find out this info?

For instance, is there a way to look on your computer to see what it is? I'm on a late 2011 13" MBP right now. If you can tell me how to find it on my computer, I would be willing to look and compare that with what you are using.

 

[negativzero]

I believe they actually are different depending on model, and year for sure. I'm interested as well, as I use both optical and hdmi out on my 2011 17" on a very high end 5.1 system, and I can tell a difference between sound cards and audio bit rates because of it.

i don't think the macbook does any decoding when you use the optical or hdmi though so the soundcard shouldn't make a difference. it just acts as a passthrough, your audio system does the decoding.

 

[Freyqq]

So is there a way to find out this info?

For instance, is there a way to look on your computer to see what it is? I'm on a late 2011 13" MBP right now. If you can tell me how to find it on my computer, I would be willing to look and compare that with what you are using.

you could try bootcamping windows and looking at the hardware manager to see the model number of the soundcard

 

[No Regrets]

Just to let you all know what I found out. I just called the online Applestore and they said that all three MBP's use the same sound card.

Thanks for all of the replies.

 

[Interstella5555]

you could try bootcamping windows and looking at the hardware manager to see the model number of the soundcard

Wouldn't the info in About This Mac do the same thing?

 

[heisenberg123]

you could try bootcamping windows and looking at the hardware manager to see the model number of the soundcard

im not on my mac right now but im sure if you click the Apple icon than about this Mac there should be a System Report or something along those lines that breaks down all the hardware