It's crazy how we all have these pre-set assumptions that other people live the same lifestyles we do. I don't know anyone of my family and friends who use headphones for anything, with the exception of my extended family cousins who are teenagers.
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Why sacrifice so Much space for Speakers ? Pics
- Thread starter TheRealAlex
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So true, I only use mine when the wife starts giving me the evil eye for my music being too loud
Or when I'm out with the dog sometimes.
Are you involved in the professional music business? Most music "demos" are recorded with the same fidelity as those produced by professional studios, and we're not necessarily even talking about that minimal level of submission. Often a musician gets one shot at pitching a song, and if it's on a low quality speakers, that's going to have an impact on how the music is heard. All the music professionals I know give the courtesy of listening to the music the way it was produced, regardless of the source -- over a high quality sound system.
The "professional" music production company owner has already admitted that "Having good quality sound is a requirement of my main device." If all he's doing is initially listening to poor quality rough demos for things like words and melody, then he doesn't need "good quality sound". As far as most people are concerned, I seriously doubt the iPad is the preferred method of listening to music. So if the goal is to hear an initial rough demo the way most people listen to it, then there are already a few problems with that -- one, most people aren't listening to rough demos at all, they are listening to fully produced songs, and two, most people are going to listen to music on their headphones, portable bluetooth speakers, through aux jacks on their home stereos, or in their car audio systems. All of which are far superior to any iPad speaker system.
The speakers in the iPad Pro are designed to enhance watching cat videos on YouTube, not to aid in the critical listening of professional audio, or even merely passively enjoying all the music has to offer.
Depends on what you mean by "good".
When the new macbook first came out this forum was flooded by people astounded by how good and loud those tiny speakers were.
I suppose it's "good" taken in context to the device producing the sound. As opposed to good compared to a 10K home HiFi setup.
I personally think that's where many people get all worked up over nothing, a sensible person would realise that the "context" part of the equation is the important part. And in context, the iPad Pro (although I can personally only speak for the 12.9") produces some of the best sound to be heard from a tablet so thin and relatively speaking, small.
(Yes, I do consider the Pro small for the screen size, it's a personal opinion and compared to some devices I've carried around with smaller screens, it's definitely more compact. Bla, blah, iSheep, apologist, whatever anyone wants to think of someone liking an Apple product, god forbid. Yes I'm waffling because my medication has kicked in, let the nonsense roll on
)A stereo mix heard on headphones is going to sound diferent than a stereo mix heard on proper speakers, too.
As for "cat videos on youtube", though, I should really start collecting these sorts of sneers. Must start putting the hoi-polloi in their place!
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Good sound is something you would get from a traditional high end speaker system. On a device like an iPad I'm happy with clear reproduction and imperceptible distortion at an audible volume. Built-in device speakers are utilitarian and should be implemented that way. But again, my point of my post is that 4 tiny speakers do not by shear number sound 2x better than 2 tiny speakers.
I have a 2 month old. I have my headphones in all the time, either b/c he's sleeping or b/c he doesn't need to hear what I'm watching.
Of course, and many of these "Garage Band" mixes are mixed that way. And every set of headphones, and every speakers system and every amp is going to reproduce it somewhat differently. But in terms of "professional" music, the iPad speakers don't even begin to enter into the realm, however good they may be compared to other thin/flat mobile devices. That's my only point here.
It's true, it does have it's benefits. I used to (quite literally) curse my iPad Air 2 at times for it's lower than I'd like volume. So I purchased an portable BlueTooth speaker, which is actually really good and indeed still better than the iPad Pro.
But now that I've upgraded to the Pro, I find the audio from it more than acceptable, so the BlueTooth speaker is relegated to shower duties.
Indeed merely doubling the count of drivers will not in and of itself improve the quality of the audio beyond volume levels. However, Apple didn't just slap two extra speakers in. They completely redesigned the speakers to provide far more capable drivers, they machined carbon fibre capped resonance chambers into the body and they created an entirely new subsystem to control the audio. Does any of that make it high fidelity? Of course not, no-one in their right mind would claim so surely? But does it offer an improvement over the iPad Air? Yes, significantly so.
Here's a little photo comparing the entire speaker setup of an iPad Air 2, to a single driver and chamber of an iPad Pro. Why? Just for anyone who hasn't already seen it (is there anyone who hasn't seen it by now?) and I like piccies
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I'm not sure about audio snobbery, but my test for a usable speaker is this. Can it reproduce the deep baritones associated with NPR without falling to pieces, and at a usable volume? That's the ind of thing I like to listen to on my ipad, in my kitchen, while cooking. Headphones get in the way, and the spatter of oil necessitates a certain loudness.
And frankly that's a hard test for any small speaker, much less one that's embedded in a tablet. (I use proper stereo speakers with my imac.)
And frankly that's a hard test for any small speaker, much less one that's embedded in a tablet. (I use proper stereo speakers with my imac.)
Heh. If by "audio snob" you mean realist, yes. Science is science. Marketing is marketing. BTW do note in my original post I mentioned using $40 headphones or speakers. Pretty sure any true audiophile would wince at the thought.
I always look at photo's like this and see how tiny the logic board it, and it always makes me wonder.
What would it be like if there were say 2 or 3 CPU/GPU's in there (there is space for them) all working in tandem.
It's a shame more computing power could not be put there, Multiple CPU's and GPU's are not really done much these days and never on mobile devices.
What would it be like if there were say 2 or 3 CPU/GPU's in there (there is space for them) all working in tandem.
It's a shame more computing power could not be put there, Multiple CPU's and GPU's are not really done much these days and never on mobile devices.
I will just reply in the same manner.
Apple never does things simply to look good on a spec sheet (grand claim with no proof). They still have 2gb ram and after all these years they still keep the MP down on their cameras, because they try to improve the user experience, not the spec sheet (semi-accurate argument to back up my dubious first statement).
4 speakers will be louder and clearer than two speakers if calibrated well, because each speaker has less to do and each driver had less audio frequencies to output.
I think it's a dying configuration these days, instead of putting multiple components they combine it into a single package. Which is basically why we have multi-core CPUs and GPUs with anything up to hundreds of cores (I'm just talking in general there.)
But yeah, it would still be technically possible but it would eat the battery so fast they'd have to increase the capacity by so much that the devices would be much thicker and much heavier. No chance of that with Apple
I think it's a dying configuration these days, instead of putting multiple components they combine it into a single package. Which is basically why we have multi-core CPUs and GPUs with anything up to hundreds of cores (I'm just talking in general there.)
But yeah, it would still be technically possible but it would eat the battery so fast they'd have to increase the capacity by so much that the devices would be much thicker and much heavier. No chance of that with Apple
Just annoying am iPad goes "so fast" then you look at the tiny processing board in the middle.
Really makes me wish there could be more COMPUTING in there.
First to say Apple never does things purely for marketing isn't being honest. I give you Live Photos off the top of my head. Cool but not really a useful feature and quite ignored after launch. It was mostly something for reviewers to say was new over the 6.
Second, 4 speakers is NOT necessarily louder and clearer than 2. It has nothing to do with calibration - that isn't even a speaker function as speakers are "dumb" devices. Moreover, speakers are independent of each other not sharing a work load. Independence is what stereo, and other multi channel audio is about. It's why when you listen to a song you might hear guitar on the right and drums on the left. Or if watching a movie a helicopter in the background, sounds of running going left to right and gun fight center screen. More speakers don't lower the amount of work each speaker has to do. The L has its job, the R it's.
Loudness and clarity, aside from the physical design of the speaker, depends on an external power source. So 4x2w obviously isn't going to be as loud as 2x5w. In the iPad Pro's case Apple is silent on whether the power in the Pro 9.7 have the same rating as the Air2 or if they increased them. The spec sheet just says 4 speakers. If it's the same power rating then less power is going into each speaker but the total output is the same.
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/loudspeakers.html
Have you not read a single review or played with the iPad Pro yourself? The speakers are widely accepted as better and louder than iPad Air 2, and the best in class.
Exactly - Best in class. There are workhorse tugboats, there are palatial yachts. The 9.7 Pro as a work tool is a tugboat with speakers to match. They are the best speakers ever put in a tugboat.
Yes, I've read the reviews. Here's the one that counts from the respected Arstechnica and capsulates everything I've said about speakers here (underline and italics are mine for emphasis):
No.. That contradicts everything you said. They are saying the speakers are better.
Sorry, you are wrong-o. Stop trolling and read all my posts in this thread and the points each was making -- yes, start with the first.
Also I never wrote the Pro speakers were not better than the Air2. I said Apple was silent on specifications about the Pro speakers other than there were four of them. #readingcomprehension.