Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Wow, those macbook speakers sure do suck

wow... i entirely forgot i posted this thread...


Anyways, obviously laptop speakers arent ment to be a media center of any kind. However I would expect it to be loud enough to hear alerts and such if I were to sit in a Starbucks filled with people. With the MacBook, I dont think that is going to be happening.


faintember, just remember, ignorance is bliss. Its better that you not waste your energy or time on people like him.
 
again, the core issue here guys is that the sound issue on the MacBook (presently) is ONLY in MacOS. The sound is more then adaquite (and quite nice) in Windows. I hope we'll see a firmware/software update for this, as it is clearly and issue with MacOS and NOT with the speakers themselves.
 
i can't hear you...

sound is not adequate to listen to a movie from even a foot away. music is almost inaudible...
 
Well everyone will agree laptop speakers sound quality leaves a LOT to be desired (but we all can understand).

The problem is that the speakers are way too soft. To everybody saying to get headphones or external speakers, etc.

There are a lot of situations where whipping out a pair of headphones and attaching a cord would be inhibiting. If you're sitting on your couch with your MacBook, you're not going to pull out a pair of headphones to watch a 20 second video on YouTube... you'll depend on the internals.

I don't see what the argument is really -- we all can agree the speakers volume needs to be boosted via software update.
 
I would really plonk down cash for a new MB, my laptop 12" G4 has a screen which doesn't work and a optical drive which doesn't burn media. I want to replace it and for the price of the MB i'm prepared to just buy it now on impluse but the speakers are holding me back.

The 12" speakers still work and they are so good. I freaked when I heard my room mates 15" windows laptop and the speakers were really dire. I don't know what I really have infront of me. Maybe I should spend the 400 pound to fix this and keep it for longer!

600 vs 400. Hmmm.
 
Is the MBP 17" loudspeaker better then the 15" MBP, or is it the same loudspeaker on bouth?
 
I haven't heard the MB speakers in over a year (the last time I was at an Apple Store) but I know they can't be worse than the speakers in my iBook. I think they bring a new definition to the word bad. I mean even the speakers from my 3.5 year old HP are better than the iBook. I guess i'm used to my JBL Creatures hooked up to my Dell and my JBL Duets hooked up to the other Dell ;)
 
I had a dirt cheap $500-after-rebate Compaq laptop a while back, bought as a temporary system for reasons I shan't go into.

It had the best laptop speakers I've ever heard. Decent volume, and sounded very nice -- for a laptop, obviously. I also liked the positioning of them, along the front of the machine. Of course, it was a lot thicker than Macs, which might have helped.

Much better than the MBPs, sadly (at least in OS X. Can't say I've heard an MBP in Windows).
 
wako said:
So today while I was forced to goto the mall, i went to mac store while everyone else was buying their crap.

I was toying around with a 2.0 white macbook and surfing around on youtube just looking at random videos (had to watch the mac saber battles!). The volume was at the max and I could already barely hear the videos.

Then some guy across from me with a macbookpro 17'' starts listening to some rap music and TOTALLY cancels out all my sound. Could not hear a thing! I even tried putting my ear up to the MB and was only barely making out the sound.

The equivalent (in my opinion) of the macbook max setting on sound was like my a 12'' PowerBook with 6 bars!
Click to expand...

Thanks for a good laugh there. :D

Because you are absolutely correct! For the month or two I had the MacBook, I found the speakers on them really pathetic as compared to my 12" PowerBook. For this reason, I will stay away from the consumer line laptops, and stick with the Pro series.
 
I do not know about MacBook speakers themselves, but the speakers on my MBP are miles ahead of the speakers that were in my Ti PowerBook.:D

I remember my iBook having ok speakers. I thought they were ok for laptop speakers. you should compare the two, The ibook and the Macbook.
 
very quiet

Maybe the volume level varies a little from computer to computer, but the speakers on my Macbook (2.0 GHz) are very quiet. They are definitely much quieter than my previous iBook G4's and my MacBook Pro. I would expect the Macbook speakers to be quieter than the Pro's, but they should at least be on par with the iBook. Unless I am in a perfectly quiet room, I cannot hear videos or music hardly at all and that really is unacceptable. I don't expect them to be loud, but they I should be able to hear them! Even when leaning in, they are often barely audible. I think a lot of the problem is that the speakers on the Macbook output at the hinge and that just seems really stupid. I know it's a small computer and there's a space issue, but I've honestly heard speakerphones on cell phones that are twice as loud. I sure hope there will be a software update to help with this, but I'm not sure if that's even a realistic fix. I haven't installed BootCamp/Windows yet, but I'm really interested to see if it's any louder on my computer as some other people said it was on their computers.
 
i have noticed that the inbuilt MacBook speakers are pretty crap...very low max volume and a very tinny noise (although the volume is only an issue when there's lots of people making noise around (ala a mall, see first post)

software patch won't fix this as it is a physics issue, speakers that small struggle to make any noise at all...but it's not meant to compete with the pro so stop complaining...i have:D
 
Genghis Khan said:
software patch won't fix this as it is a physics issue, speakers that small struggle to make any noise at all...but it's not meant to compete with the pro so stop complaining...i have:D
Click to expand...

if it really is a physics issues, which Im sure it is, why is it that the 12'' PowerBook was able to pump out more volume than the 13'' MacBook? The PowerBook speakers are almost the same size as that of the 12'' PowerBook. It leads me to believe that Apple just took a cheaper route, that is why I complain.


It is interesting to see my almost year old thread be resurrected. Living with my MacBook for almost a year now, I have already past a point in where I have given up on the built in speakers. I have attached my speaker system to my MacBook so I almost never use the built in speaker. :)
 
The speakers are fine. If you're comparing laptop speakers, you're essentially comparing crap and s***.

Dont Hurt Me said:
I dont know about the speakers but any machine with integrated graphics has to suck, thats just how i see it speakers included.
Click to expand...

You managed to slip in an irrelevent jab about integrated graphics into a thread about sound. Wow......I'm amazed at how far down some people will go to get their point across.
 
Genghis Khan said:
software patch won't fix this as it is a physics issue, speakers that small struggle to make any noise at all...but it's not meant to compete with the pro so stop complaining...i have:D
Click to expand...

You're ignoring the point that some people have said the volume is louder via Windows in Bootcamp than under OSX, meaning it's likely to be a software issue.

Probably Apple being cautious and not wanting to have to repair anybody's blown speakers.

Do it under Bootcamp and you're on your own.
 
benthewraith said:
This is true....when I ran Boot Camp, the volume which I normally use in OS X is lower than when I run it in Windows. I had to turn down the Windows volume cuz it was sooooo loud. :(
Click to expand...

same here. i have a MB Pro and the speakers suck! When i started running windows xp, the volume was suddenly so loud.

i dont get it!
 
Josias said:
I like my MB speakers. Perhaps they don't go as loud as the MBP's, but they have better bass than PB/iBook G4, and go loud enough.:cool:
Click to expand...

My MBP is much quieter than my wife's iBook G4. Shame really, because the sound is better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back