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Macbook pro speakers. Insane.

antcollinet

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Has anyone listened to a recent MacBook pro's speakers. (This is an aprox 18 month old M2 model)

It is insane! How on earth are they doing it? Admittedly this is ultra near field: my head is about 40 cm from the speakers as I type.
(I've been kicked out of our media room as Mrs TC is watching olympic tennis :rolleyes:)

It has no right to sound this good - they have to fit a whole computer and keyboard in there, as well as the speakers!. And the spatial audio is also impressive - sound stage is at least 3x wider than the computer.
 
I concur. Many's the time I stopped to listen to the speakers on my pro before sending the signal off to the streamer and thought it sounded rather good. Here's Computer Audiophile gushing about the same effect on his iPhone of all things - Here. Try a Dolby Atmos selection.
 
Too bad. The Atmos version of Hendrix's Electric Ladyland is jaw dropping.
 
I seem to recall somewhere a discussion where they use DSP and multiple vents and radiating surfaces. Below is a photo of the speaker in an M1. Two per laptop. No direct venting however. Some slots and surfaces that all combine to radiate the sound like they want. I do agree the sound quality is higher than one would expect.
1722366532363.png
 
Too bad. The Atmos version of Hendrix's Electric Ladyland is jaw dropping.
Rumours are that some "I" devices will be getting multi channel passthrough with the next MacOS - eliminating the need for an Apple TV for outputting to an AVR. If this turns out to be the case I may well renew my lapsed subscription.
 
If i understand it correctly, it's MacOS 15 that will be getting the ability to send the lossy version of ATMOS over HDMI to an AVR, so it will be able to do the same as the ATV. What isn't clear is if an app other than Music or ATV on the Mac will be able to tie in to this and send lossless in the same way. I guess we'll know soon enough. Since I have an ATV it won't add much for me since I don't spend a lot of time with my laptop hooked to my AVR via HDMI except when running REW measurements.

And yes, my laptop is a 16" M1 Pro model, and the sound from the speakers is phenomenal. Definitely some magic going on there. The headphone out is also pretty good, all I need for my Senn 700 and Shure 1540. The Dan Clark is the only thing I use an external amp for.
 
it's all in that dsp, I usually measure my laptops speakers and make an eq profile for them. takes like 5 minutes and and apparently that's 5 minutes too much for most laptop manufacturers. Easy peasy for Apple since their product lines are so small.
 
I have a MacBook Pro 14" with the M3 Pro chip. While I use an USB DAC and studio monitors with it, I do agree that the internal speakers sound amazing. I also noticed the same thing with my iPhone 14 Pro speakers. They pretty much sound holographic and the sound extends way past the phone.
 
I seem to recall somewhere a discussion where they use DSP and multiple vents and radiating surfaces. Below is a photo of the speaker in an M1. Two per laptop. No direct venting however. Some slots and surfaces that all combine to radiate the sound like they want. I do agree the sound quality is higher than one would expect.
View attachment 383821
Which bit is the speaker?
 
I have the latest and greatest MacBook pro and the most striking thing (as noted above) is that it doesn't seem like the sound is coming from the speaker perforations!

Apple has its highs and lows, but the sound on this laptop is a high. And the screen. And the speed. The keyboard needs work, IMHO.
 
Another kudos for their design. 16" M1 is a marvellous laptop and sounds well beyond its size. Use it only sometimes on business travel but then it is a live saver.
 
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