Discoloration of Speaker Area

I have this as well. The Arstechnica review picture shows it very well. However on mine it covers both speaker grills except for what looks like a thumb print as Logan810 is describing. The two speakers are mirror images of each other as far as that goes, with the "thumbprint" closest to the keyboard on each side.

I originally thought this was just some dust or debris from the foam pad covering the keyboard that it ships with. A few days later it was bothering me so I took a microfiber cloth and thought I would wipe it away. To my surprise it did not wipe away no matter how much I scrubbed.

Closer inspection seems to indicate that the aluminum surface is randomly graded in different directions causing the light to reflect differently. It looks unsightly and is unfortunate because in my area of use it is always visible. I do notice in very bright light it cannot be seen at all. That is I think because light is coming from all angles.

Dampening a cloth I thought I had removed it, but as soon as the moisture evaporated from the heat it was back. The moisture on the metal put a new layer of reflectivity over it that refracted the light in an even way.

I suspect this is a "flaw" in the new manufacturing technique that will probably be remedied in future revisions. I would imagine that those of us with these new machines are stuck with it.

One person said they put petroleum jelly on their speaker grills and that fixed it. I'm not going to be doing that any time soon, but coating it with anything like that would, again, cause a light refraction that would make the mottled appearance "go away".

'Course maybe I'm totally wrong about all this but this is my assessment.

The "thumbprint" areas do not have any such refractive "flaw". I kind of wish it was all or nothing just so it would look even. If you take a look from different angles you will see the "dust" effect change places on the grill, because you are catching the reflections from different angles. Why areas like the "thumbprint" on Logan810's and my machine are clear and the rest isn't I can't imagine.

hi yeah i have it too really bad on the left speaker. i work with audio and generaly use an external soundcard, however when i came to use the internal speakers today i noticed the one with the white powder look to it (left side) sounds completly diffrent to the right hand side. i would check to see if your computers have this problem, i too thought oh well no big deal when i first saw the marks, but now in my case it looks like a return job 😟

if you think you may need to do an audio test on your internal speakers try this:

open system prefs > sound > output

use the balance control to check left and right speakers by moving the balance control slider hard left and hard right.

i'll put a link to a 1kHz test tone below. its not a pleasant sound but its a good way to identify if the speakers are working properly.

when you play the sound in the link do the balance test to hear if everything is ok

the results from my machines internal speakers are very noticeable, dull on the left bright on the right. nightmare!

looks like i will have to send it back for repair and I've only had it a week!

let me know how you get on guys thanks
michael

http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/tone/files/1kHz44100Hz_16bit05sec.mp3

I have the same issue with my late 2008 Macbook Pro. Some people call it "dusty" speakers or "watermarked" speakers. Looks similar to the photo from the arstechnica review of the Macbook Pro. http://media.arstechnica.com/journals/apple.media/macbook_bioshock.jpg

I found an existing discussion of this same issue on the Macrumors forum. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=586417

I have not been able to remove the "dustiness" and only really see this issue when looking at an angle. Hopefully there will be a fix for this issue.

-David

Does the blotchiness that everyone else has include a darker thumb print/ oval shape on each speaker? Mine does. The photo you show in the arstechnica review has this same thumb print pattern. Mine was visible immediately when it was taken out of the box. Where have you heard to this referred to as dusty or watermarked speakers? Also if I pay close attention when I rub my fingers accross the speakers it feels prickly in a few areas.

Your thoughts…
-Logan

If you guys look HARD enough, this discoloration is not limited to the speaker grill. It's found all over the body. You need a desk light to really see it though, and only in certain angles. The speaker grill admittedly has it worse, but the same discoloration blotches is found randomly throughout the body. Its annoying and not pleasing to find. But then again, no body you're showing the mac to is going to look that hard or notice it.

Same here. It's how it was manufactured. No big deal.

Has anyone contacted Apple about this? If so, what was their response?