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Macbook Pro Speakers are built wrong

Does anyone else find it extremely annoying that the Macbook Pro essentially has two right speakers? This makes listening to music and using the speakers nearly impossible. Why would they put both speakers on the right side of the computer? This is a 2000$ laptop I purchased for doing professional video and sound editing... obviously the majority of the time I'll be using speakers and headphones, but every so often I need to demo something quick. This configuration is noticeably terrible and sub par.

Macbook Pro 15 Unibody, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 20, 2009 2:05 AM

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103 replies

Apr 20, 2009 4:45 PM in response to Chris8535

I don't intend to take my computer apart to verify your claim. If you've done so, please post photos of the speakers in place.

Nothing whatsoever that I hear suggests that the left speaker is anywhere except directly beneath the left speaker grille. The left-right balance control in my Sound prefpane has always been centered, and the sound output has always been properly balanced whether I listen to headphones, external speakers or the built-in speakers (which sound tiny and tinny, but not unbalanced). Pressing my ear to the left and right speaker grilles reveals no discernible difference in volume between them, and no difference in sound quality such as might be expected if one speaker were directly below the grille and the other were several inches away from its own grille. Absent any proof from you that the left speaker is located where you say it is, I simply don't believe you're correct.

Apr 20, 2009 8:56 PM in response to Chris8535

Try this application:

http://www.suitable.com/tools/tonetester.html

I just ran it on my MBP and there is no discernible difference between the left and right speakers on my machine. If there is on yours, then you have a hardware issue, and you should either call Apple to have it repaired, or bring it in to an Apple store for them to look at it.

The speakers are located directly under the grilles. In some lighting conditions (using cameras) you can see the "darker" holes in the grilles, directly under which the cones of the speakers are located (very small cones of course). The subwoofer is located underneath the right side palm rest, below the arrow buttons.

--Travis

Apr 20, 2009 9:25 PM in response to Chris8535

Right and wrong.

The right side does indeed have 2 speakers, one of which is the subwoofer. (On the 17" MBP, there are 2 right, 2 left, and a left subwoofer.) This does technically cause the right side to be louder.

To hear this for yourself, just play some music (in iTunes or whatever), go to System Preferences, Sound, and adjust the left/right balance. The right side will sound louder and different compared to the left side (which only has one speaker).

If these were real (non-laptop) speakers, theoretically it wouldn't matter where the subwoofer is located in order to produce the low freq sounds because low freq sound doesn't localize as much as high freq sound and because the subwoofer would be connected to both left and right channels. However, in the MBP design, the subwoofer is connected to the right channel only. That means that if sound happens to be coming predominantly from the right channel, it will have more bass than if the same sound were coming from the left channel since the subwoofer would be silent. This may understandably be what the OP is complaining of.

However, on my 17" MBP with the balance adjusted to the middle, I can't actually hear that one side is louder than the other.

Finally, yes the speakers are directly below the speaker grille. If you look at disassembly photos, the left speakers are mounted to the logic board right next to the ports (which obviously happen to be on the edge of the notebook where the grill is), and the right speakers are located directly on the edge as well near the optical drive slot.

Macbook Pro Speakers are built wrong

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