New M1 iMac 24" Speakers are not good

coming across this thread is no surprise to me. I just got a new M1 imac and the speakers are making me regret this choice. At the apple genius bar yesterday with my iphone se (newest version) bc the battery needs servicing after less than a year so Im feeling less than impressed…I digress… I asked if there were common issues with the sound quality on the new imac and they said I would need to bring in this huge machine so they could look at it… not gonna happen bc its uh… huge and heavy and since it was refurbished it was supposed to have been checked throughly. The only thing I could imagine was that with the placement of speakers along the bottom the sound must bounce off of the desk? Anyways, I have been using Zoom the past few days for my classes and by the end of each class my ears hurt. Turning down the sound means I can’t hear people well and turning it up just makes the sound quality worse. I suppose I will try using an external speaker (I have a bluetooth one) or headphones but I was looking forward to having this huge screen to work with and now Im kindof disappointed I didn't

just go for the macbook pro bc clearly there are major sound issues.

Thanks for your advice. Just got the new M1 iMac 24” and it was the wrapping going around the whole screen which I hadn’t noticed and now have clear sound without distortion when playing back from Music.

I think it just comes down to the sound of the speakers being subjective to the listener. I've had three iMacs over the years and a few desktop Macs and all have been connected to the Altec Lansings I bought a long time ago. Two satellite speakers with a big wooden box woofer that sits under the desk.These have always produced better sound than any of the Macs on their own.

I don't doubt a lot of work went into the design of these speakers but to me they sound hollow and have a weak volume. As a result I bought a right angle 1/8 stereo jack converter and connected the Altec Lansings, that was my solution.

Have you tried adjusting equaliser settings

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/music/museb684a3de/mac

I think this terrible sound quality is not (only) a problem of the size of the speakers, but mainly the awful equalization they put on them (in an unbalanced response by design, since with headphones the problem disappears) . Apple should have accepted than in such a small size, it would have been better to do little but well instead of trying to achieve a bass response that just can't be done in such a small size. There are videos, zoom or team conferences, sound content in the web (not to talk about music, unthinkable in this) that sometimes are almost unintelligible in my iMac M1, great in every other aspect, but not this one.

For music (if you are serious about it), in this or any other computer, imho the way is an good external DAC and a decent reproduction system. That discards also any incarnation of HomePods, another awfully equalized device. Sad, as the amazing tech in the first HomePod (sound beams, mics for acoustic feedback, 360 degrees-controlled dispersion pattern, DSP, high excursion woofer, etc) was very, very promising. But, instead of a proper evolution of the device (i.e.: detecting listener location for proper stereo reconstruction, getting rid of that unlistenable bass boost they had, perhaps a larger unit for a more balanced FR), they simply discontinued and replaced it for an even more toy-like device....

And.. btw... they seem to read these posts... Federici & partners did sound better in the last keynote of the truly amazing M1Max.

If it's been less than 14 days since the purchase of the iMac you can return it for a full refund no questions asked. If it's close to the time limit call then to let them know you're returning it.

If you bought it online they'll send you a box to return it in and shipping labels (sometimes they come separate).

If your bought it at a store contact the store to set the time frame, pack it up in the box it came in and return it to the store.

I agree. The quality of the M1 speakers don't enhance the sound, on the contrary, they emphasize the existing problems. Especially when listening to speaking voices, when the recording wasn't professionally done, i.e. on Vimeo, YouTube, web-training classes where the users do not always have or apply the best settings for their recording. I found that even the Bluetooth-connected speaker or the headphones in this case are sounding much better. The EQ settings don't do anything for that kind of stream

I too have found the audio on my new 2021 iMac M1 to be terrible compared to the much better quality sound on my old 2011 iMac. I thought the speakers must be faulty until I found your post and read this thread. It's a real shame because there are many good things about the new iMac but it is really let down by the sound quality.

I run an M1 iMac and a 14' M1 MacBook Pro. Whilst the audio from the MBP is amazing, I am very much underwhelmed with the outputs of the M1 iMac. The older 21.5" 2017 iMac that the newer M1 iMac replaced, produced much better audio. This cannot merely be due to the inner volume of the various machines. Perversely, Apple over-hyped the speaker quality and output of the iMac and under-played the superior quality of the MBP speakers. I have removed all the cellophane from the new iMac. I have read the posts of others discussing whether the M1 iMac is actually not producing "Spatial Audio" from its internal speakers, whereas it is obviously driving Spatial Audio via AirPods Pro. I had intended that with the new iMac I would not need external speakers. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. How can I confirm my suspicions that the M1 iMac is not producing Spatial Audio from its internal speakers?

Good description of the problem! The audio is awful. Doesn't bother me as much for music. However, I find that anything spoken is terrible: podcasts, zoom calls, courses, conferences, tv and video. I would say the sound is muffled, lacks mid tone and treble clarity. Without an equalizer for sound, we are stuck with unacceptable sound. The Music equalizer does not touch the problem.

I was on vacation and did not get to test out the new computer for a couple of weeks after the purchase. The sound was so bad that I was sure I just needed to find the settings needed to correct the problem. The time for that did not come for another two weeks. Failing to find an equalizer that would affect spoken content, I finally called Apple Care. We spent an extensive period of time adding some "plist". This did NOT improve the muffled spoken sound.

Sound quality is critical to my usage. Zoom calls, podcasts, lectures, YouTube, videos, streaming....all fail to meet expectations for Apple's usual standards of excellence. The family has been loyal to Apple products for near 40 years, with two grown children and extended family members. I hope this is merely a problem caused by some unfortunate misstep in production and will be corrected. It is hard to believe that no one noticed this sound problem in production. Without a correction from the company, I can no longer enthusiastically endorse Apple products such as this bright new M1 24" iMac. Buyer beware.

The speakers are better than the older iMacs.

However, the M1 iMac speakers are NOT a high quality sound considering the small thin enclosure.

For my M1 iMac to get a full, wide dynamic range sound, I play MQA audio and use a DAC from USB to RCA into my 5.1 speaker system.

I would never use the internal speakers for any music.

The only time I use the internal speakers is during a Zoom meeting.

Open the EQ in Music and see if increasing the Base and/or the Booster helps.

I guess it boils down to how important is are the speakers to your workflow. You could always use earbuds with the iMac. But be sure to make a decision before the 14 days run out.