Unbalanced Stereo Sound on MacBook Pro

Hello all,

Just a bit of advice here - to anyone who has noticed that their MacBook pro has a sound output bias toward the right hand side. It's a design flaw. Someone thought it was a good idea to have a third speaker in the machine, which Apple laughably calles a 'Sub-Woofer' which it isn't. What it is, is a midrange speaker, so as it is placed toward the right, it upsets the stereo image dramatically. There is bugger-all you can do about this, the panning to the left solution offered by Apple is a joke. Or should be a joke.

Jony Ives design skills are overrated, to say the least.

This design flaw is explained in this article -

http://tinyurl.com/6vu23nl

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 2.0Ghz Quad i7

Posted on Jan 24, 2012 8:02 AM

20 replies

Jan 5, 2014 6:48 PM in response to Csound1

thanks for the link, I know its not a complaint forum, Still lokking for a resolve, how about you?

Oh the link, have you tried it ? Agin , I get the same old thing. This page cannot be found, And when you go to contact us, Same circles, The country or out lets , just don't want to know.

I still ask, to any one reading this, has any one tried to diconect the sun woofer? And does it resolve the matter.

Feb 26, 2014 7:59 PM in response to Csound1

Hi again that link does not work, i have been all over the show to resolve this matter, i am one of many in the same boat, Its a shame the speaker or that s called woofer was not easy access,

Its that seperation of sterio and wide thats I miss so muc.

Jan 5, 2014 8:38 AM in response to Niall

Fixed!

This worked for me.

System Preferences > Sound > Output

Drag slider to middle to restore sound balance

Here's a screenshot:

Niall Author

Level 2

243 points

Jan 24, 2012 10:38 AM in response to eww

Umm - have to disagree with you there - this is not just about 'listening to music' although even then it's annoying. The speakers actual sound is pretty good for listining in front of the machine in a quiet environment. I am a sound engineer so i'm quite sensitive to bad sound, and the MacBook Pro is fine, excepting the issue we are discussing here

I use my Macbook through 75KW PA system, and my home studio, and with headphones, but I also work on video and location recording and STILL want to be able to hear a realistic stereo balance of my mix if I am just playing back on the laptop speakers. I do not want to have to plug speakers or headphones in so that I can check the stereo balance. It's not very good at all to contstantly have to remember that when listening through the built-in speakers that the mix will be all out-of-kilter..

This is after all called a MacBook PRO so it's aimed at working professionals, and therefore a balanced stereo output should be seen as a necessary feature, not something to be bodged by pulling your balance control to the left (which still doesn't do the trick anyway).

Niall Author

Level 2

243 points

Jan 24, 2012 11:51 AM in response to Zyriab

I'll reply to whatever I like, thanks very much for nothing at all.

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Unbalanced Stereo Sound on MacBook Pro