HOW TO INCREASE SOUND IN MAC PRO?

Altec Lansing XT1 -- hmm, USB powered. Maybe they aren't getting enough power to drive them any louder. Do you have additional stuff connected to USB (besides maybe mouse and keyboard)? Do you have a external powered hub you can try?

The 'Pro' in title of the device is, in all realities, just marketing - so making an off topic statement about what 'professionals' do is not helping him... but based on your other comments, your goal was to belittle and mock the original poster. I would bet that most owners are 'professionals' in the sense that 'they have jobs' and are not using the MacBook Pro as the primary device to generate an income... to most it is merely a very nice computer to do work on.

If you had more experience with your MacBook Pro (I assume you own at least one) or if you have ever used VMware Fusion or BootCamp for Windows or Linux distros you would have noticed that the speaker in the MacBook Pro can very easily go much louder.

And as for your very small comment about stereo - I for one enjoy watching some streaming training videos or simple documentaries on occasion and more often than not I must resort to abandoning OS X to simply hear anything over the general noises around the office or house - it is obviously an artificial restriction (read 'software not hardware') and the original poster has a very valid point and a very innocent question.

This has nothing to do with laptops, notebooks, macbooks, a lot of people somehow post questions though about their MacBook Pros in this forum by mistake.

The audio digital ports on the back are what are meant for going to external speakers - of whatever level and quality one wishes or needs for causal listening, games, etc or better, instead of buying a PCIe audio card for "professional audiophiles"

The internal speakers are probably there because the system has to be able to communicate audible feedback for basic booting and alerts (bong) and not for surround sound or movies... or drowning out kids and dogs and disturbances in the background.

I wouldn't even call it an internal speaker as most people know them. It sounds like some sort of vibrating chip. Also, when you raise your iTunes preamp up it radically compresses the dynamic range of the music. Of course with most modern mixes no one would notice much change. I have an Apogee Duet which has tons of gain so I'm able to keep the preamp at the bottom. Even in the middle we've noticed dynamic range compression.

i found Boom last night. works like a charm and only cost $7! you can download straight from the apple store.

watching hulu last night i had to turn the volume down because it was too loud! w00t!

http://www.globaldelight.com/boom/

Hi I have a Macbbok Pro as well, if you are wanting to boost audio in videos best solution is to use VLC which allows you to raise the volume to 400% ( itunes caps at 100% which is too low for most videos)

I find that for music I dont have that much problem, hope that helps

VLC will only effect movies, though. If you are trying to watch YouTube, Hulu, Netflix or listen to iTunes, Skype, Google video chat, etc, you're still it the same boat.

People need a system-wide solution and Boom is just that.

May be it is a late reply but if anyone is not aware yet, there is a app called boom that internally boosts the volume in a macbook. I tried it and it works really well.

you may try it free and see if you find it worth £7..

There are three buttons on the top row of the Keyboard the one that is three away from the top right row is mute. The one two away with one curve from the speaker is volume down. The one next to the top right is to put it louder. I hope this helped... Sorry if it didn't 😟

You have to pay for Boom and Hear. I'm surprised that in the whole world I haven't found a simple user-friendly software answer to the question of how I can increase the volume on anything I play on my MacBook Pro. Is anyone out there able to point the way to a freeware answer to this simple problem, that the MacBook Pro's sound is limited so some times you need to make it lowder, and it would be nice to do so without having to pay more money.

Obviously! I'm not asking about headphones or external speakers. I asked about FREEWARE!

Does NO ONE know of a freeware solution to this problem - knowing there are already two software solutions that cost money?

Don't be obnoxious. Every computer has a limited volume range, and you can only increase it through the use of speakers - earphones or external speakers. This is no different on the Macbook Pro than it would be on any other computer - Mac or PC.

Matt

I guess I'm not being very polite. I am really frustrated! It is a fact that there are two apps you can purchase that WILL boost the volume in the internal speakers. So I don't understand why you said that "you can only increase it through the use of speakers - earphones or external speakers." I'm feeling very frustrated that no one has responded to my request for information about a freeware app that would do the same thing - increasing the volume - that is accomplished by "Boom" and "hear." Google them. Show me that I'm mistaken. I don't think my request is being heard - or understood. I don't know how to make it any clearer.

As someone who's been around here for a long time, I can tell you this with absolute certainty:

Apple never listens to anyone about anything. The only thing Apple listens to is the sound of pennies thrown at them. Not to the kids throwing the pennies mind you; only the sound of the pennies.

And big bucks make no sound for them to hear at all.

The sooner everyone realizes this the happier they will be continuing with Apple.

To K Childs

Thank you! Your response is respectful of the needs I expressed. If you'r right, that there is no freeware solution to the problem of low sound output, I'll probably spring for the $7 app. I'll give it a few days to see if anyone comes up with something. I believe that during this conversaion, someone might have had time to write a simple app to increase volume - someone with skills I don't have. But not many people are probably paying attention to this conversation. Any way to get the word out to benevolent developers?