HOW TO INCREASE SOUND IN MAC PRO?

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.

Hey, I use an app called Boom. It increases the sound for ANYTHING. If you have a registered account it can even boost individual music files. But you don't need to register. I LOVE it and recommend it. I hope this helps anyone.

Seriously dude? I am a DJ and graphic designer and the macbook pro is my _only_ computer. That's because it's powerful and portable and I don't _need_ another machine. Yes, when listening or writing music at home I plug into the sound system, but laptops are made for TRAVEL. In the hotel room I like to put on some music. I also like to be able to hear the music through iTunes when choosing tracks for the club/party without needing headphones. When laying in bed at night I like to watch movies or hulu. Occasionally I also watch YouTube (esoteric of me, I know). I also like to be able to hear said movies, music, hulu and YouTube.

Why are naysayers on this thread being so snooty? The poor guy wants to know if there is a way to make the speakers louder. How about holding the criticism and contribute something useful? You guys expect people to carry external speakers with them everywhere they go because the computer isn't supposed to make any noises other than simple alert sounds? And that's reasonable to you?

I found this thread because I just upgraded to the retina macbook pro from the original intel macbook pro and the volume is WAY lower than the old ones. The volume on the retina all the way up is the same as 1/3 on the original intel machine. If my window (because it's _crazy_ hot outside) is open, while watching a movie at full volume I can barely hear it. God forbid the fan should be on. I have to pull the computer up on my stomach instead of having it on the stand at the foot of my bed. To me this is unacceptable and I'm not going to buy external usb speakers and carry them around with me when laptops are meant to be able to do the simple everyday things like this.

Having such great volume (and surprisingly good bass response for such little speakers) in my old macbook, I expected the new ones to at least carry the same quality. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed in apple for this. For $3000 they should have at least made these speakers loud enough to play videos at a reasonable volume.

...stepping off my soapbox now. i'm off to find some hacks... or maybe 3rd party hardware i can swap these dinky things out with. sigh.

Hasn't anybody ever heard of Hear? Its UHhhhhhhmazing.

http://www.prosofteng.com/products/hear.php

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..

Once again: this is NOT the place to discuss a MacBook Pro.

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.

The usual solution is that if it is not loud enough, plug in headphones.

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