Is anyone aware of how/why the speakers on the new Macbook Pro sound so good?
I normally listen to a set of Infinity ILS speakers in my office, connected to a pretty decent single ended solid state amplifier.
Tonight I was too lazy to get up and change tracks using my audio player, so I used my Macbook Pro instead. No additional speakers, no additional amplification, no external DAC. Just the speakers that come with the Mac.
And I was kinda astounded by how good they sound. In particular:
With natural recordings, there is honest-to-God soundstaging... from a laptop that's 36cm wide. With good recordings, the stage is significantly wider than the laptop itself. I'd estimate about 54-72cm wide.
I have a big project due tomorrow, so I don't have time to sift through Apple patents. I'm just going to make a few educated guesses:
1) I really enjoy 3D printing, but because of that, I've never invested a great deal of effort into making enclosures that are incredibly inert. The Macbooks are cut out of aluminum with a waterjet and they are STURDY. My Windows laptop feels like a toy by comparison. Is it possible that the solidity of the laptop's enclosure makes it sound dramatically better?
2) Apple is using force canceling midbasses in the Macbook, a la Kef
3) The soundstage is so surprisingly wide, I wonder if there's some kind of DSP processing going on, a la Opsodis or Ambiophonics?
4) I can't stand the Mac keyboard, so I keep the laptop quite far away, about three feet from my ears. (So I have room for a nice keyboard in front of the laptop.) So the sheer distance is probably improving soundstaging.
Anyways, if you have one of the new 16" Macbook M1 Pros, put some music on and let me know what you think. I'm not going to pretend that this can get loud, but if you're listening at a polite level at your desk, it's surprisingly good.
Yes! Is that the 16 inch?
from Apple site:
Six-speaker sound system. Four force‑cancelling woofers deliver deeper bass and room‑filling sound.
High-performance tweeters project clearer, fuller vocals. And Spatial Audio creates a sophisticated three-dimensional soundstage when you’re playing music or video with Dolby Atmos.
from Apple site:
Six-speaker sound system. Four force‑cancelling woofers deliver deeper bass and room‑filling sound.
High-performance tweeters project clearer, fuller vocals. And Spatial Audio creates a sophisticated three-dimensional soundstage when you’re playing music or video with Dolby Atmos.
There are some interesting notes here from the Asahi Linux team, who needed to reimplement the speaker protection logic that MacOS uses:
https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/109917995005981968
MacOS is almost certainly doing some DSP in addition to this, though, and I have no idea what the scope of that might be.
https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/109917995005981968
MacOS is almost certainly doing some DSP in addition to this, though, and I have no idea what the scope of that might be.
My ipad pro (2021) is also pretty good though overload spl on the low'ish-end isn't great.
Surprisingly it's also good in portrait orientation. 🙂
-as to why it's as good as it is: ungodly amounts of money to support development. 😉
Surprisingly it's also good in portrait orientation. 🙂
-as to why it's as good as it is: ungodly amounts of money to support development. 😉
Apple was into multi - media before that was even a thing.
For anyone who remembers the PC honker...
Their Lisa had a GUI
They bought Emagic 20 years ago
Their phones sound better (the only ones that had low output impedance and a 1V RMS output)
Their $10 DACs (that $10 USB-C or Lightning to 3.5mm "cable")
They are the only computer company that is vertically integrated from hardware to OS to software.
For anyone who remembers the PC honker...
Their Lisa had a GUI
They bought Emagic 20 years ago
Their phones sound better (the only ones that had low output impedance and a 1V RMS output)
Their $10 DACs (that $10 USB-C or Lightning to 3.5mm "cable")
They are the only computer company that is vertically integrated from hardware to OS to software.
I've heard one of these, briefly.
Very impressive for what they are. My Windows laptop can be made to compete, albeit at lower SPLs (much smaller speakers) by doing some EQ work with EQ APO.
1 - Yep, probably. Any energy put into bending bits of plastic isn't useful sound output. I do wonder which Windows laptop you're comparing to, though. Some of the high-end Windows laptops (ie, costing similar to your Macbook) are also built very nicely.
2 - Makes sense. Keeps the keys from rattling.
3 - Definitely lots of DSP going on.
4 - Difficult to say. Being close-up would probably give a "wide-angle" effect which sounds more impressive.
Chris
Very impressive for what they are. My Windows laptop can be made to compete, albeit at lower SPLs (much smaller speakers) by doing some EQ work with EQ APO.
1 - Yep, probably. Any energy put into bending bits of plastic isn't useful sound output. I do wonder which Windows laptop you're comparing to, though. Some of the high-end Windows laptops (ie, costing similar to your Macbook) are also built very nicely.
2 - Makes sense. Keeps the keys from rattling.
3 - Definitely lots of DSP going on.
4 - Difficult to say. Being close-up would probably give a "wide-angle" effect which sounds more impressive.
Chris
Most has been covered already. A biamped WAW loudspeaker system with, for a laptop, quite large woofers. The Mx chips have some serious DSP & AI (ie idiot savant) capability with both the GPUs and teh Nueral Engine. I bet they are using every trick in the book to make them sound more extended than they are. Apple has been playing with active WAW for a long time, i have some kicking around at least a decade.
Similar sound systems are in the iMac and teh Studio Display.
dave
Similar sound systems are in the iMac and teh Studio Display.
dave
Maybe that's why my iPhone 6 drives the Dayton DAEX25FHE-4 to a usable output level, exciting an acoustic guitar body.