Hacker News Reader

Comment by tomashubelbauer | Hacker News Reader

I think your experience might be outdated. My M1 Mac's screen broke recently and I'm forced to use it with the lid closed and an external screen until I get a replacement. I'm using the cheapest external screen I can get because I don't like using external screens and am just bridging the gap until I get a new laptop. The monitor speakers are absolutely horrible, frankly I don't understand why they even added them. If is some cheap BenQ, not sure the exact model. The Mac speakers on the other hand sound good even with the lid closed! They sound miles and miles better than the external screen speakers to the point where I use them over the screen ones.

View on HN

There is a difference between "monitor speaker" and "speaker built-into the monitor". The parent might have had the former in mind.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_monitor:

Among audio engineers, the term monitor implies that the speaker is designed to produce relatively flat (linear) phase and frequency responses.

Yep I misunderstood their comment completely. I think you're right and that's what they had in mind. In which case they're right but I think are making a comparison that is not exactly useful.

Studio monitor speaker (speaker for monitoring what you're creating, eg https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-best-studio-monitors-and...), not speaker-in-a-monitor

Oooooh, whoosh. Sorry! Yeah in that comparison of course laptop speakers pale in comparison. My girlfriend has a home studio and I wouldn't dream of comparing the sound of her monitors to my laptop speakers. But I wouldn't expect them to be comparable. In the context of the post talking about laptop speakers I think you're better off using the built in M1 speakers over almost any other kind of a built in speakers like a TV or external monitor speaker or a cheap set of external speakers not meant for audio production.

Bought an M1 for my SO two years ago. You can tell she's playing sound through it from another room, even the TV built-in speakers sound better. I am not dissing Apple devices in particular, but rather all laptops. With speakers so small, there's only that much one can do.

But then again, criticizing Apple hardware is a downvote bonanza every time, because Apple users need to feel like a particular demographic.

Perhaps you're being downvoted because saying "tiny laptop speakers worse than big, expensive, dedicated studio monitor speakers" doesn't add anything to the discussion?

Any 14"+ Apple laptop since 2019 sounds much better than any other laptop that's ever been in the market. The 2019 15" and all 16" models even more so.

They're so good that before covid we stopped using the Jabras at the office for confs and started using the laptops.

They're good enough for lightweight music playing and even watching some TV.

No, they don't compare to monitor speakers. No, they don't compare to my 7.1.4 surround system. No, they don't compare to any decent room-sized stereo or surround setup. They are still pretty great.

>They're good enough for lightweight music playing and even watching some TV.

This is such a low bar.

I have a 2019 16" MBP. The speakers are good for a laptop. That's it. I'm connecting the headphones or external speakers for any listening requirement. A $30 pair of Logitechs destroys the built-in speakers.

>No, they don't compare to my 7.1.4 surround system.

I'm having trouble reconciling the number of people in the thread who will do things like implement an entire Atmos home theatre setup (which is awesome, but in a lot of ways excessive), and yet are saying "MBP speakers are all you need!"

I'm trying to understand which of these is true:

- You can't interpret text; or

- You just don't like anyone who has anything good to say about Apple or their products; or

- You're just not very smart at all.

> This is such a low bar.

Low bar for what?

> The speakers are good for a laptop.

We're talking about laptops. That's the whole point!

> I'm having trouble reconciling the number of people in the thread who will do things like (...) and yet are saying "MBP speakers are all you need!"

Who's doing that?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

> When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names.

M1 air, 13, 14 or 16 inch?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com