Disgusted with the MBP audio quality

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I can't believe how ridiculous it is that apple produces a "top of the line" laptop, for such a high price that has such ridiculous audio problems. Pop's/R2D2 noises and static plague headphones and the speakers of the laptop. If they are going to be making an update to fix this they better get there a#@'s moving because when you pay that much for a laptop, and the audio quality is worse than a $500 dollar laptop somethings wrong...

edit: just to clarify, I am talking about the 2.4 and 2.5ghz penryn macbook pro's.
 
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I have NEVER had that happen on my MBP. I use the audio output hooked up to my surround sound system and use it pretty much all day.
 
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Yeah idk what your talking about...my MBP's audio sounds great w/ my stereo hooked up, headphones, and internal speakers.

Bring it in maybe?
 
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I agree with the OP. The random sounds it makes sometimes are horrid. It usually does this after I've been playing music or watching a video on YouTube, but it never does it while I'm listening. Usually when I'm surfing in Safari it will sound like a commercial jet is flying overhead or someone is taking a shower right in front of me. Luckily, this only happens when plugged into external speakers and so far not with the built in ones. I didn't read the other thread but I believe I heard somewhere that this is caused by a design flaw in the logic board, which is sad because MBPs have been doing this since their release and you would think Apple would have fixed this by now.

Personally I think that a computer of this caliber should have a separate sound card rather than integrated one. I can't watch DVDs in high quality sound without buying an external sound card but I can't afford one of those because I spent all my money on this computer. If they make a computer with an HD screen, it should have the HD sound to match. I know I've whined plenty in this post but let's be honest with ourselves, Apple hasn't done anything to fix this and that is a poor way to earn customer satisfaction.
 
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One of the things that I dislike the most on my Macbook Pro is the popping noises the speakers make even when muted...

Whenever my computer is muted and something regarding a sound happens, the speakers pop loudly. When I am working on something other than my computer, I mute the sound to prevent it from grabbing my attention. Well... This does not work because, when muted, the speakers still make noise when something happens diverting my attention from whatever I was working on...

However, the popping noises are the only problems I'm having. This audio quality is great on this computer!

This is very annoying and is probably one of the only things that I do not like on my Macbook Pro...
 
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After you clarification I think it may be because I have one of the early models of the MBP. Indeed I have even used the internal sound card when in a bind DJ'ing. Like if I forgot my MOTU or something.
 
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Argggg, this is so frustrating. I am going to take this stupid mbp in after it already replacing my last one which made clicking noises on the right side. Whenever I play music or have recently played music while using headphones there is a static buzzing type sound that is quietly in the background. I compared it with my ipod and it's awful... honestly $2500 for this!?
 
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My MBP has static noise when headphones are hooked up. Other than that, the sound is perfect on the speakers/external speakers. I can live with the headphone static noise, mostly because it's an intermittent issue. I don't know of any notebook which has an optical audio output, which is a great feature for audiophiles!!
 
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I know, it's just pretty annoying. Do you think an update might fix this?
 
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Hmm I have an 08 MBP and I haven't noticed any of this. I wonder if I'm lucky or it got fixed.
 
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ive never had any problem with my MBP audio, id probably take it in, its probably just a manufacturing problem and they could try to replace any faulty parts, apple is pretty good with customer service.
 
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I have noticed a few slight popping noises here and there. Listening to music or not, it doesn't matter...it's random and it's annoying to me (because I'm a pretty big audiophile) but I have a feeling that it's something in the software...my guess is that they'll take care of it with their next update.

(I should clarify that my problem is most likely isolated to software...I can't speak for anyone else.)
 

cwa107


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I've heard noise when using the headphones, but not on the speakers themselves. From what I can tell, it's related to the hard drive - and I know I've owned Dells in the past with Fujitsu hard drives that have caused the same problems. I've considered swapping my Fujitsu drive out for a Seagate for precisely this reason.

I would imagine using the optical out corrects these issues since the optical doesn't have issues with EMI.
 
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If your really using your computer for critical listening there is no substitute for an external DAC. Depending on how much your willing to spend a foobar DAC attached to your amp of choice will give you several notches up in sound quality for a modest price.
 
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I may be way off, but I saw a program called WOW or something like that which claims to greatly improve the sound of the MBP system, and the reviews given also claim the same thing. Anyone heard this yet? curious and would like to know before I spend $30 on it...
 
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I may be way off, but I saw a program called WOW or something like that which claims to greatly improve the sound of the MBP system, and the reviews given also claim the same thing. Anyone heard this yet? curious and would like to know before I spend $30 on it...

Personally I would be leary of such a product making these claims. My initial guess is that most of this interference is actually coming from the computer itself with the audio path being crammed so close to the noisy hardware. The software may target the frequencies that typically one hears from emi and reduces them similar to an eq. Course the downside would be any music at that frequency will be filtered as well.

BTW encoding method and encoding rate could make a difference as well as the headphones you use. Lossless is going to have less artifacts (obviously) that are introduced into your music therefore contributing less to the problem overall. Also if you use a pair of headphones that have a higher ohm rating they are more forgiving on a slightly dirty signal aka a 600 ohm pair of Beyerdynamic's vs. grado's or UE's.
 

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