Screwy MacBook Pro Speakers?

Chris Liscio (developer of FuzzMeasure):

Before I received my MacBook Pro, I heard complaints about the quality of the right speaker. Many reports indicated that the speaker sounded overdriven, and distorted. I didn’t notice this initially, until I heard some system sounds at full volume. The system startup sound didn’t sound like this either.

Well, seeing how I have measurement microphones and write acoustic measurement software, verifying a discrepancy was the logical next step. Simply place the measurement microphone about 1” away from each speaker and compare the result.

To my own ears, the right speaker was noticeably quieter, and lacked bass when compared to the left speaker. Also, it sounded horribly distored. I didn’t really need to analyze the graphs to notice that there was an issue, but I captured some anyway.

★ Friday, 3 March 2006