On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:01:09 +0300, Eero Ahonen wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> 
>> I've also seen a few Dell models with reasonably good speakers on them
>> - D6xx series and C610/C640 series.
> 
> The built-in cucumber-cans of D610 and D620 are mostly pathetic.

My kid just picked up a used D610 and he seemed happy with the speakers 
so far.

Jim

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Warp wrote:

>   I know next to nothing about audio and loudspeaker technology, but as
> far as I understand the capability of a loudspeaker to play bass
> frequencies is more or less directly proportional to the physical size
> of the loudspeaker (you need a larger box to get lower frequencies).
> Thus it's very difficult if not impossible to play low frequencies with
> very small speakers which do not have any volume to them to speak of.
> Thus you will never get high-quality sound from very small speakers.
> 
>   (One could ask what about headphones. Those are pretty small speakers
> and they can play pretty low frequencies. I assume it has something to
> do with their physical location with respect to the ear canal.)

Well, actually, I've found a pair of external speakers which are pretty 
small, yet seem to produce a surprising amount of bass.

The interesting thing is that the bass frequencies seem to die away 
*rapidly* as you move away from the speakers. So I'm hypothesizing that 
it's not so much that small speakers don't generate bass, but rather 
that it diminishes rapidly with distance. In other words, I hypothesize 
that you need a physically large speaker to generate low frequency waves 
that will *travel* some distance before dissapating.

What physical basis there is for this hypothesis, I have no idea...

[I also notice that the speakers in question are DAMN HEAVY. This may or 
may not be significant...]

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Gail Shaw wrote:

> Yup. My laptop has Harman/Karton speakers. I'm not much into the sound
> industry, but I'm told those are high-qualtiy speakers.
> They certainly sound good. In fact, they sound better than my old TV did.
> 
> Of course, I'm no sound expert....

My laptop has speakers that would compare poorly against almost any TV 
set imaginable. They're very quiet (you often can't hear them over the 
fan) and they rattle like hell at mid-range frequencies in a way that 
only the cheapest disposible radio sets can. So if your laptop sounds in 
any way comparable to a half-decent TV set, it's much better than what I 
have!

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

>> Is it possible to buy a laptop that has built-in speakers which aren't 
>> a joke?
> 
> Yes, a Mac.

Hell, for that price it should also make me a cup of tea when I wake up 
in the morning! :-S

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On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:28:04 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Gail Shaw wrote:
> 
>> Yup. My laptop has Harman/Karton speakers. I'm not much into the sound
>> industry, but I'm told those are high-qualtiy speakers. They certainly
>> sound good. In fact, they sound better than my old TV did.
>> 
>> Of course, I'm no sound expert....
> 
> My laptop has speakers that would compare poorly against almost any TV
> set imaginable. They're very quiet (you often can't hear them over the
> fan) and they rattle like hell at mid-range frequencies in a way that
> only the cheapest disposible radio sets can. So if your laptop sounds in
> any way comparable to a half-decent TV set, it's much better than what I
> have!

What type of laptop?  The Compaq Armada M700 that my wife uses sounds 
like you describe here....

Jim

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Mike the Elder wrote:

> I believe the general approach taken by laptop designers is that since laptops
> are nearly always single-user personal machines, HQ audio will come through HQ
> headphones.

Seems plausible.

I might have to investigate some moderately cheap let moderately good 
headphones. ;-)

[Certainly I'm not taking my expensive Sennheizer HD 570 phones anywhere 
except my bedroom...]

> Good luck on the quest. Please post any noteworthy discoveries.

Sure.

Actually, I just purchased a set of small external speakers which, 
despite their size, produce a reasonable amount of bass. (And more to 
the point, they're much louder and don't resonate annoyingly.) I'd tell 
you the model number if I knew it...

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>> My laptop has speakers that would compare poorly against almost any TV
>> set imaginable. They're very quiet (you often can't hear them over the
>> fan) and they rattle like hell at mid-range frequencies in a way that
>> only the cheapest disposible radio sets can. So if your laptop sounds in
>> any way comparable to a half-decent TV set, it's much better than what I
>> have!
> 
> What type of laptop?  The Compaq Armada M700 that my wife uses sounds 
> like you describe here....

Sharp GP1918 or something like that?

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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47f13b31$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
>
> > Yup. My laptop has Harman/Karton speakers. I'm not much into the sound
> > industry, but I'm told those are high-qualtiy speakers.
> > They certainly sound good. In fact, they sound better than my old TV
did.
> >
> > Of course, I'm no sound expert....
>
> My laptop has speakers that would compare poorly against almost any TV
> set imaginable. They're very quiet (you often can't hear them over the
> fan) and they rattle like hell at mid-range frequencies in a way that
> only the cheapest disposible radio sets can. So if your laptop sounds in
> any way comparable to a half-decent TV set, it's much better than what I
> have!

Well I am talking about a fairly cheap TV and a very expensive laptop that
was designed as a media center, so that may even things.
I'm not sure about the low frequencies. It doesn't shake the floor like the
desktop's speaker system does

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Gail Shaw wrote:

> Well I am talking about a fairly cheap TV and a very expensive laptop that
> was designed as a media center, so that may even things.
> I'm not sure about the low frequencies. It doesn't shake the floor like the
> desktop's speaker system does

Acid test: Play, oh, *any* track that Enya has ever recorded [that 
features vocals], and tell me if it sounds like a women singing or like 
some sand rattling inside a coffee grinder. ;-)

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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47f14290$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
>
> > Well I am talking about a fairly cheap TV and a very expensive laptop
that
> > was designed as a media center, so that may even things.
> > I'm not sure about the low frequencies. It doesn't shake the floor like
the
> > desktop's speaker system does
>
> Acid test: Play, oh, *any* track that Enya has ever recorded [that
> features vocals], and tell me if it sounds like a women singing or like
> some sand rattling inside a coffee grinder. ;-)

Hehe. Will do. Tomorrow if I remember.

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