M2 MacBook Air Speakers

[dodgywanker]

Yes, that is a huge EQ adjustment and can potentially damage the speakers if they’re turned up high enough. It varies a lot depending on the music you listen to of course, and at a low enough volume it shouldn’t harm anything, but for comparison’s sake, I master podcast and music audio and most adjustments I make are within 4db minus or plus, and I consider that a huge change (usually adjustments are in fractions of a decibel).



I can promise you that Apple's engineers did not design tiny laptop speakers to withstand a 20x increase in the volume of bass frequencies. That's not poor engineering, it's a physical limitation. 13db+ above 0db (nominal) is roughly a 20x increase in volume. That's not a reasonable expectation of any audio system let alone laptop speakers.

Oh my! Thanks for the advice. I'm going to uninstall it the app.

 

[Rumblefi$h]

I wish Apple came out with a subwoofer for these laptops. They don't have much bass because it's physically impossible to do in such an enclosure.

I use the Bassjump 2 subwoofer by Twelve South. This works together with your internal speakers. Don't expect loud thumping sub basses but gives the sound more depth, specially when listening to music. Connected with USB but doesn't need external power or batteries. Currently out of production but you can pick one up from Amazon for about 20 euros.

 

[StemRoot]

I made a parametric eq profiles for both the M1 and M2 Macbook 13 inch airs to Rtings's measurements:

You can use "Sound Source" or "EqMac" to use these profiles.


NOTE:

-You may experience rattling on the M2 macbook at max volume using this eq profile
-You can decrease the gain on the bass shelf for both profiles if you want more volume

 

[TSE]

I feel like they both sound different, but the M2 doesn't necessarily sound better. The M1 sounds clearer, the M2 sounds richer. I have both as my wife has an M1 and I have an M2.

 

[Gelam]

I made a parametric eq profiles for both the M1 and M2 Macbook 13 inch airs to Rtings's measurements:

View attachment 2326521 View attachment 2326522

You can use "Sound Source" or "EqMac" to use these profiles.


NOTE:

-You may experience rattling on the M2 macbook at max volume using this eq profile
-You can decrease the gain on the bass shelf for both profiles if you want more volume

Wow thank you for your results in this old thread. Do you have the results for the 15" Air as well?

From your results it looks like the M1 and M2 Airs speakers are good and different in their own ways. Hence why they sound different and is hard to decide which is clearly "better".

 

[Goompa]

As an owner of 2013's MBA, 2020's and an M2 13inch, the 2013 model sounds better and louder.
The pro's have sounded better tho (2015 15inch MBP).

 

[StemRoot]

Wow thank you for your results in this old thread. Do you have the results for the 15" Air as well?

From your results it looks like the M1 and M2 Airs speakers are good and different in their own ways. Hence why they sound different and is hard to decide which is clearly "better".

Objectively the 13' M2 macbook Air should sound better as it is slightly flatter (shown in the graphs). But hearing them side to side, I will say that the m2 sounds alot better. The M1 just sounds too hollow and it has this weird 3D effect that i find quite distracting. I think the M1 uses some sort of spatial surround sound trick to make it sound "wider" and the M2 to a lesser degree. Also i made a M2 15' Macbook air eq profile for you!! I wasn't expecting the frequency response to be that good for a laptop! This is based on Rtings.com measurements.

Before eq:

After eq:

After applying the profile you should notice:

- more bass
- fuller vocals
- less sharpness
The eq profile can be downloaded below

 

[Gelam]

Objectively the 13' M2 macbook Air should sound better as it is slightly flatter (shown in the graphs). But hearing them side to side, I will say that the m2 sounds alot better. The M1 just sounds too hollow and it has this weird 3D effect that i find quite distracting. I think the M1 uses some sort of spatial surround sound trick to make it sound "wider" and the M2 to a lesser degree. Also i made a M2 15' Macbook air eq profile for you!! I wasn't expecting the frequency response to be that good for a laptop! This is based on Rtings.com measurements.

Before eq:
View attachment 2370739

After eq:

View attachment 2370740

After applying the profile you should notice:

- more bass
- fuller vocals
- less sharpness
The eq profile can be downloaded below

Ah so the M2 speakers are more capable in doing a flatter frequency response. That is nice to hear.

Thank you for the eq! Is this eq safe to put volume higher than 75% (or max) without damaging the speakers?
Surprised to see the 15" doing this good! Do you think the 15" air has the most capable thin and light laptop speakers on the market? I am planning to swap my M1 to M4 15" when it comes out.

I wonder why apple does not "eq" their speakers to produce the best sound (and flattest) possible before shipping them.

 

[StemRoot]

Ah so the M2 speakers are more capable in doing a flatter frequency response. That is nice to hear.

Thank you for the eq! Is this eq safe to put volume higher than 75% (or max) without damaging the speakers?
Surprised to see the 15" doing this good! Do you think the 15" air has the most capable thin and light laptop speakers on the market? I am planning to swap my M1 to M4 15" when it comes out.

I wonder why apple does not "eq" their speakers to produce the best sound (and flattest) possible before shipping them.

Yes it is 100% safe, apple has built in clipping protection. The size of the physical speakers are small and are akin to the drivers found inside of a headphone, meaning that it is less prone to damage from clipping. Other than that, you may experience slight crackling or popping at higher volumes. Also i have an updated eq file of the m1 and m2 13' inch Macbook airs that sound better and allow for higher volumes.

I Assume apple doesn't apply an eq profile for all of their laptops is due to speaker design limitations, reduced volume and possibly because they want to differentiate the sound quality between their Air and Pro Laptops.

The 15' macbook Air with the eq profile could absolutely beat the 14' and 16' pro laptops in sound quality with maybe less impactful bass due to limitations.

 

[StemRoot]

For anyone who is unsure on how to use these eq profiles, you must download Soundsource or Eqmac.
Both of these apps require a subscription so this may be out of reach for some people. You can download a pirated version of Soundsource but i highly advise getting the subscription if you want to support the developers.

links:
eqmac
soundsource
cracked soundsource (at your own risk)

 

[geta]

For anyone who is unsure on how to use these eq profiles, you must download Soundsource or Eqmac.
Both of these apps require a subscription so this may be out of reach for some people. You can download a pirated version of Soundsource but i highly advise getting the subscription if you want to support the developers.

links:
eqmac
soundsource
cracked soundsource (at your own risk)

Looks like eqmac having free version, is it possible using these eq profiles with it?

 

[StemRoot]

Looks like eqmac having free version, is it possible using these eq profiles with it?

The feature that allows you to use the eq profile is subscription only unfortunately. There is a trial for both softwares if you want to try them out!

 

[Gelam]

Yes it is 100% safe, apple has built in clipping protection. The size of the physical speakers are small and are akin to the drivers found inside of a headphone, meaning that it is less prone to damage from clipping. Other than that, you may experience slight crackling or popping at higher volumes. Also i have an updated eq file of the m1 and m2 13' inch Macbook airs that sound better and allow for higher volumes.

I Assume apple doesn't apply an eq profile for all of their laptops is due to speaker design limitations, reduced volume and possibly because they want to differentiate the sound quality between their Air and Pro Laptops.

The 15' macbook Air with the eq profile could absolutely beat the 14' and 16' pro laptops in sound quality with maybe less impactful bass due to limitations.

That is very nice to hear. I have mistaken popping and crackling as speaker damaging in the past. It seems that "clipping" is actually the damaging part?

Would be so good to have the 15 Air be as good as the pros!

The feature that allows you to use the eq profile is subscription only unfortunately. There is a trial for both softwares if you want to try them out!

Have you tried other apps that can apply eq without subscriptions? A one of payment is fine.