Speaker quality and loudness?

Can any one with access to an aspire one test the strength and quality of the speakers.
How is the speaker quality of the aspire one compared to thee eee 701/900/901? I have heard that the quality on the eee series is good but how good is it compared the acer aspire one .

 

Obviously, in order to give a definitive response I'd need to acquire one each of the MSI Wind/Advent 4211, HP Mininote, the Asus Eee variants, and whatever other UMPCs happen to be available at the moment, which might not be a problem if I happened to work for a technology trade publication. Unfortunately, I don't and as cheap as these little wonders are, I still think I'd have a problem justifying such a layout to she who must be obeyed.

Nevertheless, I can at least offer some comments on sound quality of the AAO that I do have. Well, it supports Realtek ALC662G/268 [corrected] Audio, but it's no iPod or Sony Walkman. I certainly won't be transferring my music collection to it. The built-in speakers (and microphone) have a certain ultra mobile quality to them, but are perfectly adequate for Skype/internet radio use, except in the busiest of open plan environments, in which case a basic headset improves things considerably. With a decent pair of headphones, things can actually sound quite good. Without resorting to the facilities of a professional sound lab, there's not much more that can be said.

(Ephraim Tutt, takes on the cases nobody else wants)

UPDATE: Speak of the Devil. Would you believe it, the latest (Oct 08) edition of UK technology magazine Computer Shopper features a laptop megatest split into three categories: mini, 15.4in and 17/18.4in. Ominously, there are no comments on the sound quality in the mini group reviews which is made up of all of the UMPCs mentioned above. Apparently, the sound quality in the 15.4in group is considered to be only fair at best. The only laptops with what was considered to provide good quality sound are in the high end 17/18.4in group. I suppose that all we can conclude from this is that the reviewers don't consider sound quality to be a priority at the mini laptop end of the market.

 

I've found the AO speakers a little on the quiet side, they're just tiny ports on the side of the monitor panel, basically. I've only watched some video on it, haven't played any music to this point. The quality's OK to my ears, but likewise I don't really have a basis for comparison, and this is the first laptop of any kind I've owned.

Really, it's not some multimedia powerhouse computer speaker-wise. If that's important to you (sound you can really crank up loud), and you need it built in, I'd get something with larger speakers, probably a more traditional laptop.

 

Cheap high pitched, low volume, highly distorted sound.
That's what comes out of mine anyway.

Wouldn't consider listening to music or watching a movie without headphones.

 

Actually, I was able to work with the linux and the XP editions (110 and 150) and I was struck by how much better the speakers sounded on the 150 over the 110. I don't know if it's placement or just the added thickness, but the speakers on the 110 seemed to be drowned while the 150 speakers sound much clearer.

Mind you, I don't expect much out of these speakers. When I want better fidelity, I use a set of portable speakers.

Anyone else experienced this?

Paul

 

They probably use better speakers on the A150 instead of the A110?
Probably better speakers because we paid more for the netbook and higher quality itself.

 

Portable speakers does not help. There is serious problems with sound quality in the headphones output of AA1. I did test a pair of AA1 and both of them did have the same problem of mixing real signal and delayed signal in headphones output. Noooot a good thing See posting: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1680


Pekka

 

Do you reckon? Your optimism is heart-warming .

The speakers are crap exactly like pretty much every laptop I have ever used (and I have used a lot). The only laptop I have ever had where the speakers were acceptable was my MacBook Pro. When I say acceptable I mean good enough to watch films on but I would never listen to music on laptop speakers.

 

Hi All,

For me, the issue goes beyond the crummy stock speakers - when I connect external speakers (good ones), or even good headphones, the sound quality is still crap. Where I see a real degradation of quality is bass lines, percussion lines, and any noise that's sharp. When these noises are played, there is a crackle, like an interference that occurs...

I'm on the dumb Linpuke OS, and am wondering if XP users are having this issue - i.e., is this a driver/software issue, or is the soundcard REALLY this poor? I'm starting to lose my patience with this thing - my daughter's Eee 701 is outperforming my AAO, and that is not the way it's supposed to be....

 

I have listened to the 701 eee and the speakers on my one are better, or at least as good as the 701. xp 150 model. they are on the bottom though so if you do put them on something soft they drown out. the eee doesn't do that as they are on the side, so a flat surface helps too. But I've read around here the people with sound problems seem to have the linux version one.

 

The sound output is quiet even with earphones. I tried cheap earbuds at maximum volume on an airplane flight and the movie I was watching was barely audible.
I'll bring my Shures or headphones next time. XP 150.

 

There's no doubt that the speakers are really not suitable for anything other than basic VOIP or playing something with primarily speech content, and even at that the volume is very limited. On the other hand, there is no audible distortion even at maximum volume. I had the luxury of trying a pair of closed-back professional headphones and the sound quality is really surprisingly good, but as stated earlier, if the ambient noise level is a problem then you simply won't be comfortably able to hear the AA1.

Contrary to what a previous poster stated, the overall sound quality is surprisingly good, and even with the volume at maximum I am unable to detect any background noise or distortion. I'll try and make some specific measurements ... if I can figure out how!

 

It's a Linpus related problem. when i have Linpus : Bad quality sound on my 5.1. Impossible to play my Movies!!!

But when i installed Ubuntu : Very good Soundquality... If you want good sound quality you can :

- Lower the sound in Linpus
- Install Ubuntu or other Linux Distribution
- Install Xp (but very slow on AAO110)

 

The sound quality on the Aspire One is very poor. I'm glad I stuck to the 8gb model as I wouldn't want to listen to music or watch many movies using the speakers on this thing.

 

In windows Vista Ultimate the sound is pretty loud the quality is fine as long it doesn't start to shake or distort. I watch movies all the time on it.

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3416

 

The best way I can describe it is that the speakers on the AAO sounds like the speaker on a cell phone (the ringer that also plays MP3s). More specifically, it sounds like the Treos.