[bryan7980]

One time when I played my fav music on Itunes I didnt notice that the setup was set at full blast. When I clicked play it just goes real loud. My question is is it possible to wreck your powerbook speaker this way? or does it have a built in circuitry to protect the internal speaker from frying? Do you need to consciously tone down the speaker volume whenever you turn your laptop off so the next time it wont power up at full volume (which is not good for any speaker system) ?

Another thing when I play quicktime movies the sound is a bit soft as compared with playing it from IDVD. I already set the volume setting to the maximum (both quicktime and powerbook volume setting) but still its barely audible. Is there a problem? or is this normal?

[swsteckly]

Any speaker will blow if played too loud. Whether the sound level produced by the PowerBook is within the safe operating range of that particular speaker is unknown.

Last night I played some DVDs on my 17" for a few guys in a hotel room, without external sound or video. We had the mac and DVD player at full blast. The sound was clean, good, and undistorted (better than the Ti's). We watched some movies for about 8 hours, and the speakers had no problems at all.

This is probably not good for them, but I think they can take extended high volume levels. But, the Ti's speakers would sometimes distort when turned too loud, which would make me question the Ti's output capacity.

If a speaker ever distorts, turn it down as a general rule. Otherwise, I think you're OK.

[bryan7980]

The question is not whether the powerbook can handle extended periods of playing at full volume. My problem is whether its ok to start off with the max volume setting or would it be safer to tune up the volume gradually so that it reaches the maximum setting slowly and surely? Its like primming up the speaker and allow it to adapt to the volume changes . In a car stereo you need to turn up the volume from the minimum setting slowly til it reaches its max otherwise theres a big risk of blowing the speakers when it goes full volume the moment you turn it on. I wonder however if there is an allowance with the powerbook speaker so that the maximum volume is still within the threshhold of what the system can handle.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by bryan7980:
Its like primming up the speaker and allow it to adapt to the volume changes . In a car stereo you need to turn up the volume from the minimum setting slowly til it reaches its max otherwise theres a big risk of blowing the speakers when it goes full volume the moment you turn it on.

I always wondered why my car's (VW Passat) radio always came on slowly like that. I bet that's why. Either that or to extremely frustrate.

[PeterKG]

I had my 12" Powerbook in for service and the AppleCare people blew my speakers out.
They had replaced the bottom case. When I got it back and booted it the volume was at full blast. The sound was distorted and I had to send it back for repair. It took two weeks while they waited for parts.

[Crayon]

Originally posted by bradoesch:
I always wondered why my car's (VW Passat) radio always came on slowly like that. I bet that's why. Either that or to extremely frustrate.

It's not to protect the speakers in the Passat, it's to protect you. Nothing worse than starting a car and having the stereo set to nuclear.

The delay allows you time to react, i.e. turn it down.

[nobitacu]

yea, the speakers will break if you play it too loud. But I've played it full blast on my 17 lots of times, and I think the setting is fine enough that it won't damage the speakers in full blast mode. Mine still sounds great anyways.

Ming

Originally posted by Crayon:
It's not to protect the speakers in the Passat, it's to protect you. Nothing worse than starting a car and having the stereo set to nuclear.

The delay allows you time to react, i.e. turn it down.