SPEAKERS QUALITY? M17x R3

simple questions,

How good are them?
in sacale 1 10 (mac book pro's are 9.5)

How bad are them?
in scale 1 10 (ee pc) xD

Does it have a sub woofer?

 

The is no subwoofer, but they still sound really well.

 

If I could rate the speakers on the M17x R3, they would be mediocre, so a 5 at best. They sound very hollow, and have no body to the sound. If you've ever heard the XPS 15/17 speakers, they are about double the quality, and I would rank those about 9+.

Dell markets the M17x R3 as "Klipsch-quality", but that is pure advertisement, and I would almost say Dell is bordering on fabrication if they say the speakers sound anywhere near "good".

Also, there is no subwoofer. Even the M14x has a subwoofer, and the M17x R3 doesn't... LOL.

You said they sound good, but I think M17x R3 speakers sound terrible quite honestly. Though, "good" is a subjective term in terms of sound quality.

 

They are above average. Maybe 7-8 if you are scaling just laptop speakers. They do get much louder than the m14x from my experience.

Never heard the XPS speakers but compared to my old lenovo computer they are excellent.

 

Wait a sec and I'll turn mine up for you.


Okay, "slight" exaggeration.

 

They are better than most laptop speakers, but you can't expect much more than that. Any $30 speaker setup is going to be better than the speakers in the M17x R3. My 5.1 setup blows it away.

 

How do they compare to the HP HDX16 speakers?

I think the HDX16 speakers sound absolutely amazing and am hoping the R3's sound better..

 

The R3s are Klipsch Speakers, all you have to do is turn on your laptop and see the boot splash screen or turn over your laptop and see the Klipsch logo to know that. I've also taken apart the laptop to install a new optical drive and I've seen the speakers themselves, they are very obviously a Klipsch design. I also own Klipsch Promedia v2-400s.

The issue is this: They are still small laptop speakers. I'm reasonably impressed with them for being laptop speakers, and they sound a bit better than the HP Beats on the current gen dv7t quad edition that I sent back to get this one, but if you're comparing to real full size speakers, they are going to sound tinny because they are small, its the simple truth of size.

For Laptop speakers I'd rate them a solid 8-8.5. If you're comparing them to 'good' desktop speakers, I'd give them a 7, and if you're rating them against 'good' full size speakers, they'd get a 5, possibly a 6.

Bear in mind that when I say 'good' above, I'm rating them against speakers of the quality of what you should expect from something like Klipsch.

They definitely have good volume though without distortion, which is fairly uncommon for any but 'premium' laptop speakers ('beats', 'waves audio', etc)

EDIT:

There are definite things that sound better and other things that sound worse. I wanted a fresh listen as I was writing this, since unfortunately I'm not often somewhere with my laptop that I can use my speakers (usually headphones), so I just played through some Nickelback songs, and while Santana ft Chad Kroeger's Into the Night sounded excellent (and it should, since it has a lot of high guitar notes from Santana) and Nickelback's If Everyone Cared sounded quite good, Nickelback's If Today was your Last Day sounded a bit muddled.

All of them were of equivalent quality being played through the official youtube channels, so not really of the highest quality, but definitely not the worst you can find on youtube.

 

Reconsidering my original rating of 5, I would say Beradon has a more accurate description of what the speakers are actually like. Though, I must say that the laptop straight out-of-the-box sounds rather dull and recessed. You need to play with the equalizer a bit to get a more vibrant sound.

And one thing to note is that Dell used to have the IDT Waves Audio application/equalizer installed on the M17x, but recent M17x's that have shipped out don't have this function anymore. If you go to Windows Control Panel, you'll see the IDT icon, but when you try to open the application, you'll get an error message and won't be able to open it (I'm not sure if they fixed this yet). If you go to the M17x's website, you'll see that they don't even list "Waves MAXXAudio" anywhere in the description at all, like they do for the M11x, M14x, and M18x.

 

Good for a laptop vs good are entirely different things - Compared to good full size, they don't even rate a 2.

And the R3's sound is not as "good" as the R2 by a large margin IMHO.

 

coming from a MSI GX720, these speakers sound amazing. but, they don't even come close to my toshiba's harmon kardon speakers, and thsoe are 2.1 channel, and they sound FANTASTIC. but still, these laptop speakers are better than most. lenovo speakers are terrible mono speakers!

 

The x305 has the best laptop speakers EVER in my opinion. These R3 speakers are decent and better than most, but for a 17" laptop I think they are a bit weak without a sub.

 

gotta love those toshiba harmon/kardon speakers. seriously the best speakers i have ever seen on a laptop.

 

Okay I've owned both a Toshiba X305 and X205 with their Harman Kardon speakers, and I can tell you that compared to the R3 they are exactly the same. Now I'm not sure about you guys but I suggest you check your R3 speakers for defects because mine sound great

 

I think it was exactly one driver version where the link to the control panel was missing/damaged - although it could be fixed with some manual tinkering. But it works just fine in the latest version.

 

Or you better have checked both your toshibas because maybe they were defective

In all honesty though, they both sound great. My shoddy ms-1722 laptop speakers were pure and total crap. all the thinkpads i have are monaural. so coming from that background, i'm quite happy with the quality of the M17xR3, especially at the highest volume levels where there is no cracking or popping. just pure sound.

 

The m17x r3 speakers are phenomenal.... Everyone that I have showed it too and has heard them has commented on how amazing they sound especially for laptop speakers.....

I personally think they are the best i have ever witnessed!!!

 

I agree with Podunks. It is a laptop and the speaker sound for a laptop is beyond expectations... They really sound loud and clear with a basic bass as well. While watching a movie (either DVD or Blu-ray), it really proves the best of its size. However, for music I use Bose Computer MusicMonitor and they sound astounding...

 

lol, not to sound judgmental but:

If you think Bose Computer MusicMonitor are astounding speakers... it doesn't really say much about how great you think the R3 speakers sound.

Try the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 instead. They will blow those overpriced/underpowered Bose speakers away.

 

i used to have a HDX16, and sound was a bit better since it had a subwoofer but really nothing to miss in the future.

im actually happy with the sound of my R3, and you can always buy SRS Audio Sandbox app. it really boost your quality!

rate: 7.5

 

They sound the same as my 4 year old Vostro 15 except much louder. But its impossible to not notice they are laptop speakers.

 

They are crap, to put it in a word.

The audio on the XPS 17 LX02 and XPS 15 are much, much better. So was the G73 audio. It's the one flagrant disappointment with the laptop.

No-name audio "IDT HD Audio Codec", no subwoofer, tinny sound. Loud enough, but mediocre at best.

I have no idea how others in this thread could have been blown away. All I can say is that there is no "Klipsch" anything on this machine and, like another poster said, you can't even access whatever audio software is supposedly on here.

I will try to see if there's newer drivers that fix this.

e: OK, downloaded and installed the only audio drivers listed. Wavemax audio control panel now works. Switched the preset from "music", which was ridiculously soft compared to other presets, to "movie" and "games". I liked "movies" better but created a custom profile. The "maxxstereo" feature strains the speakers at any setting above 35% or so.

Anyway, between changing that and setting Equalizer to Classical, the sound is decent now. Doesn't make up for the absence of a "sub" but it's now acceptable rather than pathetic.

 

Which driver are you referin to ? And where do I get Maxxaudio?

 

I previously had a HP HDX16T. That laptop had a subwoofer and "THX Home theatre" stuff on it. That laptop had hands down the best sound quality of any laptop I have seen.

Now comparing the R3 to that laptop, it stands a chance. It does not have a subwoofer, so the bass frequencies don't sound as good, but overall it sounds alright. Definitely not the best and sure as heck not the worst.

 

the buzzing/rattle/vibrate/humming issue just makes it even worse

 

If you have buzzing or rattling, then there is something wrong with your M17x and you should call up support.

 

Best lappy speakers I've ever heard. Never used macs, and never intend to, so I can't and will not compare to a non-gaming notebook. You're never gonna bump it up to 100% anyway, cuz it's noisy.

 

Coming from the M17x-R2, I'd give the R3 a solid 6.

I'm not an audiophile, and I'm not Daredevil (with enhanced senses) but I can sense something's missing from my current speakers.

 

managed to fixed it, it's purely mechanical, but to getting to the part in question takes some effort. Will put up pictures, i think if you have your r3 long enough you might experience the same problems. basically the glue on a piece of paper on the front grill wore out and the papper was touching the speakers, making those buzzing.humming sounds.

overall though the speakers doesn't sound as good as my g73, but of course the g73 also came with sub woofers, i guess that gives it some edge.

update: ty phone picture sorry but you get the idea




after gluing it back

 

Okay, I thought the speakers were pretty bad until I went into the sound preferences for the device and checked the box for "disable all" in the sound enhancements area. For some reason it appeared to be disabled (nothing checked) and when I checked "disable all" it started sounding pretty amazing. YMMV. I mean there was _no_ bass before, and now it's like night and day.

 

Thanks for the tip, mine was the same - all unticked but audio still changed when disabled. Much better now.