Another brand subwoofer in a CLEVO

I believe it is a known fact that the subwoofer in CLEVOs or at least my model is abominable, so I was wondering if anyone attempted to install a subwoofer from a different brand like Toshiba Qosmio, AW M18x or basically any MSI with the same plug. Or maybe a woofer from a different CLEVO model that is known to have good sound properties.

Please refrain from explaining why all laptop speakers suck and why they will never be as good as an external setup/headphones, I am an audiophile and I am fully aware of that. Still I want to make the best out of the internal sound setup for mobility reasons.

 

So long as the draw is not too high in terms of power and you can fit it in then it would work.

 

Any suggestions?

 

No idea, it's about searching around looking for those specs.

 

Any 4Ω speaker will work. I used HDD bay to host large subwoofer that I bought long time ago.

 

If you haven't already, post build pics, that sounds interesting.

 

Very interesting! Can you give me a link to that sub?

 

Ok first of all I do this everytime I buy a laptop without a subwoofer, what you want is an msi gt70/gt780/gt780dxr subwoofer, it is THE BEST OF THE BEST there is literally nothing better. Trust me when I say this but a bigger enclosure or speaker doesn't mean its always better, its the cone diameter that matters. So alienware is out of the question, so is clevo. It's loud and can go to below 60hz, only downside is that you may need to make it slimmer. Also the subwoofer flexes a lot so you need adequate space for it. Don't worry about watts with this one, it can handle 15w with no heat issues even though its rated for 5w.


Edit: If you buy this sub remember to cover the port hole so air DOESN'T get out of the subwoofer box otherwise you will damage the cone of the sub! It should be enough to shake your table at least lol.

 

Aaaaaaaaand bought it. Let the experiment begin

A quick glimpse at the port it seems identical to Clevo one, am I right? This is just plug and play?

 

Yep it should be but let me warn you that it will make your laptop significantly louder and you may need to add foam pieces (small stickable tabs) to the sub to avoid distortion at certain frequencies.

Also the amp on clevo laptops isn't the best, the mod still works but clevo limits the frequency range so certain 'bass' notes sound off but at a high enough volume it will be fine. As it will 'forcebly' play through.

Just make sure the little foam piece is in the air port hole too, you don't want to 'bottom out' your sub!

 

I foamed the CLEVO sub before removing it completely because it didn't stop the distortion ... Minimized it but didn't stop it and it was driving me crazy!

You think this can get loud enough to be bottomed out :O ?

 

Yes definitely this subwoofer flexs more than it should which is why it plays low bass notes very well.

Even msi themselves cover the port hole because they know the cone is prone to this at high volumes. Also making the subwoofer have no port hole makes lower notes sounds 'boomy' something you expect from a 4'' subwoofer not one the size of a nickel or 2p coin!

 

I play these games with bigger toys ... Would be interesting to do this to this tiny sub and see the effects

 

Same here, used to be the proud owner of a 32'' subwoofer once and that was deadly on its full 500w load!

 

I play with car gear. My house owners would kill me if I am this loud

 

If you've heard of dynaudio they make the best car speaker systems I've heard concindentally the subwoofer you bought for your laptop is made by them too lol and they aren't cheap either.

 

Heard of them, yes. Dabbled in their hardware, no. Hopefully the port of that sub is indeed similar to clevo one and the box is not super huge and it fits, so I can test dynaudio quality

 

Its relatively small but it sounds like its in a MUCH bigger enclosure. Should be the same size as the current sub you have atm.

 

I have some ideas in mind to make it fit but honestly I hope it just fits in peace.

 

I usually get a little practical with these things and manually make an enclosure if they don't fit but usually this isn't an issue. You can make the enclosure as small as possible and only loose a few hz on the low side, this is how portable speakers are made LITERALLY!

 

This was my thought exactly. If it wouldn't fit, I will try to utilize the box of the clevo's and if not I will build my own.

 

Good luck then, make a thread if it's successful, people like to know you know.

 

I'd be interested to see how you get on too

 

As soon as I receive that baby I am gonna pop it in and see how this works and of course post the experience for others!

 

Post pics and let us know.

I have a M18xR2 and so does my brother. His laptop produces better bass than mine with the exact same settings.

So it will be interesting if this works out well.

Still wanna see the other guy that installed a sub in the HDD bay.

 

Makes it two of us!

 

@DaMafiaGamer @Meaker@Sager ... An update: Sadly it didn't work the connector is different and I tried replacing the connector of the MSI's with the connector from my old Sub and it still didn't work ... Also the size on that thing omg the thickness :O it's almost as thick as my entire machine, so dunno even if it would have worked, I wouldn't have managed to find a place for it. So back to 2.0 ugly sounding setup again.

 

The sub should have worked, are you sure the speaker is actually working? Yes it is quite a thick sub, that's why I said you have to improvise on the enclosure, you can even 'melt' down the thickness to a resonable level as the clevo you have isn't the thinnest laptop either. Bare in mind I put THIS subwoofer in a clevo p651sg in the dual HDD slot and thats only 30mm thick!

If it worked you would have been amazed by the sound quality, it is MUCH better than alienware 18 bass, I have one so I know lol.

 

You want to a see subwoofer in a HDD bay here is one of many that I have modded:

This particular model is an Acer E1-571 with an i7-3520m, 8GB RAM and samsung pro 500GB inside (also have an eGPU connected through mini pci):


EDIT: Subwoofer taken from spare clevo p771dmg

 

Sadly I am using all of my HDD slots and it is a standalone compartment pretty far from where the port is.

 

I actually have my whole HDD caddy removed in my M18xR2 due to the SATA interposer failing. Using a single mSATA drive.

Maybe I should try stuffing the MSI sub in there.

 

You might want to go for the bigger gt72 subwoofer then as most likely it will bottom out. That alienware outputs more Watts than any clevo can lol in terms of speakers. It really depends on the amp, the less features the amp has the better. You know why, bass is not restricted by the amp and therefore if a speaker is soldered to either a left or right speaker in the laptop clean bass will be heard at any volume with no distortion. This is the reason why I did most mods on laptop that DON'T have dolby digital or any special software but instead they have the bog standard realtek drivers.

 

Well that had to put something in that extra massive space in the M18x.

 

Can you link me on ebay which specific one I should look at?

This one? Wow it's big lol: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-GT72S-...194587?hash=item1ca7cb2c9b:g:CQYAAOSw0aNaz9BB

Will it wire with the current sub connector? I can just splice the wires if it doesn't I guess.

I'm just worried since the HDD bay is blocked by the bottom panel, I don't know if it will go louder than my current sub.

Found these as well:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GT70-MS-17...627905&hash=item3f2d094eca:g:nLQAAMXQWzNSnnIO

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-GT780D...986029?hash=item2aa5a9a96d:g:xOcAAOSwSLtayW7N

 

I'm probably the guy you want to talk to since I've done this project, successfully getting a L702X subwoofer working in my P157SM and WIP on my P375SM-A (which will feature a larger one hopefully).

So there are multiple problems here, the subwoofer itself is the least of your problems, the biggest issue here is how to drive the subwoofer properly which will require custom drivers. The main issue with the sound from Clevo systems is not the speakerset, but how the trash sound drivers fail to drive the speakers properly.

You will realize once you build a custom subwoofer, the sound will barely improve if at all.

@ ssj92
Don't bother with the GT 72 subwoofer, its way to big for the Clevo chasis. The main issue on that subwoofer is not its lenght or witdh, but it's height, it would require a place where it would fill the entire case which is impossible unless you make a hole in the mainboard.

EDIT: nvm you have an aliwnware, Idk about the dimensions in that one. Also I don't know if the sound drivers will properly drive the subwoofer, if you order an MSI subwoofer and do the project, keep us updated!

@DaMafiaGamer
You clearly have not modded a clevo before. The conenction of clevo notebooks are different than MSI's port for instance, also the main issue with clevo notebooks (in terms of building subwoofer into the system) are that you cannot use subwoofer that are very thick (such as the GT 72), because the mainboard will interfere. Clevo notebooks have a lot of "mainboard PCB), which makes very thick subwoofer such as the GT 72 impossible to fit in unless you do some severe case modding.

 

My M18x is 55mm (2.17") thick so I am sure I can fit it. I asked the seller to measure the GT72S subwoofer. I can splice the wires to my current sub if the connector is different.

I think the drivers should power it fine. It's Creative Soundblaster Recon 3Di with J95's mod. It drives my current sub well but I don't know if it will be able to fully power the new one.

Would hooking up the new sub be better to the main L/R channel or the sub channel? I'm assuming the sub doesn't have any built-in crossover?

 

It's not about the case thickness it's about the room you have inside the case. The mainboard on clevo notebooks are pretty big and use all the space. The subwoofer from the GT 72 is next to the mainboard which almost takes the entire height of the notebook (i have 2 GT 72 so I know them pretty well).

I think u'll be facing the same issue here, the GT 72 subwoofer will simply be 2 big for the case unless you do some weird modding.

Here is your M18X:


Now see how MSI has placed their subwoofer:


There is no PCB under the subwoofer because it takes the entire case.

EDIT:
Also don't be sure about the whole sound driver thing. I tried his mod for clevo as well and it didnt do anything. After doing the mod ull find out yourself I guess.

 

It will go in the HDD caddy bay I removed. The HDD caddy can hold 3 2.5" drives (two 7mm and one 9.5mm):



Bottom right corner of this pic:



If it's bigger than that I'd be surprised because that's a lot of room.

 

That should fit I think then. When the sound is barely better then you need to mod the drivers as well.

 

Unfortunately I wouldn't know how to do that. I'm more of a hardware guy not software.

All I know how to do is modify the settings in the control panel for sound blaster

Once the seller replies the dimensions I'll buy and see what happens.

 

@ssj92 MSI GT72 Sub dims: 2-1/8"W 15/16"H 2-13/16" L . Seller just told me. I want to put it in my p770DM, L&W is fine for HDD bay, but yeah the height is too much as you said @Danishblunt . Above the HDD bay is my touchpad. Are there any slimmer subwoofer options anyone could suggest? The available height I can get is around 5/8".

 

You can look into the L702x sub or older subs from the MSI GT 70 / GT 60 series, they are still good and will barely fit. Your best shot is going for a L702x sub and mod it with a custom box. The GT 70/60 are still rather high, so it will be quite some fiddlework while the L702x sub not as high, hence rather easy to pull off.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a 3d printer so I could make a custom box. Do you know if I could mod the gt-72 sub with a shorter custom box? I just don't know if the gt-72 sub has enough empty space inside for this.

 

Awesome, thanks for posting!

 

This is a very cool mod, even tho the sub seems rather weak, or whatever recorded the audio was bad.

Could you try this with something like a GT 72 sub?

 

I think it might be 2 high, I might be wrong tho since I didnt open the box of a GT 72 sub yet, but I know that a GT 70 sub is height wise a bit complicated to fit into a clevo system. So maybe you can ask mafia abought the height of the actual sub without the box.

 

@DaMafiaGamer would you know the height of the actual gt72 sub without the box? It's a bit too high for my clevo p770dm hdd bay, so I'm wonderining if I could redesign a shorter custom box for the gt72 sub itself to make it fit. The height available in my hdd bay is exactly 18.71mm or just under 3/4 in.

 

Yeah I'm going back home tomorrow for the weekend. I'll get to measure my HDD caddy and see if it'll fit. If it will I'll try it out.

I just hope the laptop can drive the new sub. Increasing the Bass from 40% (default) to 100% in the sound blaster doesn't help much. So I don't know if it'll help switching to the other sub.

 

@MahmoudDewy
@ssj92
@Lightning_-
I did not change the hardware on that clevo notebook. I made this for you showcasing that even if you swap out the sub you very likely won't notice a big difference. I swapped out the sub on different clevo models and all did improve a little bit, but still were not noticable enough to make a difference worth the upgrade, however after making my own sound driver mod now the difference is not only huge stock but also with a bigger sub.



Use headphones otherwise you won't hear a difference if your speakers are poop.