VPC Z1 : internal speakers vibrations

Hello,

I own a brand new Vaio VPCZ12L9E.
Unfortunatelly the insternal speakers are not good. They vitrate quickly (the left one quicker thant the right one) when play piano.

Would you please listen this video : YouTube - the piano
Set Windows main volume at 75% (at least) and tell me if sound is clear or if you can hear some awful vibrations from Z internal speakers.

Thank you

Denony

 

Doesn't it depend on the quality of the soundtrack ?
This video do not make my speakers vibrate, even at full volume...

 

The speakers on the new z are terrible. It's been well documented already. Move along...

 

What about the built-in microphone? Isn't it horrible as well?

I have to lower its recording volume to like 20% to reduce the static background noise that is always present. It doesn't completely go away, but that's the best I can get out of it. Of course, the recorded volume gets pretty low as well.

Kinda sad, because my $200 netbook seemingly has a better built-in mic than the Z12. Don't the business people need to do video conferencing and stuff too?

 

In my experience, business people use dedicated VC rooms with pointable cameras and multiple microphones for video conferencing.

The camera and mic in notebooks are designed for one-on-one conversations, which aren't common in the business world. A phone call will generally work better for that.

And many businesses won't allow cameras outside designated areas anyhow, which rules out the Z (at least here in the US, where you can't buy it without a camera).

 

Fair enough, but if you're gonna include something on a supposedly premium laptop, shouldn't you make sure it's at least of the same quality as a $200 netbook, if not better.

 

I don't have any mic problems although I don't use it much. Not sure who you are directing your questions to.

 

there's a Win7 option to check in order to suppress ambient noise with the built-in mic.

 

I think you either have a configuration issue or a hardware problem. Z has two mics, are you sure you are selecting the correct one?

 

That was a very nice video. Thank you for that.
I didn't hear any vibrations like you were describing.
Also, did you try playing it through external speakers? Do you hear any issues there? It would be useful to isolate whether the issue is something that is on the soundtrack vs a problem with your speakers.

 

Thank you for the test. I don't think there is a problem on the sountrack, because I can hear vibration on other musics (with or without piano)
I tried this video on both my Asus eeePC 901 (internal speakers) and Apple Mac Mini (external speakers). I can't hear any vibration.
I returned my Z12 to the store and picked up a new one. I tried the video. I can hear vibrations but less than on my first Z12.

I can't hear any vibration on this video.

 

Make sure you haven't set up the internal speakers as full range speakers:

Right-click the volume control, and choose "Playback Devices". Select the speaker entry, and hit "Configure". Go through the wizard, and make sure that "Full-range speakers" is NOT set.

For what it's worth, the speakers can't do any bass sound at all -- it cuts off at around 200 Hz, and can't even generate those frequencies correctly.
All you hear are the harmonic overtones from the bass in higher frequencies. Luckily, our brain is very good at reconstructing the missing sounds from that, or it would sound even more awful.

 

Interesting.

It is certainly more likely to be a configuration issue (I could confirm this by restoring the default Win 7 install and seeing if the mic works better there, but I don't recall that it did), because I doubt it's a hardware issue affecting only my Z122GX unit... Seems unlikely. :\

What's this about two microphones? I thought it only had one built-in mic, and another mic comes from the noise-cancelling headphones which you may plug in.

Are you saying there are two built-in mics in the Z without the headphones plugged in? Where is the 2nd one, if the first is next to the mic/headphones ports at the front?

 

Thank you tor the tip.
Unfortunately, Full range speaker is not set on my Z12

 

Ok, I checked again and I'm pretty sure there is only the one built-in mic in the Z12, not counting the headphones' mic.

 

Only one mic for the VPC-Z.
The ones on the earphones are used to analyse the listener's surroundings to generate anti-noise, which the consumer today knows as the noise-cancelling feature. The mics on them are not used for anything else.

 

They can be used as a regular microphone to record stuff, if you go into your audio settings and change the source.

In fact, the recording quality of the headphones' mic is much better than the built-in one.

 

Hi Guys,

I have a VPC-Z1290S and I find the volume level very low even when turned on at maximum!! My old SZ series is louder than this one!! I've tried different software to get my volume level up and no luck. The sound on my Blackberry is better!! Anyone having the same issue? I dont have another Z unit to compare it to!!

 

Yes, that seems to be the general experience with Z11/Z12.

Warning to all: Do not buy this laptop for its amazing built-in audio prowess!

 

Hmm... regarding the microphone, the "static" you hear may just be the fan, when I game, the fan goes wild and one person even asked if i was playing at an airport because of the fan noises. However, when i skype on stamina, the fan is fairly silent and there is no "static" for the other person, however, when i start doing something cpu/gpu intensive along with skype the other person can actually hear my fan noise rising and falling once i quit the processes/applications.

But yeah, now when i game/skype, i use the microphones on the noise-cancellimg headphones, they dont pick up the fan noises(maybe because they're not in the same chassis as the fan?)

 

yes, the speakers suck and we all know that.

its a lot quieter than my TZ. dont expect an orchestra coming outta the Z's speakers.