Not just for QTVRs
Good sound in a computer system is a nice thing to have, especially if you are interested in making QTVR pictures with sound or generally regard sound as part of the picture making experience. For those still in their first childhood I suppose these make for louder explosions with computer games – a genre, I confess, that leaves me in despair of the future of mankind.
Looking back on the Apple Macs I have owned, each has had sound worse than its predecessor. The iMac G4 ‘screen-on-a-stick’ came with decent separate speakers, and had so-so sound quality. The iMac G5 has downward pointing speakers, dictated by the slimness obsession at Apple, and had poor sound quality. The iBook G4 had upward pointing speakers – poor quality but not bad for the small size. And finally, the sound quality of the miniscule rear-facing (what were they thinking of?) speakers in the MacBook is simply execrable. Little volume and what there is comes out horribly distorted.
I checked around and the dominant approach seems to be USB-powered external speakers. These leave me unimpressed on paper as the maximum power they can generate, based on the modest current delivered over USB, cannot be great. Chat boards mostly concur. Then I chanced upon the Logitech Z-4i.
These come with a woofer/amplifier and two separates for mid-range and treble. A separate wired controller permits adjustment of the overall sound level and includes a small knob for adjusting the level of the woofer only. Neat and it works. If you like boom, crank it up. But it’s the power specs that matter here, for a device driven from the earphone outlet. Logitech states that each satellite can output 8.5 watts RMS, with the massive woofer putting out up to 23 watts RMS. That’s power!
In use they will play louder than most users will ever need and the quality white finish matches the MacBook perfectly. These are not remotely portable, but that’s the trade-off for good sound. The bulky woofer enclosure can be placed out of the way (mine is under my desk) as low notes are non-directional. The satellites go either side of your monitor. Plug these in and the MacBooks wretched, nasty little speakers are automatically switched off.
Recommended, especially at the $70 price (that’s about $69.95 more than Apple spent on the MacBook’s speakers) – an outstanding value. They come with a two year warranty and my listening to Horowitz playing Chopin’s Barcarolle as I type is as it should be. The rumble of the low notes on his magnificent Steinway Model D concert grand is not far from the real thing. True, the Steinway would be nice to have but is a tad spendy at $100,000+! Plus there’s the waiting list to endure …. still, I did get to touch it when it toured through Los Angeles a few years ago. Horowitz had two in his Fifth Avenue apartment in New York!
Snags? None so far.