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Better sound on Dell labtop than on a Power Mac G4?!

post #1 of 12
2/1/04 at 3:15pm
Thread Starter 
I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD 570 headphones and first tried them out at work on my bosses $800 Dell laptop, cheap in every way. Now I'm home and I plug them into my $2,300 Power Mac G4 Quicksilver and the sounds isn't NEARLY as good. What gives?! If I buy a better sound card, say this will it improve the sound in the headphones? The volume doesn't even get as high. I hope there is a solution because the headphones were expensive. Do the current Power Book G4's have this problem? Would an $800 Dell laptop have better sound capabilities than a Power Book? I hope the Power Mac G5s aren't like this. I'm thinking it's because this computer isn't the newest model.
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post #2 of 12
2/1/04 at 3:50pm
What program are you playing music through and is it the exact same song? The equalizer and song quality could be the problem on your mac.
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post #3 of 12
2/1/04 at 3:53pm
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I tested out Fight Club (particularly the opening scene with the techno song) on his laptop using WMP and now I'm trying it on my Mac using DVD Player v. 4.0.

It's mainly the volume. It's all the way up on the computer but it's not loud at all. On his, I could get it a lot louder.
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post #4 of 12
2/1/04 at 4:16pm
if you were using iTunes maybe you have souncheck enabled and it is cutting the volume. you can check the volume settings for a particular song using "right click" to get info on a song in iTunes, or look up "soundcheck" in iTunes prefs.
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post #5 of 12
2/1/04 at 4:16pm
System volume up as well as DVD Player?

I have a PowerBook G4, and I normally don't take the volume up past 4 notches when listening to music and stuff. In games I'll take it up a lot more though.
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post #6 of 12
2/1/04 at 4:18pm
labtop, haha
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post #7 of 12
2/1/04 at 4:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
labtop, haha

I realized this after it was too late.

Yes, system volume is up all the way and DVD Player.

I unchecked the sound check in iTunes and that made a small difference. The volume for DVDs (and music) is still much much lower than when I used them on his laptob.

Would a better sound card help with the volume issue?
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post #8 of 12
2/1/04 at 5:22pm
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I just opened up my computer and it looks like I have on-board sound. I think I'll be buying the sound card.
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post #9 of 12
2/1/04 at 5:47pm
some speakers/headphones rely on the power of the component as they arent nessesariny made for pc's(or any pci based sound) they are made for amplified sources like mixers, some laptops have a booster built in, most desktop cards have np booster as they are designed for pc speakers, not sure where i saw it but there are in line boosters availible for between 25 - 50$ likely at any place where you would buy DJ/comp.audio equipment (i.e. guitar center )
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post #10 of 12
2/1/04 at 8:06pm
well known that Sennheisers are extremely inefficient headphones, i.e. they need more power to drive them to certain levels. Try something else like Shure's. And loudness is not a really good measure of sound quality.
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post #11 of 12
2/1/04 at 8:33pm
Quote:
Originally posted by wolfeye155
I tested out Fight Club (particularly the opening scene with the techno song) on his laptop using WMP and now I'm trying it on my Mac using DVD Player v. 4.0.

It's mainly the volume. It's all the way up on the computer but it's not loud at all. On his, I could get it a lot louder.

Weird. I'm listening to music on my PowerBook with headphones right now, and there's no way I could turn the volume all the way up and stand it for more than a few seconds.
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post #12 of 12
2/1/04 at 9:53pm
Thread Starter 
cowerd - I'm no audiophile but I do like the Sennheiser's. Besides, I've already spent good money on them and got a good deal.

a_greer thank you so much! I will definitely look into that.
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