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Apple Design Powered Speakers
Posted by: Dimitris1980 on 2013-05-25 07:46:30
Can you tell me your opinion about the quality of the apple design speakers? I saw that there two versions. What is the difference? I use logitech x-230 (http://www.productreview.com.au/p/logitech-x-230.html) on my mac performa 6116 but i would like sth better but also sth from apple. Thank you.

Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-05-25 09:34:32
From what I recall, they had a reputation for being excellent back in the day, but that was in the nineties. I'd imagine "lower end" speakers of current design ought to be better. When my son gave me the refurb pair (originals not the 2s) I got for the Q630 setup in his room back to me about four years ago, he said they really weren't all that good as compared to what he had been using with his TiBook.

That said, other than reductions in size and weight while maintaining performance levels, I'm not sure how much speakers could have improved over the years.

Posted by: beachycove on 2013-05-25 16:46:55
I have a set of the originals. I believe the 2nd version AppleDesign speakers were inferior. I don't know how good you want, but what I can say is that the first version speakers are certainly better than the Harmon Kardon speakers that shipped with the G4 Cube.

You would, however, likely need some contact cleaner on the volume dial innards to deal with static. Worked a treat with mine.

Posted by: Cory5412 on 2013-05-29 09:09:14
I have a pair of the original ADPS, the taller ones, and I believe mine's the set that has a subwoofer output, although I don't have them handy as I post this.

The sound from them, when they're working properly and are balanced correcly, is nothing short of completely excellent. However, I either need some new wiring or some other maintenance done to mine, because they're not quite what I imagine they were in the '90s. Once in a while, the right-hand speaker (or is it the left one? The speaker that connects via speaker wire, at any rate.) will stop making sounds, or become very attenuated. It's annoying enough that I'm using a pretty bad pair of USB powered speakers that were bundled with a Dell desktop. These speakers are okay, probably not my first choice in really high quality audio, but they do what they're supposed to and save an outlet.

Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-05-29 09:57:47
8-o

< . . . runs to check the backside of the rugger's AppleDesigns . . . >

😎 Gotta love this place . . . thanks, C. I learn something new every day here. Is there a rev of the AppleDesigns that dropped, or originally lacked, the subwoofer output or are you talking about the 1->2 feature set changeover?

Gotta try that Sub output! :approve:

Posted by: CC_333 on 2013-05-29 12:10:55
I've never used any AppleDesign speakers (though I hope to someday!).

However, over the years since learning to do audio editing stuff, I've learned that I need some pretty decent speakers to hear what's going on.

To that end, I used a pair of M-Audio Studiophile AV40s, and they were nice, until I was listening to them one day and saw some smoke wafting out the back (eek! 8-o ), accompanied by a burning smell (eek again!!).

They were disposed of ( :'( ), and I've hobbled along with some super cheap headphones. Until now, that is.

I borrowed some old monitor speakers (Roland DS-90) which sound pretty good, but one of the tweeters blew out when apparently that speakers' amplifier/PSU was having some trouble after being un powered for so long (it made all sorts of horrible popping, crackling, thumping sounds (with a little of a sizzle sound (fortunately, nothing was actually "sizzling")). Aside from the tweeter, it seems to be working fine now.

Anyway, This is a bit off topic, but not exactly ;D .

c

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