Optimus V Speakers

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gartuc

Member
Had my Optimus V for a few days. It seems to be an excellent laptop (apart from my Windows8 choice - no offline files facility, which I need!!). I saw the other thread about the fan noise, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else is also *VERY* disappointed with the speakers? They are advertised as Onkyo speakers, which I though had good sound quality and bass, but the sound is terrible! Music is completely tinny with no bass at all. Music sounds like a louder version of the noise you hear from someone else's headphones.

Is this normal?

I've tried playing the equaliser, but turning any of the bass controls over half was and I just get distortion instead of improved sound!
 
Nemesis

Nemesis

Moderator
Moderator
Sounds like laptop speakers to me. Sorry for being blunt but your best bet would be to purchase some external speakers to go with the laptop! :) Definitely not worth playing with the equalizer as you say distortion..

PCS do offer a variety of speakers to go with your PC/Laptop and the one thing I would say is try and go for ones with a separate bass unit. They should have a much warmer sound with good bass!
 
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bararm

Bronze Level Poster
I agree the speakers are utterly atrocious. My wife has a £400 Acer E1 and the sound quality absolutely blows these "Onkyo" speakers away.

I own an Onkyo amplifier at home and they are fantastic kit. One can only assume they simply allowed their name to be put onto the machine, and had absolutely no input into the speaker system unlike Bang and Olufson and the Asus Zenbook notebooks (which although ultrabooks sound amazing)
 
Nemesis

Nemesis

Moderator
Moderator
Laptop speakers generally have very poor bass response because of the size the speakers must be. Doesn't matter the brand, if the enclosure of the speaker is small there shall be no bass. So it is a compromise of space for the computer, space for speakers or keeping the laptop compact.
 
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darsmi

Bronze Level Poster
gartuc said:
Had my Optimus V for a few days. It seems to be an excellent laptop (apart from my Windows8 choice - no offline files facility, which I need!!). I saw the other thread about the fan noise, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else is also *VERY* disappointed with the speakers? They are advertised as Onkyo speakers, which I though had good sound quality and bass, but the sound is terrible! Music is completely tinny with no bass at all. Music sounds like a louder version of the noise you hear from someone else's headphones.

Is this normal?

I've tried playing the equaliser, but turning any of the bass controls over half was and I just get distortion instead of improved sound!
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Same here with my vortex 3 elite.......very poor quality sound......My old toshiba qosmio had harmon kardon speakers and sounded great, so im surprised the onkyo one sound so terrible. This is my only bad point about this laptop :(

I wonder if they can be replaced by another type/make???
 
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gartuc

Member
This laptop was bought to replace my (very) old Dell Dimension 6400 as a gaming/work laptop. That was about 8 years old and the sound was enough to fill my living room. Clearly no sub-woofer, but the sound quality and range was equivalent to a bedside radio clock. The speakers in that are the same size as these Onkyo 'things', so as they are newer, I assumed they would be 8 years more advanced, not a 15 years backward step!

Combine this issue with the ridiculous fan noise and it means you can't hear music or games at all on this laptop. In my mind, this makes it *unfit for purpose*!!
 
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Axeboy

Member
Agree with the above comments, quite possible the worst speakers I've had in a laptop and I change ever 6 months.

That said, I kind of knew what to expect when doing the research and did see it coming :) . I have an old set of Sennheiser wireless headphones which I now use when needed, but anytime I need to watch something with speakers I bring out the old Asus which the girlfriend now has.

My previous Clevo, Alienware and Asus had much better speakers, but I can live with it due to the overall performance benefits.
 
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bararm

Bronze Level Poster
Nemesis said:
Laptop speakers generally have very poor bass response because of the size the speakers must be. Doesn't matter the brand, if the enclosure of the speaker is small there shall be no bass. So it is a compromise of space for the computer, space for speakers or keeping the laptop compact.
Click to expand...

Bit patronising to be honest. I and i am sure most people understand the reasons that laptops don't have sound quality comparable to desktop speakers, however the issue here is quite simply that the speakers are cheap and poor quality. Onkyo plainly had nothing to do with these speakers, and if they did, they had zero quality control. Can you imagine Asus zenbooks with B+O branding, being released with the same quality of sound as the Onkyos? Hell, even HP laptops with the awful "beats" branding is a quantum leap better than these
 
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darsmi

Bronze Level Poster
bararm said:
Bit patronising to be honest. I and i am sure most people understand the reasons that laptops don't have sound quality comparable to desktop speakers, however the issue here is quite simply that the speakers are cheap and poor quality. Onkyo plainly had nothing to do with these speakers, and if they did, they had zero quality control. Can you imagine Asus zenbooks with B+O branding, being released with the same quality of sound as the Onkyos? Hell, even HP laptops with the awful "beats" branding is a quantum leap better than these
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Agree totally baram........Most people with any sort of experience with laptops will know that the sound is never gonna be anything like having external speakers........But i really thought these onkyo speakers were going to be half decent.

Like i said earlier, my 5 yr old toshiba with harmon kardon speakers were really good and the bass had a punch too. For a laptop i would have rated those speakers 9/10. As for these Onkyo ones...more like 3/10.

Just wish i could upgrade them???? I paid £2400 for this laptop and expected a lot more from these so called Onkyo branded speakers. The rest of the laptop is fantastic and is very fast, and im really happy with it.....but the speakers SUCK !!!
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
We had exactly the same discussions about the Optimus IV speakers. I'm guessing the Optimus V's are exactly the same.
 
Yamikotai

Yamikotai

Expert
It's the same for the Genesis IV, the speakers suck - but it's the bottom-end chassis. I'd expect a lot more from one of the decent chassis.

How hard would it be for PCS to petition Sager/Clevo to start putting better speakers in these things?
 
Nemesis

Nemesis

Moderator
Moderator
Sorry if I came across patronizing.
Of course it depends on your expectations which for me are very low of laptop speakers. I know there are exceptions but in general... It's a shame but I guess chassis manufacturers just consider the on-board speakers something they can cut corners with. Would be nice if it changed of course but yeah.
Any improvements would come at a price though!
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
You could always get yourself an external sound card and some low-mid range speakers, however, that would reduce the portability. Not to mention speakers are only ideal if you have a desk/space to put them.

Or get a semi decent usb headset which may be better for gaming.. but not exactly ideal for watching movies with the missus.
 
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adamantium42

Active member
Well.. Im not sure if these are as bad as everyone makes out. Theyre definitely better than my old hp laptop and my brothers laptop too.

However... they still aren't great which was a bit disappointing - I'd definitely have paid extra for good speakers if it was offered. Just bought myself a pair of Edifier R1600T Studio Plus speakers so that should do nicely..
 
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gartuc

Member
External speakers are fine if you have a desk and don't have to lug things around. I bought this laptop to replace my old Dell Dimension 6400 and intend to play games and movies when I'm away with work (average 1 week per month). I don't want to have to carry extra speakers - its just more weight to take on planes and trains and more to break!
 
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Axeboy

Member
Does the sound blaster cinema thingy make them any better to listen to guys?

I cant get the software running in Win 7 but wondering if it helps at all?
 
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adamantium42

Active member
Axeboy said:
Does the sound blaster cinema thingy make them any better to listen to guys?

I cant get the software running in Win 7 but wondering if it helps at all?
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I didn't think these speakers were that bad tbh, but now I've got the creative software working, JEEESUS does it make a difference! They sound like totally different speakers! And much better than any laptop I used previously. ll I did was go to the clevo website, DL the creative software and clevo audio driver again, uninstall all that on my PC and reinstall the new stuff and it works fine. Very very happy now!
 
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