T420s/T430s audio sounds tinny

[BobA]

The audio sounds that come out of the speakers of my T430s (and my original T420s) seem really poor .. tinny .. metallic. Is this a known issue? Is there something in software that can change that?

[jayton4]

It is known that the speakers are weak by design, so I am not sure if that could be classified as an issue. One of the driver downloads from the lenovo support site will give you an equalizer that you can adjust, but you aren't going to get quality sound out of a speaker that small.

How does it sound with dialog? Are you able to hear voices clearly? Can you make a video of the laptop playing some audio that demonstrates what you are concerned about, and then upload the video to photobucket (or similar sites) so that we can take a listen?

[BobA]

Thanks for the input. The speakers on earlier models (T410s, etc) were so much better. I'll upload some audio shortly ..
Bob

[XCLN]

For all laptops the sound is always going to be tinny - except maybe the older HP Dv6 I've seen/ heard which has better Altec Lansing speakers - just because good speakers need airspace to sound good. Unless they can use the newfangled electrostatic speaker design, which would cost more than the laptop itself.

Best options I have found so far,
- Logitech Z305 sound bar (sort of clumsy to attach, I just put it by the side), sounds much better, a bit expensive, no longer in production I believe. There are newer options, too bad I don't see anyone w/USB sound card incorporated (see below)
- Bose mini Soundlink ($200, no discount anywhere) which uses either wired jack or wireless, neat Bluetooth 4.0, amazingly good and powerful for its size (really compact) but hefty (apparently some pretty big magnets were needed to achieve this sound quality)

The thing that kills me is that the sound chip of the Thinkpads are just so so .. as opposed to the Mac's which are superb. And you can't use a USB sound chip that ALSO does Bluetooth 4.0 - they only do wired jacks*.

(*) For the record, nice inexpensive USB - wired 2.5mm jack sound card replacement, great for desktop/ laptop:
Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB Analog & Digital Audio Adapter about $24

[foghorn]

My T410s speakers sound weak too. Coming from a Dell Inspiron which is a far inferior notebook, the Dell has much louder speakers. I do find that the ThinkPad speakers to sound higher quality with more depth though. I don't find it to be a big problem since I have my notebook docked with external speakers.