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Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

R30/R40, A30/A31, G40/G50 and Z60/Z61 Series. NOT for AMD-Ryzen.
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Screamer
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Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#1 Post by Screamer » Tue May 22, 2018 3:01 am

I did the most dumbest thing I should have not done at all, I thought this would work as expected. I used a pair of speakers from a Toshiba Satellite Pro M15, those don't sound bad as far as I can remember using it.

What I got for all that work, fitting the bare wires to lock them onto the pin connectors exposed - and came back with the same poor sound quality a R5x/T4x would always show. Yes, you heard me right. The darn R50e still gave the same poor sound quality it always did with the stock speakers, and the speakers taken from a Satellite Pro M15 did nothing to improve it. I am going to stick with my R32 for now... at least it sounds better compared to the R50e.

I might be at fault though, the Panasonic AN12943/AN12942B amplifier chip in the R50e is pretty weak. It is a 1-watt per channel amplifier with a 8 ohms rating, this seems like something that can't power the Satellite Pro M15's 2-watt speaker properly.

Take this as a failed experiment that got nowhere, or maybe use it as reference that using better speakers on older ThinkPads don't do anything. I am going to cry in my R32's Ultrabay for now.

EDIT: I am very sure that the amplifier was just too weak to power the speakers, so any sort of speaker upgrade won't help the R5x/T4x's horrible sound quality. A different driver would not help either, because this is a hardware design issue.

A software-based equalizer may be the only way to improve the horrible sound quality, as far as I know.
Last edited by Screamer on Sun Jan 27, 2019 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

MikalE
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#2 Post by MikalE » Tue May 22, 2018 7:51 am

The audio amp and the DSP are probably to blame for the poor audio quality. I experience the same piss poor sound in the T510's and T520.

However, the T500 has very good audio at a reasonable volume.
A31p P-IV 2Ghz, 2MB, 2653-R6U
T500 T9600 2055-BE9
T510 i5 4384-DV7
T510 i7 4349-A64
T520 i7QM 4242-4UU Highly Modified
T16 i7 1260P 21BV000SUS

Thinkpad4by3
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#3 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Tue May 22, 2018 8:26 am

My friend likes to play music loudly on his T420 I gave him. He complained bitterly about the tinny speakers and how quiet they were(doesnt work well for Heavy Metal) and since it sits on a dock all day, I went to the thrift store and got some nice 1990s Altec Lansing(?) big honking computer speakers. No more problems and he never uses his bluetooth bose speaker anymore since it is louder and better sounding :lol: .

@MikalE: +1 for T500
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

Screamer
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#4 Post by Screamer » Tue May 22, 2018 9:24 am

MikalE wrote:
Tue May 22, 2018 7:51 am
The audio amp and the DSP are probably to blame for the poor audio quality. I experience the same piss poor sound in the T510's and T520.

However, the T500 has very good audio at a reasonable volume.
I completely forgot about the digital signal processor playing a part, thanks a lot for reminding me that. I can't tell if I am so shortsighted to not see that small little detail playing along, other than the amplifier playing its part. As for your T510 and T520, I sure hope you did not experience the same audio clipping I get on my R50e. That is beyond piss poor.
Thinkpad4by3 wrote:
Tue May 22, 2018 8:26 am
+1 for T500
Is the T500 that good? My R61i's speakers were not making any sound after 255Hz on this bass test, could you give it a try on your T500? I am curious to see how low it can get without any special equalizer presets.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue May 22, 2018 9:37 am

Both R50e and R61i were the lowest-grade model of their series.
Don't expect what just isn't there...

YoniG
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#6 Post by YoniG » Tue May 22, 2018 9:52 am

Try a sound enhancer, such as DFS, BonGiovi, etc. They produce stunning impr9vements.
https://windowsreport.com/best-audio-en ... indows-10/
X61s, W500, T430, T470s

YoniG
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#7 Post by YoniG » Tue May 22, 2018 10:05 am

Oops, DFS => DFX
X61s, W500, T430, T470s

Screamer
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#8 Post by Screamer » Tue May 22, 2018 12:48 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Tue May 22, 2018 9:37 am
Both R50e and R61i were the lowest-grade model of their series.
Don't expect what just isn't there...
Well, is there a possibility that a T41 or a T61 would be able to benefit from this mod? I am kind of put down by the fact that the R50e does not play nice with an 'upgraded' pair of speakers.
YoniG wrote:
Tue May 22, 2018 9:52 am
Try a sound enhancer, such as DFS, BonGiovi, etc. They produce stunning impr9vements.
https://windowsreport.com/best-audio-en ... indows-10/
These sound enhancers seem to only work on Windows 7 and above, unfortunately. I am on Windows 2000, but thanks for the recommendations.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Upgrading my R50e's speakers did nothing

#9 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue May 22, 2018 1:43 pm


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