T42p-Sound Quality Upgrade?

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eri7154798 · #1 Post by **eri7154798** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:33 am

I had just sent in my T42p for a System Board replacement(my second replacement)....however, now that i've hoooked up my stuff again...my sound seems to sound much better(from the built in speakers..not hooked up ones).

I'm not sure...anyone else can confirm this? I mean..it's still not of awesome quality..but it's still much better than how it was before.

christopher_wolf · #2 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:07 am

Confirm? You mean people who have had their system boards replaced? I haven't heard of any hardware upgrades for the sound system; it could be that there may have been a problem with the AC97.

merlin · #3 Post by **merlin** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:26 am

Is there any criteria to judge sound system of thinkpad whether good?

smugiri · #4 Post by **smugiri** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:21 am

some possible reasons:

1. Probably a driver issue rather than a hardware one: had you updated your drivers before the machine went in for the replacement?
2 The Andrea sound driver for the microphone also does some additional ( sound equalization / processing ) stuff to compensate for ambient noise during configuration. This alters the quality of sound that you get: if you calibrate at a location with lots of ambient noise, you might not get very good quality due to this post-processing.
3. Maybe IBM was nice and they replaced your speakers too ( does anyone know if there are manufacturer issues with different speakers that are similar to the issues people describe with batteries/keyboards coming from different manufacturers? ). This seems the most likely reason to me.

davidspalding · #5 Post by **davidspalding** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:44 am

Did you get the same mainboard, or a different one? Reason I ask, if the sound is on the mainboard (I really don't know for sure), maybe you got a sound chip with better performance.

As a side note, one night I started wondering if the left speaker was stronger than the right. I was testing with the Active Think theme DING.WAV, and it seemed to be more to the left. A quick check with headphones proved that the sound is in stereo, and slight biased to the left channel. I then tested with some mono, and stereo sounds (where i have something moving right to left and back again), and then a U2 song, and it seemed that the left speaker was like a mini-woofer (more bass and midrange) and the right was a mini-tweeter (more treble, no bass). Anyone else noticed this? Or ... know if the two speakers are different in some way?

[edit] I should add, how I checked. Find a sound file you like, say DING.WAV, or NT LOGON.WAV, whatever, and open it in SNDREC32.EXE. Now open SNDVOL32.EXE. Move the master volume control balance slider to full left, play the WAV file, then slide the balance full right, play it again,... ad infinitum. Same with a MP3/WMA.

RS_003 · #6 Post by **RS_003** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 8:27 am

LOL now you say ...

I fired up my T41 (14") and you are right, the left soundsd more bassy, while the right does more with the high tones... lol ... I never noticed until now.

davidspalding · #7 Post by **davidspalding** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 8:41 am

Thanks, now I know it's not some manufacturing defect with my unit. Still, nicer sound than other laptops I've seen. My ol' HP Omnibook (800CT, subnotebook class), has mono speaker(s), one up top that you can hear, then another on the bottom. After a few months use, I learned that the bottom one was cleverly placed to used the surface the notebook was on to deepen/amplify sound. And it works! I rather like the Thinkpads' placement, too.

eri7154798 · #8 Post by **eri7154798** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 9:07 pm

i had my entire mainboard replaced..i'm guessing i just got lucky with speakers from someone else..and they just sound a lot better.

Esben · #9 Post by **Esben** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 6:29 am

My father's T21 has incredible sound quality compared to the T42.
It is probably due to the thicker case allowing a better speaker.
Has anyone considered replacing the speaker for a better model?
Which speaker would fit?

cerebral_mamba · #10 Post by **cerebral_mamba** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:29 pm

Replacing the built in speakers would b exchanging one donkey for an other. Its a lateral jump that I personally feel is not worth at all. No matter what you manage to put in, it will not get close to a decent headphone.

But if you want better sound output for connecting to external speakers, external amplifier or just a good quality $100ish headphones, then I would recommend the Echo Indigo IO/DJ. I use it all too often.

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/CardBus/

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