which MBP for best audio

Grant

Grant

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Which machine has the best audio output ?
By output - not onboard speakers, but via earphone port / thunderbolt / hdmi / wifi / bluetooth etc.

My typical use in order:
earphones
wifi > av receiver > speakers
wifi > apple tv > tv > soundbar
bluetooth > soundbar

oddly, and almost bizarre - one of the best machines i had was an ancient mbp (around 2007 model) running el capitan.
itunes had a 3rd party plugin called srs iwow.
tweaking the itunes equaliser together with a good fiddle with iwow produced velvety clean sound - specifically a deep low frequency but sharp bass.

the new laptop will be primarily used for mail, web browsing, audio and video playback & editing (home use stuff, i'm not an audio or video pro).
typical 3rd party apps would be handbrake, mpeg streamclip, audacity, quicktime player7 - just regular non-pro stuff

perhaps the more technical ppl may understand the screenshot below - from vlc, "stats" on something playing right now.
Screen Shot 2025-06-17 at 21.59.47.jpg

suggestions ?
 
Macbook Pro. (Apple Silicon).

I think the DAC and amp are able to power even high impedance headphones.
 
Grant said:
Which machine has the best audio output ?
By output - not onboard speakers, but via earphone port / thunderbolt / hdmi / wifi / bluetooth etc.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure one is any better than another when you remove on-board speakers from the equation.
 
Why not just get an external DAC since you are wiring it all up anyway? Something like the Dragonfly Black.

Then you’ve got 100’s of options and you can use any source really.

That being said the Apple DAC’s are great and any of the Apple Silicon series would do you just fine, unless you specifically want to go higher than kHz.

The only limitation would potentially be headphones if you wanted to drive some very serious ones, but quality shouldn’t be an issue and they are geared for high impedance.

A better question would be what are your needs of the machine otherwise, but a MacBook Air would most likely do you fine even as a power user unless you have very specific processing needs.

Use high-impedance headphones with your Mac - Apple Support

You can connect high-impedance headphones directly to compatible Mac computers introduced in 2021 or later.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

Play high sample rate audio on your Mac - Apple Support

The hardware digital-to-analog converter (DAC) built into compatible Mac computers supports sample rates of up to 96 kHz.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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bwana said:
I'm not sure one is any better than another when you remove on-board speakers from the equation.
Click to expand...

Yup plenty of blind tests couldn’t distinguish the Apple units from external DACs, but the placebo effect is very real when the brands are known and right in front of you.
 
Grant said:
perhaps the more technical ppl may understand the screenshot below - from vlc, "stats" on something playing right now.
View attachment 1828356
Click to expand...

This will be the exact same on every machine you look at…because you are looking at the input and the results are more inherent to VLC itself than the hardware.

But I do have to ask why are you using the very painful application that is VLC to listen to music?
 
A decent converter is where you should be focussing here. Any mac will do fine as a playback engine.
 
Grant said:
thanks all

need to start looking about for a decent dac
Click to expand...

Which would be pointless since like I said plenty of blind tests have confirmed they aren't any better than the built-in one on any modern Apple Silicon Mac.

Unless your intention is to use it on the old existing one that is.

Also bear in mind for all these applications listed it will do absolutely nothing.

wifi > av receiver > speakers
wifi > apple tv > tv > soundbar
bluetooth > soundbar
 
right

i grabbed a clone of a very old mbp, running snow leopard with itunes 11.4 (with srs iwow installed).
booted into the old clone drive and ran itunes 11.4.
the difference in audio quality out of old itunes is breathtaking - so much so that itunes is again pure joy to listen to.

so - grabbed an old mbp (a back shelf relegation).
uninstalled itunes 12.8.3.1.
installed itunes 11.4 (a bit of a tricky process - have to back up current and previous itunes library files etc).
installed iwow.

so now an 8yr old mbp that was running itunes 12.8.3.1, but now running itunes 11.4 soulds like a completely different machine - and is producing vastly superior sound than out of "music" on a 2yr old mbp m3.

i find it somewhat baffling - i cant believe iwow is the sole factor, iwow is a simple plugin- there must be something hidden somewhere in the architecture of the differing versions of itunes / music.

srs iwow.jpg

in any event, getting either a mbp m4, 14", or mbp m4 16" thru an old contact at core, in jhb - both are "display / demo" units i can get at a good price (vs current new retail price).

still have a few things to figure out, but i feel i'm about to slide down a bottomless rabbit hole
 
SauRoNZA said:
Which would be pointless since like I said plenty of blind tests have confirmed they aren't any better than the built-in one on any modern Apple Silicon Mac.

Unless your intention is to use it on the old existing one that is.

Also bear in mind for all these applications listed it will do absolutely nothing.

wifi > av receiver > speakers
wifi > apple tv > tv > soundbar
bluetooth > soundbar
Click to expand...
i've completely changed direction on this - see post above
 
SlinkyMike said:
I spent a pretty penny on a Meridian Explorer2 many moons ago. Used it for years, more than adequate, class compliant USB.
Click to expand...
ive got some pretty high end audio equipment i inherited when my father died - he was the quintessential audiophile - on a never-ending quest for perfection.
some stuff i sold, some i gave away, some i kept.

as much as music may be my true love, i could never bring myself to part with the kind of money some equipment costs.
i pulled out a nakamichi dat player / recorder from the store room last week - going to fiddle with it and see what is on all the dat tapes.
there is also a teac reel to reel tape player in there - sexy looking, but completely obsolete - like the dat player.
i had an old sony dat walkman and sony mini disc player - also relegated to ye olde "box 'o crap".
decided to sell them - figuring there must be collectors out there. both were snapped up within 24hrs.
exploring old stuff can be interesting !
2024-11-17 at 10.05.24.jpeg
IMG_20240725_213520.jpg
 
Grant said:
right

i grabbed a clone of a very old mbp, running snow leopard with itunes 11.4 (with srs iwow installed).
booted into the old clone drive and ran itunes 11.4.
the difference in audio quality out of old itunes is breathtaking - so much so that itunes is again pure joy to listen to.

so - grabbed an old mbp (a back shelf relegation).
uninstalled itunes 12.8.3.1.
installed itunes 11.4 (a bit of a tricky process - have to back up current and previous itunes library files etc).
installed iwow.

so now an 8yr old mbp that was running itunes 12.8.3.1, but now running itunes 11.4 soulds like a completely different machine - and is producing vastly superior sound than out of "music" on a 2yr old mbp m3.

i find it somewhat baffling - i cant believe iwow is the sole factor, iwow is a simple plugin- there must be something hidden somewhere in the architecture of the differing versions of itunes / music.

View attachment 1828534

in any event, getting either a mbp m4, 14", or mbp m4 16" thru an old contact at core, in jhb - both are "display / demo" units i can get at a good price (vs current new retail price).

still have a few things to figure out, but i feel i'm about to slide down a bottomless rabbit hole
Click to expand...

I suspect it's not the different versions or even Music being a problem but rather features you likely had enabled (or only available in one over the other.

There are functions like Sound Enhancer (I don't use this as I feel it fiddles too much) and Sound Check in Music that could take them either way and make them sound perceivably different for volume levels changing, but the idea of Sound Check is to normalise volumes across different songs so they are all the same and you don't get some surprises.

It could also come down to the Audio Quality settings in either limiting it.

Obviously there's also a chance you have Graphic Equaliser enabled on the one but not the other, or different profiles loaded in either although I expect that to transfer between the different versions of iTunes but probably not all the way to Music.

What you are doing with iWow is effectively a graphic equaliser and volume leveller and many will perceive different volumes as a quality difference.

The same options are available to you in Music to a lesser degree under Window > Equaliser.

Some would argue iWow is fiddling too much with the source and not giving you a true representation of the studio recording, where iTunes/Music would b more pure.

How were you listening to these to compare? I see the Polk Magnifi in the screenshot but not sure how you are connected to it.
 
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I'm listening to A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step right now with my Sennheisers wired to my M1 Pro and playing via Music on MacOS Tahoe and it's as faultless as it has ever been.
 
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