Thoughts on Surface Laptop's Omnisonic Speakers?

[anon(5415472)]

Omnidirectional speakers have now matured and are now obviously a thing. I first saw these on those futuristic magnetically levitated speakers years ago, but the sound was terrible! and when I say terrible, I mean horrible. Those first omnidirectional speakers barely deserved the name , they were basically ordinary speakers that spin in the air several times a minute. Their claim of omnidirectional sound was due to the fact that for a fraction of a minute the speakers are directed at you ( and most of the time at other parts of the room ) Listening to it is like listening to your favorite song played thru a police siren. Like I said, HORRIBLE.


The surface laptop is going to encorporate omnidirectional audio. It's in the name and the technical terms used on the surface laptop landing page. Instead of spinning your internal speakers (which would be crazy ), I'm pretty sure they're going to use a radiant ring. Now those things are a great improvement from the days of spinning speakers but they're said to be susceptible to hard surfaces. Which would make using alcantara fabric a brilliant idea.

My Questions and Thoughts about the omnisonic speakers.
1. omnidirectional speakers suffer from a lack of bass, will the surface laptop surmount this?
2. How about 3d audio sound, wouldn't this be affected by omnidirectional speakers?
3. How does Binaural sound on Omnisonic speakers?

 

[k1s23]

hey there. i know its not the most ideal of situations but how about trying them out in a microsoft store? there will be background noise but at least you can test them out. im sure the surface team thought a lot about this combination of this particular type of speaker and alcantara fabric so i have faith they sound great.

 

[anon(5415472)]

hey there. i know its not the most ideal of situations but how about trying them out in a microsoft store?

There isn't one nearby. To go to the nearest one, I'd have to book a flight
:grin: So the only way is to ask.

If you ever go near a microsoft store, play your favorite song on one at full volume and let me know how it goes. :wink:

 

[k1s23]

There isn't one nearby. To go to the nearest one, I'd have to book a flight
:grin: So the only way is to ask.

If you ever go near a microsoft store, play your favorite song on one at full volume and let me know how it goes. :wink:

same with me, there isnt a store near here and id have to fly in an airplane to get to the nearest store. hopefully someone that posts in the windows central forum can test them out and report how they sound!

 

[kaktus1389]

Well Panos said they've spent a lot of time developing that audio technology and I am sure they wouldn't put something that doesn't function too well on a Surface product.

I think there shouldn't be any major problems with bass, can't say anything about other stuff you've mentioned since I got slightly lost there :sweaty: Panos did say though that they've built in the speakers to the keyboard also to make the music more real like it's all around you and not away from you like on other speakers that are built into screens.

 

[k1s23]

Well Panos said they've spent a lot of time developing that audio technology and I am sure they wouldn't put something that doesn't function too well on a Surface product.

I think there shouldn't be any major problems with bass, can't say anything about other stuff you've mentioned since I got slightly lost there :sweaty: Panos did say though that they've built in the speakers to the keyboard also to make the music more real like it's all around you and not away from you like on other speakers that are built into screens.

are there speakers built into laptop screens?! or are you talking about monitors with the speakers not facing its user? the technology and the thought gone into something like speakers in the surface laptop is unbelievable. i give the surface team huge credit for coming up with new methods of things that have been commonplace for a long time.

 

[anon(5415472)]

Update: There's been hands-on reports by reporters on the omnisonic speakers. Since the speakers are underneath the keys, the sound is muffled when typing on it.

Say WUT?!? :amaze: :evil:

Fortunately though, they said that the sound being omnidirectional compensated for the slight drop in volume.

But still....

 

[k1s23]

Update: There's been hands-on reports by reporters on the omnisonic speakers. Since the speakers are underneath the keys, the sound is muffled when typing on it.

Say WUT?!? :amaze: :evil:

Fortunately though, they said that the sound being omnidirectional compensated for the slight drop in volume.

But still....

thanks kram devil. so youre saying that when there is sound playing from the keyboard but the user is not typing the sound is okay but when the user is typing it sounds muffled? in a way im kinda not surprised to read this because of the placement of the speakers, but i make use of that audio jack heavily so it wont be a problem for me. thanks again for posting that.

 

[Drael646464]

Sounding muffled and having a drop in volume are two different things. I suspect its just a slight drop in volume when you are typing.

For music composition and watching media, the main thing is the richness of the sound.

 

[GG002]

I doubt that the keys themselves contribute much to the change in audio quality. However, I'm pretty sure that when your hands cover the "speaker grills" (i.e. the keyboard), this will change the sound characteristics somewhat. Then again, who usually enjoys entertainment with their hands glued to the keyboard?

 

[anon(5415472)]

Sounding muffled and having a drop in volume are two different things. I suspect its just a slight drop in volume when you are typing.

For music composition and watching media, the main thing is the richness of the sound.

I hear you and it's true, they're separate things. I searched for it again, and it was an issue of loss of audio detail (muffling) and not a drop in volume.

http://techinprod.com/2017/05/23/microsoft-surface-laptop/

but I mostly blast audio via miracast to my livingroom setup anyway so It's not such a big deal to me.

 

[Keeptechcoolandsimple]

I was at a Microsoft Store this past weekend. While audio wasn't one of the things I paid particular attention to, I don't recall sound being muffled to the point I noticed. The caveat here is that it being memorial day weekend, there were a lot of people around (ie.,lots of external noise). I'm pretty sure for the general populace, the speakers will be fine. For audiophiles or people who need high quality sound for work or what not, they'll probably get external speakers anyways. Personally, at home I have an external audio setup and when I'm out I use high quality headphones, so it's not that big of an issue.

When I get the chance though, I'll head to the Microsoft store and pay particular attention to audio.

 

[Photonsym]

I'm not quite a believer so I'll have to see wait and see. I like how its something fresh but I hope its different for a good reason and not to be different.

 

[Timbre70]

Is alcantara a dust magnet?

 

[GG002]

Is alcantara a dust magnet?

During the 6 months I've had my alcantara type cover, I've never noticed any dust gathering on its surface (no pun intended).