I’ve been rocking my 11th-gen Intel 13" laptop for a couple years now and I love it very, very much. Genuinely, it’s one of the best laptops I’ve ever used. After using it for so long, however, I gotta say I do miss the top firing speakers that some other systems have, namely Macbooks.
I understand that with the design of the chasis that down-firing speakers are a necessary compromise to make room for the expansion cards but it still kinda sucks in my opinion. It genuinely ruins some of the enjoyment of watching content on this machine when the sound is at a less optimal position, especially if I wanna watch something with the computer on my lap. Hoping one day we get some option for a thicker chasis design or even speaker spacers on the 16". Honestly, I wouldn’t mind trying to rehome my 13" if accessories like that were added to the 16" and not just GPU upgrades.
Like you, I miss top (I would take side as well)-firing speakers…as well as these:
Fn-lock LED indicator
Sleep side-LED indicator
Start charging threshold (currently there’s only a Stop charging threshold)
Less bouncy display
Full-size Up/Down arrow keys
Back then, Framework was (for whatever reason) set the MBP 13 as thickness bar / target. Maybe they can start reconsidering the MBP 14 thickness in their next design iteration.
By bouncy display, do you mean the wobble when it’s open? That’s something that can fortunately be remedied with a hinge upgrade… Also a start charging threshold would be very cool on this machine, but I’ve never messed with charging thresholds in general (even though I probably should).
Aren’t framework laptops modular? Side firing speaker modules? You’d lose some ports but gain better audio. I’ve seen third party modules on Etsy. Until Framework decides to manufacture these maybe someone with a 3D printer and a little electronics knowledge could put these together?
I’ve spent a whole two seconds doing a search but these exist https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803464600418.html so someone somewhere sells side firing speaker modules. Just a matter of finding ones that would fit a 3d printed Framework module case and working out the USB → speaker power/communication.
Replacement internal speakers for a completely different laptop does not equate to-
someone somewhere sells side firing speaker modules
Side-firing speaker modules that are flush with the laptop sound like a challenge, both on the sourcing side and the engineering side. More likely is something like the Ethernet module that sticks out from the port, but I definitely would be less likely to use them if that were the case.
If you could link any modules you found on Etsy, though, I’d love to see them!
@mungussh you seem to miss my point. I was simply demonstrating that laptop speaker modules can be purchased. Which means it’s entirely plausible for someone to engineer third party ones.
In regard to size the speakers that currently fit in the laptop we have speakers that fit in phones and tablets. Speaker tech is such that not a lot of space is required.
It appears the ones I saw on Etsy are gone. Or Etsy’s search is that bad which seems equally as likely. That said there are things like this https://youtu.be/0_uOzNt-xwY?si=Irm2EuDvHixVXLLy to show engineering complete third party modules.
Side firing speaker modules? You’d lose some ports but gain better audio. I’ve seen third party modules on Etsy. Until Framework decides to manufacture these maybe someone with a 3D printer and a little electronics knowledge could put these together?