I’ve had my Framework for a couple days now. It hasn’t seen any heavy usage yet, so take my opinion with that in mind.
My initial reaction as that the speakers SUCK. I was actually surprised at how bad they sounded. In that moment, I was sitting in a recliner with the laptop on my lap, so the speaker holes were firing half into my legs, half into the soft fabric of the recliner.
Last night, I was sitting at my kitchen counter and decided to watch a Youtube video (a professionally produced video with good sound characteristics) to give the speakers another try. With the laptop on a hard surface, the sound was definitely better and more clear. However the balance seems way off. Highs seem okay, but the lows seem muddy. The sound also sounds kind of hollow and echo-y overall…almost like the sound is bouncing around the inside of the case before getting to my ears.
I am no audiophile and there is A LOT I don’t understand about sound. What I do know is I’d rather watch a Youtube video or listen to music using the built in speakers on my phone rather than the Framework.
This is the one big thing (really the only thing at this point) that I’m unhappy with on the Framework. I’ve seen people referencing wanting bigger speakers. I guess what I don’t understand is, if a smartphone can have decent sound with little tiny speakers, why can’t a laptop have great sound with even bigger speakers?
Perhaps there are some adjustments I can make somewhere to improve the balance…if there are and someone would be gracious enough to point that out, I would appreciate it.
I just took a look at it myself. If their free plan doesn’t allow for it, you might want to look at another program to apply the EQ changes mentioned in the linux solution. I’m sure there’s free software for windows for that.
Here’s my attempt at improving the sound of the speakers. I have a calibrated measurement microphone (miniDSP umik-1) and set the laptop on a table with the mic about a foot back from the palm rest, and about 8 inches off the surface. I created a “semi” anechoic environment by stacking sound absorption panels on the sides, back, and top of the laptop.
I used REW (Room EQ Wizard) to record the frequency sweeps of the both speakers playing together. Based on the measurements, I used the EQ tool in REW to automatically generate corrective EQ. I limited the correction to between 100 Hz and 10 kHz and also applied a low end roll-off starting at 250 Hz. The dark red line is the raw measurement, and the light red line is the “predicted” response after EQ is applied. I did not repeat the measurement after applying the EQ since I created the filters later.
Then I applied the filters in EasyEffects (using pipewire) and set them to autoload the preset when the speakers are playing. NOTE: the leftmost filter at 101 Hz is a low shelf, the rest are “bell”.
This is my first attempt but I think it made a noticeable improvement in the sound. They are much less tinny and sound more natural. I don’t know how much variation in frequency response there is unit to unit, but I’d be curious to see if others think it makes an improvement to their laptop. I will continue to measure and tweak as I have time.
A few notes about the measurement… as you can see the speaker output falls off quickly below 400 Hz which is not surprising given their small size. However I did notice that below 400 Hz is where most of the audible buzzing and rattling came from the case so I essentially chopped off most of the signal below 400 Hz. The rattling is gone but of course when listening to music through the speakers there is no kick drum or bass, but it’s a worthy tradeoff for me.
There is also a rolloff in the high frequency starting around 7 kHz, likely due to them being down firing speakers. I found that boosting the treble to extend the high frequency to 10 kHz helped a lot with making voices sound more intelligible.
I had a big resonance at 450 Hz that I think is really important to tame since it showed up in multiple measurements for me, including using the internal mic, which was also noted by @gracefu.
I compared my FW to my Fire Tablet from Amazon for audio and the Fire tablet is quite a bit louder. I can’t speak to the sound quality but watching netflix on the FW wasnt working while moving around. I can hear the Fire Tablet much further away while doing chores. The tablet is only 1/4 inch thick…
They could be louder, its my only disappointment with the laptop.
Edit… I just installed FX Sound as suggested earlier…Its Free! and it makes a huge difference.
I’ll be honest, not a fan of the Framework speakers. I found the sound very underwhelming out of the box. So I went looking for anything that might help bring music to the “better than stock” level.
FXSound is it! (and maybe others, this is just one I tried and happy with). Unmistakable difference in volume, surround, and overall sound. I can now listen to YouTube and it’s “ok” instead of “ugh”
The new version is donationware, not here to promote a purchase.
I’ve been underwhelmed by the quality of the audio. Some of it may be due to software, but the loudness and quality of audio is really quite subpar compared to devices with smaller drivers. Galaxy Tab 7, Galaxy S8, Dell 5420. Using Crab Rave as a comparison baseline the Framework sounds hollow, a bit tinny and under-driven when taking into consideration the size that the speakers take up in the unit. IMO The S8 with a single tiny driver beats the framework in loudness and quality by quite a bit. The Dell 5420 beats the Framework considerably in bass and loudness. and the Galaxy Tab 7 blows all of them away in quality and loudness. I would love to see an improved speaker kit to bring the framework up to par. I was able to get a bit more out of it with some equalizer software but it’s still not there.
My hypothesis is that the drivers are just not optimized but I am not a computer engineer so my theory is worth very little. However, the free FXSound software completely changes how the speakers sound in quality and loudness. Its a significant improvement! I tweaked the Volume Boost setting like this and it sounds as good or better than any laptop, tablet I have used.
Windows seems like it addresses them like a different set of speakers; is it a different driver, or emulating drivers? I don’t know. But until FrameWork updates the drivers for these speakers or the DAC they changed to**, try the FXsound software. It seems to improve headphone and bluetooth sound quality as well.
** I have NO idea if the change from Realtek ALC295 to the Tempo 92HD95B mentioned in this article has anything to do with the weak speaker performance or not, its just my theory as to why the speakers are driven so weakly.
Speakers are the same between Realtek and Tempo.
If you want to apply an EQ that is reasonably flat I would suggest the following:
Frequency
Filter
Gain
Q
6000 Hz
Highshelf
4.85
Attenuation -20db/decade
5272 Hz
Bandpass
3.83
2.636
2016 Hz
Bandpass
4.85
0.672
1250 Hz
Bandpass
-3.49
4.167
600 Hz
Bandpass
-8.0
4
80 Hz
Highpass
0
Attenuation -20db/decade
This will be flat but not super loud. There is a small notch around 5272Hz due to the front port structure.
If you wanted a minimal eq, but to boost the high end due to the notch you can play around with the Highshelf and the notch at 5272hz. This will improve the clarity.
The highpass at 80Hz is just to limit DC to the drivers.
The Notch at around 600Hz is around the Fo of the drivers, but you could leave this off if you just want your audio to be louder.
@Graham_Lane Cranking the Dynamic boost is going to compress the audio which will increase the THD, but to many people will sound “better”. I vaguely remember some audio experiments that showed that if you increase the volume slightly in AB testing, that people will usually think the louder version sounds better.
If you want to get even fancier you could enable a multi-band compressor/compander and have separate EQ for different bands.
@Kieran_Levin Thanks for this. (BTW, I think you meant 80 Hz, not 80db.)
I am new to audio EQ, and am not sure how to translate this to EasyEffects, specifically “Bandpass” and Q. I assume Q is Quality, but don’t know how to set it to -20db/decade.
Could someone translate this to EasyEffects, and also provide a “louder” version. Thanks again.
@Kieran_Levin should the filter at 6kHz not be a high-shelf-filter? because when you use a highpass filter at 6kHz there is no more sound below 6kHz, at least when I use it, my graph in EqualizerAPO shows that as well and it does make sense that a highpass only lets high frequency pass.
I ask because there are probalby other people that get confused and the filters you posted here, do a lot IMO, I wanted to measure it myself as I did with other laptops before, then I saw this and it was already more difference than I got with other laptops.
Saved me time and got a better result already. So I can only say thank you!!!
edit: for everyone that needs the config for EqualizerAPO:
Preamp: -7.3 dB
Filter: ON HS Fc 6000 Hz Gain 4.85 dB
Filter: ON PK Fc 5272 Hz Gain 3.83 dB Q 2.636
Filter: ON PK Fc 2016 Hz Gain 4.85 dB Q 0.672
Filter: ON PK Fc 1250 Hz Gain -3.49 dB Q 4.167
Filter: ON PK Fc 600 Hz Gain -8 dB Q 4
Filter: ON HP Fc 80 Hz
(these are the values from Kieran_Levin - hope the first filter is the correct one)
Just because I haven’t seen this mentioned in the thread yet- my DIY edition had weird “clipping” or “distortion” at high volumes. Turned out to be caused by the WiFi antenna cable hitting the right speaker and rattling (because the speakers move a nontrivial amount inside the case for bass!)
I put in the EQ into Easyeffects, and the sound quality is improved. But still, these are about the most unpleasant speakers I have had on any laptop. Framework really needs to up their game in this area.
