Pine book Pro Speakers

[User 6582]

Greetings PBP friends, 
Tonight I decided to dig inside and see what mechanical/ acoustical improvements I could make to the PBP speaker system. 

Background: Initially when working on my PBP, I noticed when playing audio, the playback was extremely harsh on the ears and a significant amount of resonance in the palm rest (back side of the speakers) My main goal was to observe and find some mechanical isolation solution to improve audio.

Observations: After opening my PBP, I found the following, A simple speaker, isolated from the metal bottom of the laptop (and speaker grill/opening ) by an adhesive foam surround. The back of the speaker (magnet side) is directly adhered to the plastic palm rests, located in place by molded frame apart of the palm rest. 

My initial assessment was that a significant amount of energy was being transferred from the speaker magnet directly into the palm rests, resulting in physical resonance and contributing to the observed acoustical resonance.  Considering the space as tight manufacturing tolerances, any mechanical isolation solution would need to be minimal thickness. With the above comment considering a MFG change could be considered, The cost of such options was in consideration. 

I tested Duct tape, Electrical tape, and athletic tape. My intention was to cut just enough tape, to fit behind the speaker, and isolate it from the palm rest. All produced significant reduction in physical energy transfer into the palm rest. The acoustical improvement is reasonable in my opinion, I would like others to test if this is a significant enough of a improvement. 

I have included photos of my work, my preferred choice was athletic tape (woven fabric tape, with high adhesive properties).

That's excellent!!
And sounds, forgive the pun, that the tape may be what relieves (absorbs?) the buzziness?
Clearer high level volume? Clearer in general?


Here's my thought, unsolicited: How about a drop of rubber cement on the magnet, sufficient to spread wide enough to cover the whole circular area of the magnet? Just enough to insulate the magnet.....

I'm not brave enough, nor have the time to try it right now. However, what do you think? :-)