# Make my laptop louder
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 26, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116 "2008-01-26T19:23:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116/1 "2008-01-26T19:23:05Z")
I have the application (windows media or iTunes) turned up all the way, the volume wheel on the side of my laptop is turned up all the way, I opened the volume icon in my tool bar and all sliders are all the way up…but it is still quiet.
Any ideas?
FWIW its a Toshiba.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116/2 "2008-01-26T21:45:22Z")
Ummm…unless you get some external speakers, I think you’re screwed.
You double-clicked on the volume icon and turned ALL the sliders to max?
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116/3 "2008-01-26T22:05:02Z")
Itunes (at least the Mac version) has an equalizer. The equalizer window has a gain slider, so you can use it to get some more volume, although it may cause clipping on some things.
Is the sound still clean when you turn it up? The speakers would usually start to sound distorted near their limits, and the amplifier will distort when it reaches its maximum. If the sound is still clean and clear, you can probably get more out of it somehow.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116/4 "2008-01-26T22:05:21Z")
Without some extra speakers, that’s probably it. Most laptops don’t seem to be built with room-filling, crowd-pleasing sound in mind - they’ve generally got tiny speakers engineered to fit a leftover morsel of space, rather than engineered to sound good and play loud.
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116/5 "2008-01-26T22:09:10Z")
Headphones might be a better bet than speakers.
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### Author:  [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116/6 "2008-01-26T23:16:54Z")
My Tosh is pretty low volume too. As **gotpasswords** says, they are pretty dismal speakers even if they have a posh name attached to them. Mine are Altec-Lansin’s but it doesn’t mean a thing.
External powered speakers are the thing, or a connection to your stereo, or headphones as a last resort.
I plugged mine into my dad’s seventy’s stereogram the other day and the improvement was quite surprising. My daughter has her iPod running through it now.
My son feeds the output from his Tosh to his Denon amp and Dynatron speakers. None of this is expensive stuff, all bought second hand from people who had to have the latest bells and whistles with no discernible improvement in quality.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-my-laptop-louder/435116/7 "2008-01-26T23:53:20Z")
I’d use external speakers.