HP’s been dropping Dr. Dre’s Beats audio into laptops and select TouchSmart 600 PCs for some time. Now that high quality on-board sound is finding its way to select HP desktops. Within the next couple months look for the HPE-510 and HPE-570t desktops. They will come primed with Beats audio by default while the Pavilion p6780t and Slimline s5780t will offer Beats audio as an upgrade option.
SPOIL
Why is this cool? Well, I’m not going to sit here and extol the virtues of Beats audio. BUT, if you are curious, I recently read Paul Boutin’s love letter to how Beats performs in the Envy 14 on the New York Times blog. Short version: You plug in any headphones and you get a richer, deeper soundscape than you do through garden-variety on-board audio. Want to get a little get bump, you can always opt for Beats headphones as well.
There’s a slightly nerdier take on why I think having this high-caliber audio on a desktop is key. This is the sort of stuff that used to require me taking up a PCI Express slot with a third party sound card, like something from Creative’s X-Fi line. Instead, HP engineers worked with Dre’s Beats team to craft a separately tuned and powered audio chip on the motherboard. Nothing extra to plug in, no extra space required. More important, it sounds good.
Obviously, it’s a little tough to convey through your current machine how these things sound. I’d encourage you to go to any store, bring in your own reference audio (you know, that Katy Perry song clawing around in your head and refuses to leave) and even your own headphones. Plug in and see if you can tell the difference. Just look for those TouchSmart 600 units to see what Beats audio can bring to your desktop experience.
Ask Ken Bosley. The worldwide product manager on the consumer desktop team can be seen here rocking out with an old-skool set of Beats. Because he’s O.G.
Have any specific questions or thoughts on Beats audio? We want to hear ‘em in the comment boxes! (You see what I did there? ;p)
