It’s not a soundbar, and it’s not cheap, but I’ve been using a set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers on my Mac for many years (originally purchased for use with a 2002-era PowerMac). They sound incredible and I am very pleased to see that they’re still being made 20 years later.
This feels like an easier argument. The screen on the iMac will be so much bigger and better, and the performance so much greater, that everything will feel a lot faster until you become accustomed to it. Then you really won’t like going back to the old laptop. 
A much tougher argument is that anyone should upgrade from an older 27-inch Retina iMac to the latest model. There are some performance enhancements, of course, but they may not be noticeable, and there are some connectivity improvements, but overall, I don’t think I’d recommend such an upgrade unless the old Mac was feeling slow or flaky (for me, the latter was true).
Adam this is not related to the Mojave issue but I wanted to get your input to an issue I am experiencing with my new iMac 27in I know you have the same model. I am experiencing regular restarts which I have just started to log 9/29 10/2 10/7. I checked the apple support site and it seems this is a common issue for many users, each time I send the report to Apple they must have thousands by now. The first line always contains the word panic, I wonder if any of our erudite colleagues would like a shot at explaining this phenomenon, I’ll be happy to upload the report if required. Restarting is perfect and I have no other problems.
Sounds like you’re getting kernel panics—sorry! Have you updated to the most recent version of Catalina? I’m not seeing any such issues with mine, but I do see some suggestion that the problem might be related to the Radeon Pro 5700 XT graphics card. Do you have that? I don’t—I stuck with the 5500 XT.
As one who got his iMac in late August (with the Radeon Pro 5700 (not XT) card), I think that I saw one kernel panic. However, I haven’t seen any since doing the latest operating system upgrades.
Thanks Adam I also stuck with the 5500 yes I do have the latest version only difference I can think of is I replaced 8GB of Apple memory with 2 x 32GB of Kingston DDR4 2666 Retina 5K 27inch. KCP 426SD8/32 but I noticed in the about this Mac panel this Your Mac contains 4 memory slots, each of which accepts a 2667 MHz DDR4 memory module. Have I screwed up I was assured the memory was correct.
Mike
I replaced the 2 8GB Apple Memory with 2 16GB OWC Memory. Note that Apple recommends that you should try to equalize memory between channels, which, in practice, means using alternate slots rather than adjacent slots for 2 identically sized memory cards. I directly replaced the Apple cards so that I am in slots 2 and 4. See item 9 in the Installing Memory section of this.
If you look at the memory tab in ‘About This Mac’ the 2 occupied slots should show up as next to each other rather than one above the other.
I did that as before in the previous Mac I simply can’t think what it could be. I’ve contacted Kingston for their comments. Thanks for responding.
It may just be defective RAM.
Thanks Conrad I am checking with the supplier.
Mike
I’m comforted that you had only one I have had many I am now logging them should be due one in next day or so. Kingston supplier is prepared to replace the memory but suggested I reinstall the Apple memory and see if I have the same problem. Am I right in thinking that this can only be a hardware problem (fingers crossed)? I had Kingston in my previous Mac and no problem for 7 years and still going strong.
Having read your post again I checked and I had put my memory dimms into 1 and 3 so I have changed them to 2 and 4. Let’s see
Would someone confirm or deny that Office for Mac 2016 (or at least Excel) will run on the new iMac? I have been assured by The One Who Knows Me Best that I will consider Office 365 a significant step on the path of making the user interface more annoying at each new edition of Office. Thanks.
On somewhat different topic, am I correct that Office for Mac 2016 has no chance of running on a new Mac with an Apple M1 chip? Thanks again.
I would assume you will be able to run Office 2016 through Rosetta 2 on an M1 Mac.
Latest iMac with 3,6 GHz 10‑Core Intel Core i9 or latest Macbook Air with Apple M1? Which one should I take if I have a fixed amount of money? (The Macbook decision would of course include all peripherals like display, hub etc.)
If one of the choices is a ten core Intel, I’d wait (if you are able) to see if Apple releases a more powerful M1 with more cores and more thunderbolt ports next spring. These new computers are replacing Intel machines on the low end of the line.
@ddmiller makes a good point. You’re comparing a fairly beefy and mature desktop Mac to brand new product and what is bound to become the lowest end AS Mac. So I’d agree with him that you should wait if you can.
For the sake of continuing this thread though I’ll act as if you cannot wait and need to make that decision now. I take it from your last comment that buying a large high-quality display and a serious TB3 dock are a given. In that case I indeed would not hesitate to get a portable Mac. That way you get a svelte Mac you can take anywhere you want, but when you get back to the desk, you hook it up to a single cable to turn it into a full desktop Mac with large screen, good peripherals, etc. I’ll mention I definitely am biased. This is how I choose my main work Mac.
I have to admit I never got the appeal of the iMac. Sure it’s nice to look at and it’s got a beautiful screen and usually presents good value (high-end MBP plus good display plus TB dock is not cheap), but this idea that you have to throw out a perfectly good screen whenever you want to upgrade your CPU I always found jarring. I never liked the idea that although it’s a desktop, you can’t really service anything yourself (so no swapping disks for example). I could never stand the fact that iMacs (like Apple’s Cinema Displays) offers insufficient adjustability: who buys a beautifully designed Mac to then stack it up on old coffee stained phone books? If the iMac were substantially cheaper or offered much more horsepower I guess I’d get it, but the one iMac that does offer that is the iMac Pro and that’s by no means inexpensive.
The M1 is no slouch. There is some justified concern about the tight thermal envelop of the MBA and possible throttling of its M1 due to the fanless design. Early benchmarks do not underscore that concern, but proper testing remains to settle that issue. If indeed that would be a serious issue for you, you could always spend an extra $250 to get the M1 13" MBP. It’s very similar to the MBA but it has a fan.
Thanks for your comments!
This remark was especially valuable since I was not giving it too much thought before.