PC Hardware in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Chapter 18. Speakers and Headphones

No matter how good your sound card is, it’s useless unless you have speakers or headphones to listen to the audio it produces. Extreme high fidelity is usually unnecessary in PC speakers, both because system fans and other ambient noise tends to overwhelm minor differences in sound quality, and because most PC sound applications do not use or require high fidelity. That said, inexpensive PC speakers, with their 3” drivers and low-power amplifiers, often provide surprisingly satisfactory sound, and inexpensive headphones can produce sound rivaling the best consumer-grade audio equipment.

Speaker and Headphone Characteristics

Here are the important characteristics of speakers:

Number

Computer speakers are sold in sets. Two-piece sets include two small speakers intended to sit on your desk or attach to your monitor. Three-piece sets add a subwoofer, which resides under the desk and provides enhanced bass response. Four-piece sets include four small speakers, and are useful primarily to gamers who have a 3D-capable sound card installed. Five-piece sets add a subwoofer to that arrangement. Six-piece sets include a subwoofer, a center-channel speaker, and four satellites, and are intended for PC-based home-theatre applications. Most headphones use only two speakers, one per ear, but some use two horizontally offset speakers per ear to provide true four-channel support.

Frequency response

Frequency response is the range of sound frequencies that the ...