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March 12, 2008 Speakers Speakers to use with your computer come in a wide variety of choices to suit your needs and pocketbook. Unfortunately, your computer sound board (or mother board) may limit your choices. Although all computers have some type of "Sound Out" connection, the output may not be powerful enough to satisfactorily power non-amplified speakers. As a result, many speakers designed to be used with PCs are amplified by having an amplifier in one of the speaker cabinets. Let’s look at some of the options: Some flat panel PC monitors have non-amplified speakers built in as a convenience. This option is used where space is a problem, sound quality not important and the sound board supports direct connection to a speaker. A step up in sound quality would be the use of a pair of external amplified stereo speakers.
One example is the inexpensive, compact though stylish amplified stereo speaker pair, Logitech R-10 (www.logitech.com, $14.99); the unit features a volume control and a headphone jack.
For high quality sound, a reference stereo speaker pair such as M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 (www.m-audio.com, $149.99) provides an smooth, solid sound that makes listening a pleasure. We’ve recently auditioned these speakers, and they are terrific. The bass is well balanced against the midrange, and the high end is bright and clear. If you want more bass, there’s a bass-boost switch. Inputs on the back of the cabinet accommodate either the common RCA type pin connectors or TRS (balanced) input needed by some professional equipment. Also included is a front panel headphone connector and an auxiliary mini stereo 1/8" input jack. The front panel volume control is rimmed by a cool blue power-on indicator, and the power switch is in the back. The AV 40s are solidly built and measure (H x W x D) 8.75 x 6 x 7.25 inches. Excellent, clean, solid affordable sound from a professional audio company. Some speaker systems for PCs will add a sub-woofer to handle the low frequency tones. This takes the burden of reproducing these low notes away from the main stereo speakers pair and, in some cases, allows for smaller or less hefty speakers in the main stereo pair. Low frequency tones are usually non-directional, so usually only one sub-woofer is needed; its placement is not critical, so it can be placed anywhere. We have the sub-woofer under a desk, and it does fine. Sub-woofers are wired to accept signals from each stereo channel (left and right), mix the signals and filter out the mid and high tones, reproducing only the lower ones.
An example of a stereo speaker pair plus sub-woofer setup designed for PCs is Cambridge SoundWorks Amplified Computer Speaker System (www.cambridgesoundworks.com, $79.99). The version we’ve used has a pair of 3.5 inch stereo cubes that fit on the desk and a 6 x 8 x 10 inch sub-woofer that sits on a lower shelf. This is an economical system with excellent sound. The next step up is a surround sound speaker system, which comes in two types: 5.1 and 7.1. To take full advantage of this type of system, you need a compatible computer sound board that supports 5.1 or 7.1. The 5.1 variety consists of a pair of front stereo speakers, a pair of rear stereo speakers, a single front center-channel speaker and a single sub-woofer. The front and center speakers form the front sound stage, the rear speakers result in the surround effect and the sub-woofer, well, sub-woofs (as above). In the 7.1 variety, a pair (left and right) of "effect" or "rear surround" speakers are added. These are usually placed along the side and toward the rear of your viewing area.
An example of a 5.1 system is Logitech X-540 Speaker System (www.logitech.com, $99). The speaker set is a 70-watt 5.1 surround sound system with acoustically matched left and right front main speakers, left and right rear surround speakers, and a center-channel and sub-woofer speakers. Add the included wired remote control, and the system is ready to go out of the box. The front and rear stereo pair speakers use dual drivers for a fuller sound. For true surround, your computer’s sound board needs to support 5.1 surround to match the speaker system’s front, rear, center and sub-woofer inputs. Ours does, and the system sounds great when playing DVD movies and some games. Don’t have a surround sound board or playing movies or games without 5.1 surround? Then push the Matrix button on the remote, and the system sends synthesized signals to the center, rear and sub-woofer channels. The remote control also has volume, bass, and power controls and a handy headphone jack. The center channel speaker features an adjustable bracket that allows it to sit firmly atop your monitor.
The Creative GIGAWorks S750 (www.us.creative.com, $475) is an example of a relatively compact 7.1 PC speaker system. The 7.1 surround sound is more frequently found on new PC games. Some movies are encoded for this type of surround. A good quality PC speaker system will add greatly to your listening pleasure for music, DVD movies and games.
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