18.2 Choosing Speakers and Headphones
Use the following guidelines when selecting computer
speakers
or headphones:
- Choose speakers appropriate for your listening preferences and sound card capabilities
-
Picking suitable speakers requires considering what you listen to,
how you listen to it, and the features of your
sound card. For example, if you
listen mostly to classical music at low to moderate volume, powerful
bass is less important than flat, transparent frequency response in
the midrange and highs. A high-quality set of dual speakers with
frequency response from 90 to 18,000 Hz and 4 or 5 watts RMS per
channel will serve. Conversely, if you listen to rock or heavy metal,
or if you play games and want to shake the walls, crystalline highs
are less important, but bass is critical. You'll
want speakers that include a powerful subwoofer. Similarly, if you
have a 3D sound card, it makes little sense to couple it to a
two-piece or three-piece speaker set. Buy a four-, five-, or
six-piece speaker set to take advantage of the 3D capabilities of the
card.
- Avoid cheap speakers
-
The very cheapest speakers, those that sell for $5 or $8 or are
bundled with inexpensive PCs, have sound quality noticeably inferior
to speakers that sell for even a little more. Speakers in the $15
range and above use better (and more powerful) amplifiers,
better-quality drivers (typically separate midrange/woofers and
tweeters), and provide additional features, such as the ability to
connect more than one sound source or a separate subwoofer.
- Stick with name brands
-
Altec-Lansing and Labtec are the best-known names in inexpensive
computer speakers. Each produces a broad range of speaker models, one
of which should be appropriate for almost any requirements. Creative
Labs, Sony, Yamaha, and others also produce good computer speakers,
although their range of models is smaller. Increasingly, well-known
names in home audio—such as Bose, JBL, Klipsch, and Polk
Audio—are entering the computer speaker market. Ironically,
their background in high-quality home audio means they tend to
publish realistic specifications for their computer speakers, which
make them look inferior to lesser speakers for which the makers
publish inflated specifications.
- Make sure to buy speakers with the correct interface
-
Most computer speakers use an analog audio interface, which allows
them to connect directly to the Line-out jack of your sound adapter.
Some computer speakers—particularly high-end four-, five-, and
six-speaker sets—instead use a direct digital connection via a
Digital DIN connector, an SP/DIF connector, or both. If you are using
a traditional sound adapter, make sure your sound adapter and
speakers share a common interface method. Some computer speakers do
not require a traditional sound adapter, but instead connect via USB.
- Consider using headphones instead of speakers
-
Even inexpensive headphones often provide a better listening
experience than good computer speakers, both because the cushions
isolate you from ambient noise and because it's
easier to render very high fidelity sound with the small speakers and
tiny power levels used by headphones. Headphones also allow you to
work (or play) without disturbing others. If you're
going to buy headphones, consider instead buying a headset, which
adds a microphone to support such functions as voice/speech
recognition, Internet telephony, and adding voice annotations to
documents. The only drawback to headphones is that most are not well
suited for use with 3D sound cards, although some specialized
four-channel headphones are available.
- Get a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee
-
With speakers more so than any other computer component except
perhaps input devices, personal preference must rule. Speakers that
sound great to us may sound mediocre to you, and vice versa. The only
way to know for sure is to listen to the speakers in your own
environment. If they turn out to be unsuitable, you
don't want to be stuck with them, so make sure you
can return them without a hassle.
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