PC Hardware in a Nutshell, Second Edition

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 ...