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At my parents house I used my computer hooked up to my stereo, I got my sound through there. It always sounded much better than typical cheap little £20 computer speakers.

Now I have moved elsewhere and don't have my stereo and am thinking of what to do to replace it. I am not sure whether I will buy a new stereo or some very expensive specialised computer speakers.

I am wondering. Is there any actual difference in the way a standard stereo system and computer speakers handle the audio output of a computer?

Are computer speakers somehow specially setup to work well with the output?

Is there any difference at all between the two or is it just for space/lack of a stereo reasons that only a minority of people use their computer with a stereo?

edit- I mentioned the cheapy computer speakers just to say I haven't actually tried any good computer speakers yet. I recognise the obvious fact that some the £100+ ones I'm considering will be far better. The question is, would they be better than a stereo.

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  • in larger rooms at higher volumes, the stereo will probably beat most dedicated computer speakers just due to the size/placement of the speakers, the amount of power used to drive the sound, and the likelyhood that the amp on the head unit will be of better quality than the computer speakers. this of course is dependant on having a means to connect the computer to the stereo for HD audio, which most decent off-board sound cards can do. if you are not an audiophile, you may be just fine with medium to high end computer speakers. Nov 25, 2014 at 19:48
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    This is off topic but, if you like a good sound, a good pair of earphone or headphone would be a much better way to get a good sound without spending a fortune. Unless you regularly held parties at your house, you probably don't need a speaker, and nobody cares about sound quality in a party anyway (it usually will be just too noisy to fully enjoy the sound, and if you play your sound loud enough to drown the buzzes, your neighbor will come knocking, unless you spend more money on soundproofing...).
    – Lie Ryan
    Nov 26, 2014 at 0:40
  • hi-fi stands for high fidelity, that should give a hint. hi-fi generally ensure a good minimally-distorted frequency response while computer speakers may not Nov 26, 2014 at 10:34
  • Generally speaking, without looking at the specifications (assuming they're accurate) no one can really say for sure, but only stereotype across small PC speakers vs larger home audio systems. Really, you need to try the comparison yourself between two or more systems. Nov 26, 2014 at 21:13

5 Answers 5

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There's a few elements here

  1. The size of your speakers determines the frequency range. Taking into account a few other things, size does matter - for things like bass and frequency response. Your 'stereo' and 'high end' speakers probably have more than one speaker - separate woofers and tweeters for example at the very least. Your computer speakers are 3 or so inches I'd guess. Nice stereo speakers are 5 inches and up, with separate 1-2 inch tweeters.

  2. The quality of your amplification stage matters a lot. Consider the difference between a large dedicated amplification stage, designed to drive large speakers with power to spare, and the onboard amplifier. It's possible to build small, relatively inexpensive class T or D amplifiers, but that's probably not the approach most speakers take. Modern speakers tend to be cheap commodity devices on the low end.

    This is one place where your parents' stereo probably has an edge.

  3. Inputs and outputs. You may end up needing to connect your PC to a hifi via spdif or 3.5mm -> RCA cable. Your hifi probably has a ton of input/output options compared to the typical PC speaker.

  4. The quality of your source matters - I don't bother with a nice amp for my laptop's onboard card cause it's terrible (Realtek is actually tolerable so finding a truely crap soundcard is rare these days). While some setups are forgiving, if you're feeding your awesome speakers garbage, garbage comes out. This is clearly not the case for you.

The average modern computer speaker either tends to be designed for surround sound with a ton of bass with 2.1 units, or just cheap garbage. A well made computer speaker (I'm currently using a pair of budget speakers from ages ago, from when they were pretty well built) sounds alright, and is designed for general use, and small size. A stereo is designed for music playback and wide frequency range.

There's a few reasonable middle grounds. The best options may be seasonal - so I'll speak broadly and link to resources.

Wirecutter has a great guide for computer speakers, and there's a good reason their number 1 pic is a near field monitor - an m-audio AV 40 (I'd love to get one, but they aren't sold here). You get a good internal amplification stage designed for music, a sensible set of controls and inputs. They're also a step above normal computer speakers.

You might also be able to get 'proper' speakers and just a simple amp (once again, class T or D is a good idea if size and cost is an issue). Some research would be useful here. Lepai is worth looking at amp-wise for a low cost option, and I've had good experiences with SMSL gear.

I realise you don't have the reputation to, but when you do, drop by chat, and I may be able to give more detailed pointers on where to look, and some useful places to look - for example, if you're American, Monoprice probably has some of the best bargains in audio, and I've thrown together some impressively good headphone rigs off cheap Chinese parts.

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  • OP now has enough rep to talk in chat.
    – user
    Nov 26, 2014 at 9:56
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    Regarding 4.: Most amps these days accept digital inputs (eg. via TOSLINK), which allows excellent quality even with crappy soundcards, as the DAC happens inside the amp and not on the soundcard. The data transfer from playback device to the amp will be lossless in this case, which eliminates one potential source of messing up the audio. Nov 26, 2014 at 11:41
  • I've seen nice speakers with USB as well. I was trying to keep it basic and focusing on the speakers since I risked geeking out over technology ;p
    – Journeyman Geek
    Nov 26, 2014 at 21:39
  • thanks. Its logitech I'm looking at computer speaker wise. I'm able to get a very big discount on their stuff. Their top of the range z906 is tempting me despite the price, or perhaps the 506. No idea what I'm looking at stereo-wise
    – craig
    Dec 3, 2014 at 20:48
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There are a number of differences, and how you want to use the speakers determines whether computer speakers or a stereo system can do the job.

Listening Space

There are three distinct ranges of listening space that need different solutions. Headphones are near zero distance from your ears. A wide bandwidth of sound can be reproduced with a single, small transducer (the internal component that produces sound from the electrical signal), using minimal power, and the sound is efficiently channeled to your ears.

With a computer setup, the speakers are arm's length away and you can position them on both sides of your head to reproduce a stereo image. As soon as you lose the direct acoustic coupling of headphones, you introduce additional requirements for the speakers if you want music to sound good. You generally need multiple transducers to cover the different sound bands and you need a lot more power than headphones.

The sound is localized. You can hear good, stereo sound at your computer, but at greater distances, you lose the stereo separation and the volume drops off quickly. Computer workspace is usually limited, which means small speakers. That's fine for mid- and high-range sound. Those requirements can be met with small speakers. If you want deep bass notes, you will need a larger speaker, even at that listening distance. High-end computer speakers will have a separate “larger” woofer for low-band sound. Because low-band sound is not sensed as directional, the woofer can be placed out of the way without seriously degrading the sound quality.

If your listening space is a room, several things change. To reproduce a stereo image, the speakers need to be a lot farther apart. To fill the listening space with sound, you need to move a lot more air. Mid- and low-range transducers need to be bigger and you need a lot more power.

Coupling the transducers to the room air at that scale can involve arrays of speakers, shaping the surface of the speaker cabinet or sending the sound through shaped channels, like horns. Sound reflections and travel time become important, so speaker placement relative to walls and furniture can make a big difference. At this scale, different styles and sizes of transducers are needed for different sound bands. It is common to have transducers of at least three specialized types (high, mid-band, and low), and this is sometimes broken into as many as five bands, each with transducers optimized for that range of frequencies.

If you are talking about audiophile equipment, that is still the province of full-sized stereo systems. It takes much more sophisticated designs to ensure that sound is reproduced evenly across the entire audio spectrum, everything is perfectly phased (wavefronts from the different transducers reach your ears at the same time), there are no resonances, the speaker materials don't color the sound, etc.

Speaker Design

There are some basic differences in speaker design between computer speakers and a home stereo. Physical size was already mentioned, as was the fact that home stereo speakers are likely to have a greater number of specialized transducers and more complicated and heavier cabinet designs. You can buy computer speakers that rival a mid-range home stereo in terms of sound quality, but they aren't scaled in terms of transducer size or power handling to replace a home stereo.

Power requirements drive another difference. The on-board sound card in your computer has a very low-powered amplifier that is adequate to power small, efficient speakers in the mid and upper bands of sound that you will listen to from a short distance away. For people who don't care about sound quality and just want a source of audio output, such simple speakers are available.

Most computer speakers that can reproduce something you would call music and can do it loudly enough to be listened to in the general vicinity of the computer will be powered speakers. These contain their own amplifier and you have to plug them into a wall outlet.

The kinds of speakers that are used with a home stereo require even more power. Low frequency sound, which tends to be lacking on computer speakers, requires moving a lot of air, which takes more power, and all of the transducers are generally larger because of the listening space these are designed for. Also, speakers that reproduce a full high-fidelity sound bandwidth, accurately across the whole spectrum, tend to be less efficient (more power required for the same sound volume).

In a home stereo, the amplifier is a separate component, which generally is more powerful, produces less distortion, and often has more controls for customizing the sound. The exception is that some sub-woofers have their own built-in amplifier that is designed for that job.

Interfacing

Connecting computer speakers is a little different from connecting the computer to a home stereo. The amplifier built into the computer speakers is designed to connect to the speaker output of the computer, which is a low impedance source. With this connection, the signal has already passed through the on-board amplifier, so there is some degradation from that extra processing step.

The amplifier of a home stereo connects to the audio output on the computer. This is a standardized audio signal interface that has different impedance and voltage levels from the speaker output, and bypasses the built-in amplifier. Using this interface, the sound quality will be comparable to feeding the stereo any decent analog source, like a component music CD player. If you are an audiophile, you might connect the stereo to a digital output on the computer, which would be un-degraded from the source material.

Bottom line, the primary difference that drives all of the other differences is how much air they move.

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    holy carp that's a long, well thought out answer.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Nov 28, 2014 at 14:29
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Is there any actual difference in the way a standard stereo system and computer speakers handle the audio output of a computer?

Electrically both accept line-level audio signals, but the typical connectors are different.
Computer speakers use TRS (3 conductor) 3.5mm connectors.
The typical consumer stereo system (i.e. the preamp input) uses RCA (phono) connectors.
Professional audio uses balanced audio signals and XLR connectors.

Are computer speakers somehow specially setup to work well with the output?

Computer speakers are typically active speakers, that is, the power amplifier is built in with the speaker transducer(s). A preamp with volume, channel balance and bass/treble tone controls may also be integrated into the unit.
The level of integration in a stereo system will vary, but active speakers are uncommon.

Is there any difference at all between the two or is it just for space/lack of a stereo reasons that only a minority of people use their computer with a stereo?

There are numerous differences:

  • Size: Computer speakers are intended to be placed on each side of a display, so they are sized to be small, and typically much taller than wide.
    Stereo speakers come in every shape and size. There's also the additional amplifier/receiver unit to locate.

  • Magnetic shielding: Obviously not a concern with almost every computer user nowadays, but if a CRT display monitor is used, then it must be shielded from the magnets of the speaker's transducers.
    Computer speakers, by their implied (historical) use with CRT computer monitors, have magnetic shielding. When PCs first acquired sound cards and required "computer speakers", every display used a CRT and it had to be protected from stray magnetic fields. So computer speakers were always manufactured with shielding. Whether every current computer speaker is still shielded in this day & age of LCDs I don't know.
    Stereo speakers are rarely shielded, and would be explicitly described as such if they were.

  • Listening position: Computer speakers are intended to be placed on each side of a display, so they place the listener in the near-field.
    Stereo speakers are typically intended for room placement. To select a near-field speaker, look for a studio monitor or similar.

  • Power handling (watts), acoustic output (SPL) and sound quality (fidelity: frequency response, distortion, SNR etc): Both computer speakers and stereo speakers can be found in a wide range of each of these parameters.

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  • As for the last bullet point; how about impedance?
    – user
    Nov 26, 2014 at 9:58
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There's nothing computer-specific about "computer speakers" that make them work, as you witnessed by using your stereo successfully at your parents house.

It's all about personal preference and resources for the most part. If you want quality sound, use quality speakers. If you want quality amplification, use a quality amp, etc.

"Quality" and "$20 speakers" do not usually go together. ;)

In most cases, a $20 no-name stereo is going to sound just as bad as a $20 pair of "computer speakers".

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If your home stereo only cost $20, then it would probably sound a lot like those cheap computer speakers.

Some home stereos provide for aux input (aka 3.5 mm headphone jack) in which case, the only difference in sound quality is due to the $$ invested in the stereo.

There are computer speakers available that can cost $100 or more, and they rock.

You get what you pay for...

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