Hello and welcome to Lesson 11 in “Be Your Own IT’s” computer training program. This is going to be a little bit about computer speakers. There’s actually quite a bit to know about them. That’s why this lesson ended up being pretty long. We did a video overview to hit you with the main points. Besides how they work, plugging into your sound card, plugging into the wall typically. There’s a lot of different configurations of a computer speaker. You’ve got your standard computer speakers which would look something like this. You’ve got speakers that might have a subwoofer that help fill out your audio. This, for us, is must if you listening to music. Then you’ve got systems like this where you’ve got a complete surround‑sound system with a remote and all sorts of crazy stuff. This would be for somebody who would watch movies or being a game enthusiast. Remember that whatever you’re listening to or watching has to be in 6.1 or 5.1 Dolby surround sound for these sorts of things to really make that much of a difference.

Computer speakers are actually quite interesting and they’re pretty important. There are really only a few options when you buy computers. Most you see are the standard two‑speakers variation, some have the sub‑woofer. Very few other people have the surround options. The big drawback of the surround sound is the exceedingly large amount of cables. Wireless setups are preferred if you have the dough.

Speakers are truly plug‑and‑play for the most part. There’s really nothing to them. You don’t have to install anything. Sometimes those surround sounds will have some software that will help configure things, but, basically when you get a new set of speakers all you need to do is connect it to the power outlet and then to the back of your computer. They’re color‑coded, usually a green outlet. And, you should be good to go.

If you go with the two “satellites,” they’re called; these would also be considered satellite speakers. The subwoofers are not all that different than just the regular two satellites, but the subwoofer helps to provide a much fuller sound. If you listen to music or anything or play games, anything other than your typical day‑to‑day user, the change can be night and day once you add a subwoofer.

Full surround sound and all that, we talked about some of the drawbacks. If you watch movies, now with the rapid price drop in LCD monitors and plasma screens you can go out to Dell and get a 42‑inch computer monitor relatively affordably, and this opens the door to watching DVDs, watching movies, streaming movies off the Internet, watching TV, all sorts of things. For those things the surround sound is definitely a cool upgrade if you’ve got the room.

Speakers add a lot to the experience of computing, whether it’s listening to music, playing games, or watching movies. Make sure you do your research. We used to use Altec Lansing all the time, Logitech now is pretty popular. Do your research. Find out what computer speakers are good and which ones get highly rated, and try to pick one that fits your needs. If you have any questions you can always reach us at support@beyourownit.com where we would be happy to answer any questions you might have.