External Speaker On Laptop

[mussen]

I'm looking to get a set of external speakers for the laptop, as I've copied most of my CD's onto the computer, and also downloaded some music. Just curious what port most external powered speakers connect to? I'm partial to Altec Lansing, and was wondering if they can be connected via the USB port, as I don't have a 'line out', only a headphone jack

[RDN]

I use the headphone jack too. I have Sterno model SPK 422 STN - dead cheap 5 or 600 baht. They have tone and volume control. I use identical ones on my TV to improve the tone.

I also have some much better ones which I ought to connect to my PC. They are Niveous SA 330 9W. They comprise a central amplifier/bass unit and two speakers. About 900 baht from Pantip.

[Firefoxx]

The headphone jack *is* the line out jack. That's where nearly all speakers connect to. There are a few USB speakers, but because of that they can be affected by the USB stream being interrupted (the USB port is tied to the CPU), resulting in pops and clicks.

Speakers are a matter of personal preference. There are many shops that have speakers laid out and ready to connect. You can take your notebook with you and ask to connect to each one in turn, and make your own decision.

[penzman]

There isn' t much "juice" coming from the headphone jack. You need a pair of speakers that has a small amplifier in one of them, it then boosts the sound coming from the laptop's headphone jack.

[autonomous_unit]

There isn' t much "juice" coming from the headphone jack. You need a pair of speakers that has a small amplifier in one of them, it then boosts the sound coming from the laptop's headphone jack.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, the sound quality from the headphone jack is not superb, but whether or not it makes sense to use USB audio depends on how good the speakers (and your ears) are. I suspect nearly all of the little "satellite and subwoofer" PC sound systems are too poor quality to hear the difference, unless your laptop happens to have much worse than average sound hardware. It may be convenient though, particularly if you would like the music playing through one set of speakers while the regular laptop beeps and warning sounds keep going directly through the laptop speakers.

In the US, I bought a USB audio adapter that had fiber-optic digital audio output for about $70. I used that to connect to the input of my receiver, where you would normally plug in a high-end DVD player. There was definitely an improvement in sound quality, to the point where I could hear differences between different MP3 bitrates and ripped CDs (wav files). I was very happy with the change.

I also tested that same device with a very old 200 MHz Pentium laptop. It was too slow and low on RAM to run my usual Linux GUI MP3 player. But, I was able to set it up w/ the USB audio device and a WiFi card so that I could "push" MP3 files to it over wireless and get them to play via a very efficient command-line MP3 player. I never heard it skip once, so I am wondering how a modern PC could ever have timing problems w/ USB audio, as suggested earlier on the thread...

[Firefoxx]

As I said, the USB port is tied directly to the CPU, and dependent upon it. Therefore, if you're only using the laptop to play MP3 files and doing little else, there will be no problem with a USB sound adapter. If you use it to play CPU-intensive games or do any other task that requires a lot of CPU utilization, then there will be a problem.

Nearly all computer speakers sold today (unless you're going *really* cheap) are amplified.

[mussen]

The headphone jack *is* the line out jack

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks all for your help, I was hoping USB was available. Firefoxx, actually while the headphone and line out jack use the same plug, they don't have the same output, you need to be careful when plugging a set of powered speakers into the headphones plug, as it is possible to damage the internal amp on the computer as well as your external speakers. The line out jack is actually just a headphone jack that is set at 'low volume', and line out is suggested when connecting a set of powered (active) speakers, while the headphone jack is recommended for connecting non-active speakers or headphones.

[Firefoxx]

From the notebooks that I've seen, the headphone jack is indicated as the headphone/speaker jack. In other words, it's one and the same. I think that this is pretty logical since there are practically no notebooks that come with a dedicated speaker jack. Same thing goes for computers, where you can plug either a headphone or a set of speakers into the same jack.

But I think I get the source of the confusion. Most computers really make no real distinction between the "line out" and "headphone/speaker" jack. You can connect a powered speaker to any one without any problems.

[RDN]

....you would like the music playing through one set of speakers while the regular laptop beeps and warning sounds keep going directly through the laptop speakers.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's the most annoying problem I have - computer beeps coming out with the music