When I was growing up, anything sound you heard through a computer was played through the PC speaker. If you’re not familiar with the PC speaker, it is basically a small speaker that is embedded within the computer. It makes the beep when your computer turns on, and other beeps when you have certain kinds of errors. Back in the day, however, every single sound would be played through that PC speaker. The computer was only capable of simple sounds, you see, and they would all come through the FM chip making various beeps and tones to play to anyone sitting nearby.
It is amazing how much the computer speaker has changed since then. Nowadays, even cheap computer speakers are light years ahead of what was around 15 years ago. You can have everything from portable computer sound to computer surround sound speakers. The trend seems to be that all electronic devices are becoming more and more integrated. Computers are merging with stereos via the medium of MP3 and other digital encoding formats. The computer speaker has to live up to the same demands formally put on stereo speakers. People have computer subwoofers, computer tweeters, and even receivers plugging into their computer’s audio output. A computer speaker, needless to say, is no longer a tiny little disc that beeps.
My computer came with some basic Altec Lansing portable speakers. Although the sound was pretty good, I found it a little bit anemic. One of the problems with almost every entry level computer speaker that I have seen is that they do not have enough bass. Although computer speakers are well known for the clarity of their sound, they are not known for body. If you’re listening to music all the time on the computer speaker like this, you may stop noticing it. However, to an audiophile like me, they sound dull and tinny.
I decided to use some serious audio gear for my computer speaker system. I actually plugged my computer into my receiver. This allowed me to use my stereo speaker as my computer speaker. Although I could still run things through the Altec Lansing computer speakers, I also had the option of flipping a switch and playing it with the brilliant, blaring power of my stereo. A lot of people recommend getting a computer speaker that has been manufactured for that purpose, but in my opinion, any high-quality audio gear works.