Can I improve sound PC monitor

kola · 22 Feb 2017 at 13:15

Hi all , I have a Benq Gw2760s monitor which I mainly use to watch blu rays I was aware the sound wasn't going to be amazing at 2 watts

which it isn't no surprise . Now if I use my cheap headphones its much better I was wondering if I purchased a set of decent head phones would this improve , or is the limiting factor the 2 watts form the monitor . sorry probably a stupid question

Radox-0 · 22 Feb 2017 at 13:26

The power of the speakers would not affect the headphones you buy, totally different things so would not be a factor. If you buy decent headphones, just plug them directly into the PC headphone jacks and voila job done. With a decent pair of headphones, it will sound much better then those speakers.

Glanza · 22 Feb 2017 at 14:50

What motherboard have you got? Most modern boards come with good onboard audio now.

kola · 22 Feb 2017 at 15:07

Glanza said:
What motherboard have you got? Most modern boards come with good onboard audio now.

HDMI from blu ray player to monitor . not using a PC.

Marsman · 22 Feb 2017 at 15:18

TBH, I wouldn't buy decent headphones to connect to a monitor's audio out, because they are not very good. They work, but are there for convenience more than anything else. Better to buy some cheapish speakers that are better than the monitor's built in ones and connect those the audio out on the monitor.

If you want better headphones, then if your BD player has optical out, you could get a SMSL SD793II DAC/amp; which will provide far better audio quality. Depends what you're willing to spend really.

kola · 22 Feb 2017 at 15:39

Marsman said:
If you want better headphones, then if your BD player has optical out, you could get a SMSL SD793II DAC/amp; which will provide far better audio quality. Depends what you're willing to spend really.

Yeah no optical out

should have given this more thought .

Marsman · 25 Feb 2017 at 00:07

Could maybe get some reasonably decent budget speakers and just connect them to the monitor's audio out. The low quality of the audio out from the monitor will be more noticeable with headphones than speakers.

Psycho Sonny · 25 Feb 2017 at 09:10

Marsman said:
Could maybe get some reasonably decent budget speakers and just connect them to the monitor's audio out. The low quality of the audio out from the monitor will be more noticeable with headphones than speakers.

how so?

if it's a poor source it's a poor source regardless of what you connect to it.

IMO he needs to get PC speakers that support optical out from his player. forget connecting to the monitor using anything.

Marsman · 25 Feb 2017 at 14:56

I don't disagree with that. I only suggested that as a possible last resort option, as his BD player has no output other than HDMI; and connecting some reasonable speakers to the monitor's audio out is a better option than connecting headphones to it. I did try connecting my stereo amp and speakers to by TV's headphones out, and the outcome was less **** than connecting headphones to it.

Depends how much money he wants to spend. He could get a HDMI SPDIF extractor and connect a DAC/amp to that, but then he's got to buy better headphones as well. If he was considering no more than £50, then some reasonable speakers are probably as good as it's going to get really; otherwise at least £100 for an extractor, DAC/amp and headphones.

hornetstinger · 25 Feb 2017 at 14:57

Just buy some active speakers, connect it to for the BD player's stereo outputs.

Marsman · 25 Feb 2017 at 15:14

When I said the BD player has no output other than HDMI, I wasn't just referring to digital outs, I meant literally no other outputs.

hornetstinger · 25 Feb 2017 at 15:15

oh right it's a budget BD player. Only other way is then a AVR, or a DAC with HDMI support, then select PCM on the HDMI out.

Marsman · 25 Feb 2017 at 15:23

HDMI SPDIF extractor will work fine. I used to use one with my Raspberry pi, so I didn't have to use the Pi's onboard audio, or the TV's RCA out, than having to have the TV on to play music from it. Not expensive, but that and the cost of DAC then speakers or DAC/amp and then headphones might come to more than what the OP was originally thinking when creating the thread.

Even on a strict budget, half reasonable speakers from the monitor's audio out is going to sound pretty good after listening to the monitor's built in ones.