Need Speaker Advice!

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 04:16

So i have an Asus VN247H monitor and i need some better speakers for it. I use it for watching films and gaming. I need small speakers without a big box speaker thing for bass (i don't speak very good tech lol) that are at least half decent. I was looking at the Creative T20's and T40's. I was told that there isn't a point of getting good speakers if im just plugging them straight into my monitor so would spending £80 on the T40's be a waste of money? or even £55 on the T20's?

Any help is much appreciated guys.

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 04:37

Also, if i plug them into my monitor... will they pick up the sound from my ps4 that is connected to my monitor... because somebody told me they wouldn't which i don't understand. I mean if the sound already comes out of my monitor through the built in speakers while i play ps4 on it.... why wouldn't it if i plug speakers in to the monitor?

rids57 · 5 Jan 2015 at 05:03

Anything that you can hear through the built in speakers is also going to be available through the headphone socket, where that sound comes from is irrelevant.

I wouldn't spend more than the £55 for the T20s because the sound quality from the headphone socket is not going to be great and not worth spending more on.

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 05:14

rids57 said:
Anything that you can hear through the built in speakers is also going to be available through the headphone socket, where that sound comes from is irrelevant.

I wouldn't spend more than the £55 for the T20s because the sound quality from the headphone socket is not going to be great and not worth spending more on.

So not even those will work to their full potential? I mean how worse will they be? What about the sound quality will be worse and will it be very noticeable? And if the speakers are too good for the monitor, will speakers that are of a lesser quality sound better connected to the monitor than the better speakers? I'd be very happy getting the T20's for the monitor... i just want them to work well and get at least 80% of their potential out of them.

rids57 · 5 Jan 2015 at 06:04

Cheaper speakers will just make it worse.

I have no way of knowing how good/bad the sound from your headphone socket is so I can't really comment on what is the perfect match.

Do you have any headphones? If so, plug them in and judge whether the sound is worthy of decent speakers - it's not really something anyone else can do for you.

Marsman · 5 Jan 2015 at 12:00

T20's will be a good choice. I agree that there isn't much point spending more, as audio output on monitor's is never that great.

I disagree with rids, about trying any headphones you might have first though, to gauge the sound quality of the monitor's output. Reason being, is that speakers are amplified properly by the built in amp; whereas headphones rely on the power that the monitor audio output provides, which quite frankly is going to make headphones sound worse than powered speakers.

I wouldn't buy cheap speakers either, because they are not going to be as good. It's better to have decent speakers with a lesser output than it is to have cheap speakers with a lesser output. Good speakers will always sound better than cheap poorer quality ones whatever they are connected to.

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 15:11

Marsman said:
T20's will be a good choice. I agree that there isn't much point spending more, as audio output on monitor's is never that great.

I disagree with rids, about trying any headphones you might have first though, to gauge the sound quality of the monitor's output. Reason being, is that speakers are amplified properly by the built in amp; whereas headphones rely on the power that the monitor audio output provides, which quite frankly is going to make headphones sound worse than powered speakers.

I wouldn't buy cheap speakers either, because they are not going to be as good. It's better to have decent speakers with a lesser output than it is to have cheap speakers with a lesser output. Good speakers will always sound better than cheap poorer quality ones whatever they are connected to.

I was about to say.... because my earphones sound horrendous when plugged into my monitor. wondering how much better speakers are gonna sound now and considering not buying them. I mean it literally sounds like im getting the sound from my monitors speakers in my ears lol (probably worse than psp speakers).

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:13

Someone convince me it wouldn't be a waste lol. I need confidence.

Marsman · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:23

Speakers will sound better than your earphones. As I've already said, headphones have only the power provided from the output, which usually is not enough. Earphones usually perform worse than headphones when connected to a line out, as they tend to be lower impedance.

Speakers will be properly amplified by their internal amp.

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:29

Marsman said:
Speakers will sound better than your earphones. As I've already said, headphones have only the power provided from the output, which usually is not enough. Earphones usually perform worse than headphones when connected to a line out, as they tend to be lower impedance.

Speakers will be properly amplified by their internal amp.

And all monitors have an internal amp? Mine has it? The name of it is in the OP.

clayer · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:32

hi recently purchased 1st time speakers sound was nothing special just finished rebuild and added soundblaster zx speakers are 10 times better and there only a set of £30 2.1
very happy with them.
i would say sound card is far more important than quality of speakers

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:38

clayer said:
hi recently purchased 1st time speakers sound was nothing special just finished rebuild and added soundblaster zx speakers are 10 times better and there only a set of £30 2.1
very happy with them.
i would say sound card is far more important than quality of speakers

Googled the soundblaster zx and theyre 90 pounds on amazon. not really willing to spend that much + the speakers tbh. It would also take up way too much space. I only have a small shelf to put the speakers on.

Marsman · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:42

Monitors with built in speakers do, but the amplifier is really only good enough for the internal speakers.

When I said "speakers will be properly amplified by their internal amp", I mean the amplifier inside the speakers, not the monitor.

All speakers need an amplifier. For mains powered speakers, it's built into one of the speakers. Plugging them into the mains powers the amplifier.

Headphones/earphones though, rely solely on what power is provided by the socket to which they are connected.

Fear Fyah · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:55

Marsman said:
Monitors with built in speakers do, but the amplifier is really only good enough for the internal speakers.

When I said "speakers will be properly amplified by their internal amp", I mean the amplifier inside the speakers, not the monitor.

All speakers need an amplifier. For mains powered speakers, it's built into one of the speakers. Plugging them into the mains powers the amplifier.

Headphones/earphones though, rely solely on what power is provided by the socket to which they are connected.

Very well explained. Thank a lot. Makes sense.