The two things you must consider when selecting speakers are usage and price, the former being the most important. Will you use your speaker for listening to training sessions, or will it be music? Will your music be simple recordings, or are you an audiophile? Are you looking for surround sound or home theater? Depending on your needs, prices can range from a few dollars to several hundred dollars or more.

To allow for a wide range of frequencies, most speaker systems require more than one speaker, particularly for excellent sound quality. Individual speakers are used to cover different frequency ranges. Subwoofers are speakers for very low frequencies; woofers, for low frequencies; mid-range speakers or high-mids, for middle frequencies; tweeters, for high frequencies; and super-tweeters, for very high frequencies. All of these are driven by a crossover network, which separates the incoming signal by frequency, in order to drive each of the speakers.

The power of the speaker system becomes important when you are building a home theater. It creates the loudness of the audio, setting the mood. Consider what your needs really are when you are building the sound system.

Most speakers will come with a 3.5 mm stereo plug to match the jack on your computer.

Now, with a better understanding of the workings of speakers and speaker systems, review the offerings of your favorite online computer store. This exercise will allow you to further explore computer speakers, and learn the inside details of selecting the correct one for your situation.

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