Loud sound speaker For PC Archives

What are the best, reasonably inexpensive hardware and/or software solutions to improve a PC’s crappy sound? We find the audio of TV programmes hard on our ears, bass too loud, and the high notes are several db lower than normal due to our age. We use our PCs to listen to classical music as well.

Our operating system is Microsoft Windows 7, default device: Realtek speakers. Our speakers are cheap Creative MF 0055 2.0 Series. Are the standard sound boards that come with most PCs suitable or is a better one required? (We live in Canada and subscribe to the Guardian.) Mario

A PC is a poor source for hi-fi, but that probably doesn’t matter if you mainly want to change the sound to suit your ears. In the long term, I expect you will have to buy better speakers. However, you can start by experimenting with Windows’ settings and, perhaps, some audio utilities.

Sound software

It seems your PC has a Realtek audio chipset on the motherboard – actual sound cards are rare nowadays. You should therefore have Realtek software bundled with Windows 7. To run it, click the Start button and type Realtek in the search box. When Realtek HD Audio Manager comes up, click the name to run it.

When Realtek starts, check that the speaker configuration is set to stereo, then select the tab marked “Sound Effects”. The bottom half of this page offers an equalizer to adjust the different frequencies in the sound, though it will probably be set to “<None>”. Look to the right of this box, skip the Reset button, and click on the rectangular button that shows a tiny screen. This is the command to “Change to graphic EQ”.

You should now see a set of sliders that change the loudness at different frequency ranges. To start with, all the sliders will be level, but you can move them to reduce the bass and increase the treble. Click “Save” and “OK” then enter a filename (eg trebletest) to keep the settings, and see how the changes affect the sound. You can fine-tune the settings later, or turn off EQ.

You can also change your PC’s sound by installing a program, such as DFX Audio Enhancer 11.4, which provides a lot of effects. The free version is unbelievably annoying, and doesn’t give you full control of the sliders. However, even if you don’t change any of the pre-sets, it does make a significant difference to the sound. Click to turn off Hyperbass and it may solve your problem with TV programmes. If so, it might be worth paying $29.99 or $39.99 (US dollars) for the full DFX Plus version.

Claesson Edwards Audio’s Breakaway Audio Enhancer is an alternative commercial program ($29.95) with a fully functional trial version. The company serves the professional audio market with much more expensive software, and it doesn’t have versions for Windows 8 or 10.

Active speakers

I think you are using Creative SBS 260 speakers at the moment. These were one of the cheapest on the market ($10 to $20 per pair), and have front-facing bass ports to make them sound bigger than they are. You can do a lot better, but choosing a pair depends on what’s available in Canada.

You don’t need lots of bass, so I’d suggest a traditional pair of wired speakers, with no subwoofer to provide deep bass. For example, consider the Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II 2.0 ($90) or the T40 ($110). These have more powerful amplifiers than the SBS 260, dedicated tweeters for treble performance, and their own volume, bass, and treble controls.

Powered bookshelf speakers are the next step up in quality. Examples include the M-Audio AV30 ($76) and AV32 ($99), Mackie CR Series CR3 ($100), and Cerwin Vega XD3 ($119). These are bigger and can provide better quality sound, but usually lack tone controls.

If you buy powered bookshelf speakers, put them on stands, or cones, or at least use four small balls of Blu-Tack to lift them off the desk.

For more information, see TechHive’s Buying Guide: Find the best speakers.

You could probably get an increase in sound quality by installing a dedicated Creative Sound Blaster card, but I think the built-in Realtek chips are good enough for your purposes. This has been debated endlessly online (see realtek vs soundblaster). However, I think you’d be better off spending your cash on better speakers or a small hi-fi system.

Feed a micro

The last alternative is to feed your PC’s sound output to a small (mini or micro) hi-fi system. I like the Sony, Onkyo and especially the Denon models, but Pioneer and Yamaha also make good systems. All of them include an amplifier with tone controls, FM radio, and usually a CD player in one box, plus a pair of bookshelf speakers. The amplifier should be much better than the ones fitted inside computer speakers.

Something like a Sony Micro CMT-S20 ($120) will do the job, but it lacks two useful features: RCA and S/PDIF input ports. The Sony’s only “audio in” is a 3.5mm jack plug. Better but pricier systems should have more inputs, including RCA phono sockets and one or two optical ports, plus Bluetooth and/or a phone dock.

There are several ways to transfer the sound signal from your PC to the amplifier. The simplest is to use a 3.5mm jack-to-jack cable, or a Y-cable (3.5mm jack-to-twin RCA phono plugs). S/PDIF (from Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) does the job better, via an electrical or an optical cable.

Check your PC’s manual (online if necessary) to locate the S/PDIF socket on the back panel. You may well find there’s a black plastic plug sticking out. Pull the plug, and if you can see a glowing red socket, then you need an optical cable. Your chosen micro system will also need an optical port.

If you make the connection via a 3.5mm-jack plug, use the green socket on the back of your PC, rather than the headphone socket. Sound levels vary, so make sure the sound is turned down before you play anything.

The micro hi-fi will enable you to play MP3 files and listen to video and TV sound from your PC, with the benefit of physical tone controls. These should help you cope with modern TV directors who drown out dialogue with overblown background music. You will also be able to listen to the radio and play CDs without having your PC turned on.

Finally, micro hi-fis have passed their peak, in terms of popularity, so you can often pick up good systems second hand for little or no money.

Have you got another question for Jack? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com

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Dynamic speaker with 4-pin connector
Date invented	1981
Invented by	IBM
Connects to	Motherboard
Use	loudspeaker built into most IBM PC compatible computers
Common manufacturers	several

A PC speaker is a loudspeaker built into some IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven (dynamic) speaker.^[1] More recent computers use a piezoelectric speaker instead.^[2] The speaker allows software and firmware to provide auditory feedback to a user, such as to report a hardware fault. A PC speaker generates waveforms using the programmable interval timer, an Intel 8253 or 8254 chip.^[3]

Usage[edit]

BIOS error codes[edit]

The PC speaker is used during power-on self-test (POST) sequence to indicate errors during the boot process. Since it is active before the graphics card, it can be used to communicate "beep codes" related to problems that prevent the much more complex initialization of the graphics card to take place. For example, the Video BIOS usually cannot activate a graphics card unless working RAM is present in the system, while beeping the speaker is possible with just ROM and the CPU registers. Usually, different error codes will be signaled by specific beeping patterns, such as e.g. "one beep; pause; three beeps; pause; repeat". These patterns are specific to the BIOS manufacturer and are usually documented in the technical manual of the motherboard.

Games[edit]

The PC speaker was often used in very innovative ways to create the impression of polyphonic music or sound effects within computer games of its era, such as the LucasArts series of adventure games from the mid-1990s, using swift arpeggios.^{[citation needed]} Several games such as Space Hulk and Pinball Fantasies were noted for their elaborate sound effects; Space Hulk, in particular, even had full speech.

However, because the method used to reproduce PCM was very sensitive to timing issues, these effects either caused noticeable sluggishness on slower PCs, or sometimes failed completely on faster PCs (that is, significantly faster than the program was originally developed for). Also, it was difficult for programs to do much else, even update the display, during the playing of such sounds. Thus, when sound cards (which can output complex sounds independent from the CPU once initiated) became mainstream in the PC market after 1990, they quickly replaced the PC speaker as the preferred output device for sound effects. Most newly released PC games stopped supporting the speaker during the second half of the 1990s.

Other programs[edit]

Several programs, including MP (Module Player, 1989), Scream Tracker, Fast Tracker, Impulse Tracker, and even device drivers for Linux^[4] and Microsoft Windows, could play pulse-code modulation (PCM) sound through the PC speaker using special techniques explained later in this article.

Modern Microsoft Windows systems have PC speaker support as a separate device with special capabilities – that is, it cannot be configured as a normal audio output device. Some software uses this special sound channel to produce sounds. For example, Skype can use it as a reserve calling signal device for the case where the primary audio output device cannot be heard (for example because the volume is set to the minimum level or the amplifier is turned off).

Pinouts[edit]

4-pin speaker connector (marked SPK) on motherboard

In some applications, the PC speaker is affixed directly to the computer's motherboard; in others, including the first IBM Personal Computer, the speaker is attached by wire to a connector on the motherboard. Some PC cases come with a PC speaker preinstalled. A wired PC speaker connector may have a two-, three-, or four-pin configuration, and either two or three wires. The female connector of the speaker connects to pin headers on the motherboard, which are sometimes labeled SPEAKER or SPKR.

Pulse-width modulation[edit]

The PC speaker is normally meant to reproduce a square wave via only 2 levels of output (the speaker is driven by only two voltage levels, typically 0 V and 5 V). However, by carefully timing a short pulse (i.e. going from one output level to the other and then back to the first), and by relying on the speaker's physical filtering properties (limited frequency response, self-inductance, etc.), the end result corresponds to intermediate sound levels, functioning as a crude digital-to-analog converter. This technique is called pulse-width modulation (PWM) and allows approximate playback of PCM audio. (A more refined version of this technique is used in class Daudio amplifiers.)

With the PC speaker, this method achieves limited quality playback; the quality depends on a trade-off between the PWM carrier frequency (effective sample rate) and the number of output levels (effective bit depth). The clock rate of the PC's programmable interval timer which drives the speaker is fixed at 1,193,180 Hz,^[3] and the product of the audio sample rate times the maximum DAC value must equal this. Typically, a 6-bit DAC^[7] with a maximum value of 63 is used at a sample rate of 18,939.4 Hz, producing poor but recognizable audio.^[8]

The audio fidelity of this technique is further decreased by the lack of a properly sized dynamic loudspeaker, even moreso in modern machines and particularly laptops, that use a piezoelectric speaker. The reason for this is that PWM-produced audio requires a low-pass filter before the final output in order to suppress switching noise and high harmonics, something that a normal dynamic loudspeaker can do on its own right, while a piezoelectric speaker will let much switching noise pass, as will many direct couplings (though there are exceptions to this, e.g. filtered "speaker in" ports on some motherboards and sound cards).

This use of the PC speaker for complex audio output became less common with the introduction of the Sound Blaster and other sound cards.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

External links[edit]