The audio industry has really evolved in the last decades, and today you can find some really powerful speakers that are capable of giving you a great audio experience. And we are not talking here about the large speakers that are used for concerts, studios or cinemas, and we are talking about the speakers used by the home users.



They got really advanced these days, and they are not so big or heavy. There are many kinds of speakers that you can use in your home, for example: stereo speakers, 2.1 systems, surround sound systems, floorstanding speakers , in wall and in ceiling speakers, wireless speakers and also home cinema systems. All of the speakers mentioned, except for the home cinema systems will need an audio source to work, for example a computer, CD or MP3 player or others. The great thing about a home audio system is that it has all the components you need, for both audio and video.



So usually, a home cinema system will have 6 or 8 speakers and also an audio / video receiver. The composing speakers are exactly the same as in a 5.1 or a 7.1 surround sound system. So it can have 6 of them (a subwoofer, a center channel and 4 satellite speakers) or 8 (a center channel, a subwoofer and 6 satellite speakers). The sound of all of these speakers combined, will give you a great audio experience, and you can feel just like you are at the cinema when watching a movie, or just like you are at a concert or at a club when listening to music.

But beside the speakers a home cinema system also has an audio /  video receiver, that allows you to play all sort of formats of audio and video files. So today we are going to discuss about some home audio receivers. Let’s take a random model, for example the Pioneer VSX-1019 AH-K receiver. The price range for this product goes from 500 to 540 dollars, so it is quite expensive, but also good. The sound output mode is surround sound, and the surround system class is 7.1 channel.

It has a lot of features included and it is one of the best audio / video receivers for this price. It can even connect to an iPod or iPhone, through its USB port and allow you to browse the music by using onscreen graphical user interface. It allows analog video upconversion to 1080 p, and it has four HDMI inputs, allowing you to connect it to a High Definition TV and enjoy the movies at their best quality.

The dimensions for this receiver are 16.5 inch W x 13.7 inch D x 6.2 inch H, and a weight of 19.2 lbs. The color of the enclosure is gloss black, so it will look quite good, and will fit into your room. Here are all the built-in decoders of this receiver: DTS 96 / 24 , DTS Neo: 6 , DTS Express , DTS decoder , Dolby True HD , Dolby Digital , DTS-ES decoder , Dolby Digital EX , Dolby Digital Plus , DTS-HD Master Audio , Dolby Pro Logic II x and DTS-HD High Resolution. It also has an equalizer and a digital sound processor.



Some other features that it includes are: a sleep timer, iPod ready, dual-zone capability,  Windows Media Audio 9 Professional decoding and Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration Circuit. (MCACC). This receiver also has a headphones jack for the times when you want to enjoy some music or a movie by yourself, and digital outputs, both coaxial and optical. It even has a radio tuner, that works on both AM / FM frequencies and digital, allowing you to store up to 30 radio stations. The supported digital audio standards are: MP3, WAV and WMA, and also JPEG photo playback. It also comes with a very useful remote control. Enjoy it!

Every teenager must have used, or at least heard about the iPod. An iPod is a very small and portable digital music player that is really famous all over the world. It is actually the best selling music player in history, with millions of copies sold in just a few years.



The iPod was launched in 2001, and since then it had known a great success. There are a few models if iPod, each one with its own characteristics and each one with 2-3 or three generations. There were new features added for each generation, and today the iPods are capable of storing hundreds of songs. But they don’t store just songs, and some models are also capable of storing pictures, videos, games, documents and other types of files.



Usually any iPod comes with an included set of headphones, and this way you can enjoy your favorite music, without disturbing the other people. But sometimes (for example when you are at a picnic or at a party) you might want to share the music from the iPod with your friends and family. And to do this you will need to have some iPod speakers or an iPod dock. These are usually small and portable devices, with one or many speakers included. They are working on batteries, and they have a docking place where you can put your iPod or iPhone.

There are many models of iPod speakers on the market, from different producers and today we are going to discuss about some Ministry of Sound iPod speakers. One of them is the MOSA S 085 IP, also known as “Ministry of Sound iPod speaker dock with revolving display”. The price for this cool device is around 60 dollars, which is quite good for an iPod dock. It features a docking place for the iPod, and it will also recharge it as its playing. But the greatest feature about this model is that it has a display screen that will continuously show the name of the artist and song, album information and also the time and date.

The device also comes with a very useful remote control, that will allow you to have total control over the volume and the tracks, even from distance. It also features a headphone jack, 3 brightness settings and also 2 Bass Reflex speakers. So it will give quite a good sound, with all the sound ranges including some bass.



Each of the speakers has a power of 4 watts RMS, meaning that the total power of the device will be 8 watts RMS. This is not something really powerful, but it can be enough to enjoy in a small hotel room, or at a picnic, or in any other place you are traveling. But this is not all…the device also has clock, alarm and snooze functions, so you can wake up in the morning on the music from your iPod. This speaker is compatible with the iPod Touch + iPod Classis + iPOD With Video + iPod Nano First, second, Third & 4th Generations.

The computers have really evolved in the last decades. Many years ago they were really big, and they were not capable of doing advanced operations at all. But during the years, things had change dramatically, and today the computers (especially the notebooks) are very small, very lightweight and also capable of doing some really advanced operations.



And they are continuing to become even better, with state-of-the-art technologies included. And you won’t even have to pay a fortune to benefit from these advanced technologies…and you will pay around 300 dollars for  desktop computer or about 500 dollars for a laptop.



So the technology is becoming available for more and more people, and in time there will be more laptops than personal computers. In terms of speakers, we can consider that the laptops got back in time. The older versions of computers had a set of built in stereo speakers, that were not sounding so good, and were not powerful at all. In the time the audio industry had evolved more and more, and the speakers became external.

Today there are many types of computers speakers, in all sort of shapes, sizes, prices and with all sort of features. The simplest are the stereo speakers, and even if they are the smaller and simple ones, they can also have a lot of interesting shapes. For example you can find some speakers that are looking just like a gargoyle, or ones looking like a dragon. After the stereo speakers, there are the 2.1 systems. These are composed out of two small stereo speakers and also a subwoofer. The subwoofer will bring the deep and low sound frequencies (the bass), giving a new dimension to the sound. After the 2.1 systems there are the surround sound systems.

They have even more components, and these are: a subwoofer, a center channel and 4 or 6 satellite speakers. With all of these components, you will be able to enjoy a great audio experience. Beside the audio systems, there are also bookshelf speakers, floorstanding speakers, wireless speakers, in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, outdoor speakers and other types. And as you can figure it out, all of them are external speakers.

We have mentioned earlier that the laptops somehow went back in time in term of speakers. And this is because a laptop comes with built in stereo speakers, just like the old models of computers. Of course they sound a little better than those old integrated speakers, but still they are not that good. But this is not such a big problem, and if you want a better sound quality for your laptop, than you can buy some speakers for it. If you want to enjoy the better sound just at your home, then you can buy some regular and more powerful stereo speakers, or a 2.1 system, or even a surround sound system.



But you will be able to use these only at your home, and when you’ll be on the road, you will still have to use the integrated speakers of the laptop. But there is a solution for this problem too, and this is to buy some USB speakers. These are usually small and portable speakers that can be used even when you are on the road. So you might wonder where they get their energy from, because you can’t connect them to an AC adapter when traveling for example by train. They don’t run with batteries either, and they are getting the power right from the laptop. They have just one cable, which is both for the audio signal and for power.

Bose is one of the largest producers of audio equipments in the world. It produces and commercialize all sort of speakers for  home users, entertainment industry, automotive industry and even for boats. The motto of the company is that the music must be the ultimate benefit for the user, and not the equipment itself. Bose was founded back in 1964 by professor Amar G. Bose.



In that time there weren’t such good models of speakers for the home users, and he was disappointed that these speakers can’t bring the sound of a real concert into someone’s room. He made a lot of researches and he came with the 901 Direct Reflecting speakers, that set a new standard of the market on that time, and the years to com. The company continued to develop and to bring new inventions to the audio market.



So the company has a lot of experience in the domain, therefore when buying a product from Bose, you can be sure that it is among the best ones. Today you can enjoy the Bose sound quality in so many places, from outdoor arenas to small stores and restaurants, from your own room to your car (if you are driving a car like Alfa Romeo, Audi, Cadillac, Ferrari, Infiniti, Hummer, Mercedes, Porsche)…and even in your boat.

Even though Bose offers just one model of marine speakers, they are quite good speakers, and today we are going to discuss more about them. This model is called “131 marine speakers” and has an official price of 238 dollars. But you may want to search for this model on some retail stores or auction sites, because it is possible to find it even cheaper. These are quite small speakers with ported enclosure for a high quality audio performance.

We all know that the conditions on the sea may get really difficult some times, and that’s why these speakers are made to resist on snow, rain, sun light exposure, salty water and extreme temperatures. They also come with a warranty of three years, so in this time you can stay relaxed and enjoy a great sound right on your boat, while navigating on the sea. With these speakers you can feel in your boat exactly how you feel at home.



The sound will be quite rich and clear, with all of the sound ranges, offering you a great music experience. They are designed so they can be flush mounted in the pre-cut speaker openings that are offered by many boat producers. Each speaker has dimensions of : 12 " H x 7.1 " W x 3.5 " D ( 30 cm x 18 cm x 8.9 cm ) and a weight of 4.5 lbs. (2 kg). The diameter of the grille has 8 inch (21 cm) and the mounting depth is 3.5 inch ( 8.9 cm). They have an Impedance of 4 - 8 ohms, and each speaker is compatible with receivers or amplifiers of 10 – 80 watts. So when used at their maximum capacity, you will have a total power of 160 watts RMS, which is quite really good.

Since computers have evolved so much in the last years, all of their components had evolved too. Here you can also include the computer accessories. For example the mice are a lot smaller than some years ago, they don’t have a ball anymore, and they can even be wireless. Also the webcams and microphones are getting smaller and smaller and more and more complex. And it is exactly the same for the computer speakers.



They are getting smaller and smaller, and also they are capable of giving a very complex and powerful sound. There are many kinds of speakers these days, such as: stereo speakers, 2.1 systems (made out of 2 speakers and a subwoofer), surround sound systems (made out of a subwoofer , a center channel and 4 or 6 satellite speakers), floor standing speakers, bookshelf speakers, wireless speakers, outdoor speakers, in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, and so on.



There are also a lot of big audio producers on the market, and here are just some of the big ones: Creative, Altec Lansing, Harman Kardon, Bose, Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, JBL, Logitech and many more. Today we are going to focus on the speakers offered by Logitech, which is one of the biggest producers of computer accessories in the world. It is selling it’s products all over the world, and it is offering a lot of speakers, from stereo to 5.1 systems, and from USB speakers  to iPod docks.

Today we are not going to discuss about a specific model of Logitech speakers, like we do usually, but we are going to say a few things about hooking up the Logitech speakers. If you are using some stereo speakers from the company, the installation might be really simple. Just connect the 3.5 mm connector of the speakers into the Line Out port from your sound card.

If you did this and you still have no sound, and you are sure that the speakers are running properly, then the problem might be from the computer. So you might want to check into the Volume controller from your operating system. Be sure that all of the volumes are at their maximum level, and that none of them is muted. If all of this is correct, then the speakers have to work.

Let’s move on to another situation…let’s say that you are using a 5.1 surround sound system from Logitech. Well in this case you will also need a 5.1 sound card. If you don’t already have one on your computer, we suggest to buy one. It is not that expensive, and it will really make a difference in sound. So after having the right sound card, you can move on to hooking up the system to the computer. To make the installation easier for you, both the connectors of the system and the ports from the sound card are colored in different ways. So all you have to do is match the colors, and connect them this way; it is not complicated at all. After that follow the same steps that we said before, for the volume control.



There might be another situation…in case you are using some USB portable speakers from Logitech. Well in this case the installation is the most simplest of all! All you have to do is connect the cable of the speakers into one of the USB ports from your computer or laptop. It is as simple as that! You don’t need to have a specific type of sound card, and you can even have no sound card at all, but the USB speakers will still work. So this was about it…have a nice day, and enjoy your Logitech speakers.