Connecting speakers to a computer is an effective way of amplifying the sound played on a website, in a video or on a game. Some computers come with built in speakers. However, there are many instances where there is none and installing the right ones can seem annoying. First, you should determine what type of speakers your motherboard can handle. If you just want two basic speakers, all motherboards will be able to handle that. If you want a bit of a surround sound feeling, you'll need to make sure that it can handle a 5.1 audio setting.

Setting Up Speakers

If you're using two basic speakers, it's very easy to just connect the cables that came with it to the back of the computer. If you are using a laptop, plug the lines into the headphone jack. This will have the music play through the speakers. Many people typically only need these basic settings and therefore, setting up and connecting speakers is really simple. However, in some cases, people want to have more of a surround sound feel.How to Connect Speakers

To do this, you'll need to buy speakers that come with a volume controller separate from the subwoofer. While this isn't absolutely necessary, it makes changing the volume easier. The reason for this is because many people like to have their subwoofer under their desk. The bass carries more, so when mixed with the sound of the speakers on the desk, the overall quality increases when the subwoofer is lower to the ground. If the volume controller was connected to the subwoofer, you would have to bend over to constantly change the volume. 

Connect the cables to the volume box for each speaker. On the back of the volume box, it should say where each speaker is supposed to plug in. There will be a cable for each speaker and then you'll be left with three extra cables. These cables should also be plugged into the back of the box based on the color. These three cables are what will connect to the computer.

Take these three cables, turn the computer around and plug them into the three matching colors. Plug the green cable into the green jack, the blue or black cable into the blue jack and finally, the orange, yellow or pink cable into the pink jack. These are the line out, line in, and mic jacks respectively. The colors–if listed with more than one–are the ones that are likely to be the color for that specific cable.

Once all set up, install whatever software needs to be added and configure the computer to play 5.1 setting. To do this, just configure the audio drivers so that they know to play 5.1. The drivers are what tells the motherboard what is and is not going to be done. Select 6 channel mode which is what the 5.1 stands for. Once you're done, play a song and you'll see that the sound quality is so much better than with the built in speaker or two basic side speakers.