Improving Your Stereo Experience: How to Guide 

What Is Stereo?

Stereo is a method of listening to audio. To be more specific, stereo is a method of listening to audio using two speakers. Why would someone use two speakers to listen to audio you ask? Well a lot of us as humans have two ears that help us to hear sound. Being able to hear sound from the left and right side of our bodies allow us to greater perceive space and direction. This perfectly explains why stereo audio is so popular today. Listening to music, movies, or video games through stereo audio allows us to greater experience a sense of space and direction.

This stereo effect is achieved by playing two different audio sources through each speaker. These different audio sources could be referred to as audio channels. By changing the volume of an audio channel in a certain way, you could effectively change the direction in which that audio is perceived to be coming from. For example, if you were to play an identical audio file through both of the audio channels, it would sound like the audio is coming from the middle. But if you were to lower the volume in the left channel, it would sound like the audio is coming from the right channel. This idea is called stereo imaging, and I will be talking about it later on in the blog.

Although stereo audio would have been considered a luxury item in the 60s, it is actually very common today. That's right, you have most likely listened to stereo audio at least a few times in your life. Have you ever listened to music using two earbuds? Have you ever watched a movie in a movie theater? Have you ever been to a live concert? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you have listened to stereo audio.

Who Am I, And What Do I Know About Stereo?

My name is Jorge Mata Jr, and ever since I could remember, audio has always been an integral part of my life. Growing up, I would always hear stories of my dad setting up mics and connecting cables when he used to work in a recording studio. Growing up, I would also find 90s audio equipment in my garage from when my dad used to work for Alesis (an audio equipment and instrument company). With all the influences that surrounded me when growing up, I was inspired to pursue a very cool hobby of music production.

I have been an amateur music producer for about 2 years now. Although I am not a professional, I have a lot of experience in sound design. My mistakes have helped me to learn tips and tricks on how to improve my stereo experience. My first mistake was thinking headphones were better than speakers.

4 Reasons Why Speakers Are Better Than Headphones Or Earbuds For Stereo Audio

Before I discovered the wonderful sounds two speakers could produce, I was once entirely interested in headphones. Even after listening to many great sounding headphones, I realize that none of them remotely compete to the stereo experience of a budget pair of speakers.

1. Wider Sound Stage

Sound stage is the measurement of how spacious something sounds. For example, if I was listening to a recording of an orchestra playing their instruments in a concert hall, it should sound spacious. If the recording sounds like the instruments are close, then that would be categorized as bad sound stage. With good sound stage you should be able to discern how far an instrument or vocalist is from a microphone. 

Sound stage is a term usually used to describe how "wide" a set of headphones sound. So why would I claim that speakers to have a "wider sound stage" then headphones, if speakers are not headphones? Well it's because speakers have virtually infinite sound stage. When you have a set headphones or earbuds on, you cannot move them farther or closer to their head, they are stationary. This can lead some headphones and earbuds to have bad sound stage. But with speakers, you can physically move the speakers wider apart to improve the sound stage.

2. More Accurate Stereo Imaging

As mentioned in the beginning of the blog, stereo imaging is the concept of hearing sound in space. To be more specific, it is the ability to hear audio change direction.

With headphones and earbuds, the audio is being played straight into your ears, where as speakers play audio in front of you. This may sound like a minor change, but it truly makes a world of a difference. Think about it in a real life perspective. When events happen in front of you, the sound come from an entity ahead, and is not directed right into your ear. With this in mind, listening to two speakers positioned correctly can separate instruments in songs, or even audibly show you where things are on your screen. 

3. Bass You Can Feel

Obviously you can have bass heavy headphones or earbuds. But for the most part, that bass is directed right into your ears. Although you may think you are physically feeling the bass in your body, you are not. In fact, headphones and earbuds hardly even vibrate when producing sound. But Speakers make bass apparent.

The amount of bass you could physically feel is dependent on two factors. The first factor is how big the woofers (the cone of the speaker that produces low audio signals) are on your speakers. Or whether you choose to buy a subwoofer which is made to only produce low audio signals.

4. No Headphone Or Earbud Discomfort

Since headphones are devices that you wear on your head, discomfort is inevitable. The beauty about speakers is that you can have speakers playing audio while you lay in bed or sit on a couch. Granted, you would not be experiencing the great stereo imaging of the speakers since you are not in front of them. But it is better to be comfortable than uncomfortable.

5 Steps To Get Your Stereo Speaker Setup Started

These 5 steps will get you started on improving your stereo experience and set up your speakers properly.

1. Choose The Right Speakers For You

There are of course a lot of specifications to keep in mind when buying speakers. But thankfully since there has been a high demand for speakers, companies have made it easy for people to get started. The only factors that you must keep in mind when choosing a pair of speakers is how they are powered and how large they are.

If you are not careful, you could possibly buy a pair of "passive" speakers. Passive speakers require an external amp to power the speakers, which could cost you more money. When choosing a speaker for the first time make sure "self powered" is mentioned somewhere in the description. This means that the speakers have an internal amp, and does not require you to buy an external amp to use the speakers.

The size of the speaker also matters, make sure the speakers can fit where ever you want to place them. We will talk about the best places to put your speakers in the next step.

Here is a cool pair of speakers to get started with:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016P9HJIA/ref=emc_b_5_t

2. Find A Place For Your Speakers

This step is short, but it is important to follow in order to get the most out of your speakers. The best place to put your speakers are on a desk. It really is that simple. A computer desk is perfect for speakers, it provides you with a great listening distance from the speakers. Placing your speaker anywhere else could possibly negatively alter the sound of your speakers.

3. Correctly Position Your Speakers

The positioning of your speakers is incredibly important. I would personally say this is one of the most important steps to follow. Not having the speakers positioned right may ruin the experience, even if the speakers are placed on a desk.

Luckily positioning your speakers properly is not very hard. A great example could be seen above in the picture at the beginning of the article. A trick that has worked for me is to position your speakers no less than 19 inches apart, and point the front of both speakers to the back of your head.

4. Avoid Noisy Power

This step might sound unnecessary, but it does help your listening experience. Not following this step could introduce unwanted noise in your speaker coming from other devices. A simple solution is to avoid plugging the power cable of your speakers in the same power strip as your desktop computer. Not doing so may introduce something called a ground loop. Since your computer and speakers will be plugged in to the same power strip, they will be sharing a ground which could transfer the noise of your computer to your speakers.

5. Connect Your Speakers To Your Laptop Or Desktop

The last step is to properly connect your speakers to your your laptop or desktop. Of course you could also plug in other devices like a CD plater or vinyl turn table, but for the sake of simplicity I will only explain how to connect your speakers to your computer, since many are more familiar with that.

Of course there are always expensive ways of doing things. In the speaker world, there are devices called DACs which stand for "digital to analog converters." These devices convert digital signal to "high quality" audio signals. I'm not saying that these devices don't work, because some definitely do, I just want to say that it is not required to purchase one of these devices.

As an example, we will be talking about how to connect the speakers that I linked in the first step.

These speakers are very straight forward to connect. Start by connecting the speakers to a power outlet. After doing so, you could connect the red and white cables to the back of the speakers. You might be familiar with these cables, they are called RCA cables and they used to be used to connect old TVs. After connecting the red and white cables to the back of the speakers, you will then pug in the other side of the cable into the 3.5mm audio connector on your computer. You might be more familiar to this connector as a "AUX port." You are now done!