unamplified) speaker with certain ports, as the lower impedance may cause too much current draw, and possibly damage the particular port. This is also why many sound cards specify to not use a passive (i.e. Taking a look at the actual output port specifications, we can also see different loading levels for the headphone and other line-out ports: Headphone load impedance 16Ω ~ 600Ω It depends on what hardware you have in the computer, but there usually is a difference between speaker and headphone ports – specifically, relating to the max/min speaker/headphone impedance values you can use with either port.Ĭertain sound cards, for example the Auzentech X-Fi-Forte, include a built-in headphone amplifier on the headphone port. SuperUser contributor Breakthrough offers some insight: So what is the difference and does it really matter which one you use? The Answer So do the 2 ports have different “levels” of output? Volume, bass, treble…? Now both volumes in the properties are at the same level, but the noise coming out was slightly different. At one point I plugged them into the speaker port and noticed a very slight difference in the volume. I do this because I switch between a couple different devices with these speakers. I have a 2.1 speaker setup going into my computer, but primarily plug them into the headphone jack as it is easier to access. SuperUser reader C-dizzle wants to know what (if any) difference there is between speaker and headphone ports:

Speaker with headphone jack