When computers were originally released they had on-board speakers that generated a series of different tones and beeps. As multimedia and games became popular, higher quality computers speakers began to be released that required additional power. Because computer sound cards are not powerful enough to power a nice set of speakers today's speakers are self-powered, relatively small in size, and contain magnetic shielding.
Speakers are rated in Frequency response, Total Harmonic Distortion, and Watts. The Frequency response is the rate of measurement of the highs and lows of the sounds the speaker produces, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is the amount of distortion created by amplifying the signal, and the Watts is the amount of amplification available for the speakers.
