All Laptops with Integrated Audio have built in speakers. However the sound quality and available volume of built in speakers is often inadequate for high quality music play back, MDI work, multimedia applications, or business presentations before a large group. In these cases, you will want to attach more powerful and higher quality speakers to your laptop`s speaker jack. If your laptop has S/PDIF digital output, you will need to connect your laptop to a home theatre system with an S/PDF input to be able to play back digital audio from sources such as DVD movies. In either case, you should try to select the highest quality speakers you can afford. When you need to add external speakers, look for the best performance available in a small space. I recommend small bookshelf speakers instead of standard stereo speakers, especially if you must travel with speakers. You should not depend on the onboard audio system in your notebook to provide adequate amplification. Instead, use self-powered, magnetically shielded speakers. Magnetic shielding is especially important if you are using a CRT monitor along with your laptop in a business Administration. With dozens of brands and models on the market at a variety of price points, it`s essential to stand how to evaluate the quality of any given speaker. Speakers are measured by three criteria: FREQUENCY RESPONSE: A measurement of the range of high and low sounds a speaker can reproduce. The ideal range is 20Hz-20KHz, the range of human hearing. No speaker system reproduces this range perfectly. In fact, few people hear sounds 18KHz. An exceptional speaker might cover over a range of 30KHz-23,000Hz, and lesser models might cover only 100Hz-20,000Hz. Frequency response is the most deceptive specification because identically rated speakers can sound completely different.