Should I connect speakers to monitor or to PC?

[Deus Gladiorum]

I'm not sure it matters, but I just want to be sure. I have an Asus VX238 monitor which has built in speakers and a headphone jack and is connected to my PC via HDMI. I also have an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 motherboard.

Now I'm wondering, is there any real difference in sound quality or anything between connecting my speakers to my motherboard or connecting them to my monitor? The monitor sound runs off Nvidia drivers and the motherboard audio is just default realtek.

 

[ksham]

There is quality loss if you connect it to your monitor. I don't know about the specifics of that monitor, but I'm sure it does not have the same audio processing power. Best to just plug it into the motherboard.

 

[clarkjd]

The main difference here is the audio power delivered to the speakers. In either case, unless you have audiophile ears, I doubt that you would be able to hear the difference.

 

[ko888]

Why add another unnecessary cable? The speakers on the monitor are not even anywhere close to audiophile quality.

Let the NVIDIA HD audio driver do the job. It will pass a digital audio signal to the monitor speaker's pre-amp using the same cable as the video.

Using the Realtek driver and an extra 3.5mm stereo jack cable will send an analog audio signal to the monitor speaker's pre-amp.