Should I Purchase A PC Monitor With Built-in Speakers?

Should you stretch your budget and buy speakers or can you settle for a PC monitor with built-in speakers? We go through the pros and cons to help you!

Gaming PC setup

Lately, we are seeing more and more PC monitors with built-in speakers. It’s safe to say that most gaming monitors have built-in speakers nowadays. You may be considering one of these monitors instead of buying speakers. Can it replace speakers? Should I purchase a PC monitor with built-in speakers?

Buying a PC monitor with built-in speakers instead of speakers is a bad idea most of the time. It’s a good idea if you don’t have space for speakers and if you don’t really care about sound quality.

It’s as simple as that. I know some of you are really set on buying a monitor like this, so let’s expand a bit.

PC Monitor With Built-in Speakers – It’s A Good Idea

PC Monitor With Built-in Speakers, A Good Idea

Since you are here, I guess you don’t have speakers and a monitor. Buying a monitor is a priority, with the built-in speakers you wanted to kill two birds with one stone. It makes sense, monitors can drain all your tech budget. If you already have speakers, I don’t know why you would care about monitors with built-in speakers.

PC monitors carry below-average speakers. There’s a big difference between bookshelf speakers and the speakers in the monitor. Even if the speakers in the monitor are quite okay and the quality is okay, bookshelf speakers still win by a long shot, no comparison.

The reason why monitor speakers are so bad is that they are too small. PC monitors have come a long way; the frames per second, the image quality, and the resolution are just getting better and better. All of this requires a lot of space. So, there’s not much left for the speakers.

Why put the speakers in monitors then? The speakers are just a useful feature. In case your speakers fail, you can use your monitor. Also, some people rarely use PCs and they don’t need expensive speakers, so the built-in speakers work just fine for them.

Related article – Best USB Powered Speakers For PC

When To Buy PC Monitor With Built-in Speakers

Don’t take what I said in the beginning with certainty. There’s an exception to every rule. In some cases, it’s fine to buy a monitor with built-in speakers. Here, we’ll list those cases where a monitor with speakers is not heresy.

  • You don’t have speakers and you rarely need them.
    Even if it’s hard to believe, some people use a PC for basic stuff like work. So, speakers are not exactly a necessity. For instance, some people use a PC only to chat with relatives who live far away. If you’re one of these people, and you’re also looking for a monitor, it’s okay to buy one with built-in speakers. It’s as simple as that. Consider your situation. How much are you using your PC, and how often do you need speakers? If the answer to both is rarely, by all means, buy a PC monitor with built-in speakers. Later, you can add speakers either way.
  • The monitor you like has built-in speakers.
    This is obvious but worth mentioning. I guess some of you have a PC monitor that you want to buy but the built-in speakers set you off. If you like everything about the monitor, the built-in speakers shouldn’t change your mind. The important features are the frames per second and image quality. If the monitor you like has good features, don’t worry about the speakers, buy it.
  • You don’t have room for speakers.
    This is the situation where I really understand why people opt for built-in speakers. Not everyone has room for speakers, but that doesn’t mean that the PC setup should be chaotic. Small places can be comfy and tidy too. So, buying a monitor with built-in speakers is fine in this situation. I would also recommend checking out some small Bluetooth speakers.

Related article – Computer Speakers vs Studio Monitors

When Not To Buy PC Monitor With Built-in Speakers

Now, as we said, monitors with built-in speakers are usually a bad idea. It’s not that if you buy a monitor like this you’re ruined, you can always just buy speakers. PC monitors with built-in speakers are worse for some people than others.

  • You already have good speakers.
    Good speakers can be expensive, and they are usually bought once in 5 years. So, good speakers are precious, and it doesn’t make sense to replace them with monitor speakers. What is even worse, buying a PC monitor only for the built-in speakers and disregarding important features. All I’m saying is that you can use any speakers you want, just don’t buy a monitor because of the speakers when you already have them.
  • You want to change speakers.
    Some people want to get both a new monitor and new speakers. Is buying a monitor with built-in speakers okay in this situation? I would still say no.  Chances are your old speakers are better than the built-in speakers. Just forget about the speakers, and focus on getting a good monitor.
  • You value sound quality above everything else.
    It goes without saying that the audiophile will choose bookshelf speakers before a monitor with speakers. Sound quality is important to me, and I understand the people that want that perfect quality. This is not achievable with built-in speakers. If you’ve used good speakers and switched to built-in ones, you’ll know the difference. You can’t really bang out your tunes on the monitor’s speakers.

Best PC Monitors With Built-in Speakers

My Advice

We’ve covered everything there is to be said about PC monitors with built-in speakers. I believe you know what to do by now. Regardless, I would still like to leave you with some closing thoughts that will help you a lot.

I always recommend treating sound and display as separate. If you don’t have a monitor, focus on getting the best one for your budget, and forget about speakers. You’ll find a solution for the speakers, either buy them later or get headphones and a Bluetooth speaker. What I’m saying is, when you’re buying a monitor, the speakers are the least important feature. Focus on FPS, image quality, connections available, screen resolution, etc.