mini PC HP Elitedesk connecting speakers to headphone output?

[paparazzo79]

Hi guys.
I have this mini PC HP Elitedesk which has 2 headphone outputs on front.
May I connect speakers with/without amplifier to that output without harm to the PC?
I have 2 types of speakers regular one without amplifier (just getting power over usb port) and second type is 2.1 system with subwoofer (probably have amplifier on sub).
I may also buy USB sound card but I see that card has also headphone output marked with headphone icon.

[paparazzo79]

Re: connecting speakers to headphone output?

Here are the ports:

[momaka]

Re: mini PC HP Elitedesk connecting speakers to headphone output?

Hi guys.
I have this mini PC HP Elitedesk which has 2 headphone outputs on front.
May I connect speakers with/without amplifier to that output without harm to the PC?

Yes.
Speaker/headphone outputs with a 3.5 mm jack are always protected with resistors in series with the audio IC. Reason being is that when inserting or removing jacks from a 3.5 mm socket, the contacts between L, R, and Gnd lines could momentarily become shorted to each other. Thus, to protect the amp IC, all 3.5 mm jacks always have two series resistors on the L & R lines. They also protect should the wires inside your headphones short-circuit to each other. The series resistors are usually in the range of 10-100 Ohms. Thus, even with a complete short-circuit on the output, the amp IC will still see no less than 10 Ohms resistance and won't overload.

So yes, you can safely connect amplified and non-amplified speakers alike. However, if connecting non-amplified speakers with really lower impedance, like 4 Ohms, and if the speakers aren't very efficient, you won't get very loud audio output. Even 8-Ohm speakers will sound rather quiet at maximum volume. But headphone jacks aren't really made to drive bookshelf / large speakers directly. They can (without damage to the amp IC), but they won't sound very loud.

I have 2 types of speakers regular one without amplifier (just getting power over usb port)

The one with the USB port uses 5V from the USB, so it actually does have an amplifier.

[paparazzo79]

Re: mini PC HP Elitedesk connecting speakers to headphone output?

Okay, thank you very much for such educational reply.