Personal computer systems have attained widespread acceptance. Personal computer systems are information handling systems which are designed primarily to provide independent computing power to a single user. These personal computer systems now provide computing power to many segments of today's modern society. A personal computer system can usually be defined as a desktop, floor-standing, or portable microcomputer that includes a system unit having a system processor with associated volatile and non-volatile memory, a display, a keyboard, and one or more mass storage devices such as a floppy diskette drive, a CD-ROM or DVD drive, for example. Portable computers are often referred to as laptop, notebook, or subnotebook computers. A portable computer typically has a computer body, a keyboard mounted on the computer body, and a display unit hingably mounted to the computer body in such a manner that it is foldable and unfoldable with respect to the computer body. The display unit displays information input as the user manipulates the keyboard. Laptops or notebook computers have expanded in popularity and at an astonishing rate. Such computers are lightweight and have a display screen supported by a hinged cover that protects the keyboard and display screen when the computer is not being operated. Multimedia capabilities are an important feature in today's computer system. As processor capabilities are improving in each generation of new computer systems, so are the needs for providing sights and sounds to the user. To meet the demands, computer manufacturers are building larger monitors, better video controllers, and improved sound devices. The sound devices provide electrical signals to headphones or loudspeakers for sound reproduction. Furthermore, the computer system may allow users to listen to sounds either with headphones, internal loudspeakers, or external loudspeakers.

Speakers are typical peripheral devices for a personal computer. With the growing popularity of sound-based multimedia systems, an increasing number of computers and computer peripheral devices are being provided with speakers to accommodate the multimedia systems' sound requirements. For video and audio applications in multimedia personal computers, audio sound systems are becoming an increasingly important component of computer based systems. Speaker systems with integral amplification electronics provide simple, compact audio reproducers for multimedia personal computers. These speaker systems, sometimes referred to as multimedia computer speaker systems, typically include pairs of wide-band speakers mounted in separate housings with amplification electronics incorporated into one or both housings. Audio speakers for computers are typically small. Some are coupled to the computer by plugging external wires directly into a line-out jack on a sound card. Others are integrally mounted in a computer component mounting structure, for example, within a floppy disk external drive bay. When a speaker is installed in a desktop computer, it is usual for a pair of speakers to be installed in elongated areas at right and left sides of a video screen of the personal computer or multimedia portable apparatus, or for a single speaker to be installed in another elongated area under the video screen. The shape of such a speaker may an elongated shape, such as a rectangular shape, an elliptic shape, or the like. Rear ends of the speakers are plugged with wires connecting to speaker sockets at a rear end of the computer for balanced sound effects. A conventional speaker for computer is made of plastic material having a grille on a front side thereof for amplifying sound to a desired volume. However, such conventional speakers are monotonous in their external appearance due to the design of grille.

Virtually all personal computers include a speaker for providing a beep or series of single-frequency beeps to indicate system status upon startup. This kind of speaker is typically inexpensive and intended only for basic output with no expectation on the part of the manufacturer or the user that this speaker will have very high fidelity. Such a speaker is typically used to provide audio feedback, for instance, to indicate that the computer has been turned on, or to provide various alert sounds, when the computer needs to attract the user's attention to inform the user that some command has successfully executed, or perhaps that a command cannot execute (printer is out of paper, no printer selected, incorrect page format selected, and many other events). With the significant advances in circuit miniaturization, the production of quality sound with computers has advanced significantly in recent years. Improved sound quality electronics has been available for desktop systems and notebook computers. With the right speakers, this sound can be as impressive as the sound on a normal consumer's stereo system. Today, there is a multimedia explosion that is adding a significant new dimension to the way people use computers. Typical speakers can be positioned near or are incorporated into the computer monitor to deliver higher quality sound directly to the user. Particularly with the recent trend to include a CD player in a computer and with increased use of computers for audio playback of CDs or games, there are a large number of extension speakers that can be connected to a computer. In general, many of these speakers are designed using many of the techniques well known to speaker designers, such as porting, or tuned enclosures. Many conventional multimedia computers include two-channel (stereo) multimedia computer audio sub-systems.

A conventional two-channel multimedia computer audio sub-system includes a two-channel audio sub-sub-system control circuit, which is commonly configured as a separate computer expansion board called a sound card, and two wide-band audio transducers or speakers. A subwoofer audio transducer or speaker is also included in many implementations. Some multimedia computers now include four-channel multimedia computer audio sub-systems, sometimes called surround sound systems, environmental audio systems, or multi-channel audio systems. Subwoofers are desirable because of the richer and deeper sounds that they provide in comparison to most two-piece multimedia computer speaker systems. The speakers may vary greatly in size and power, but generally they can be divided into two categories: dynamic speakers such as cone speakers commonly used in home hi-fi sets, and electrostatic speakers such as piezoelectric speakers used in buzzers, for example in digital watches and electric alarm clocks. Dynamic speakers typically have an electromagnetic actuator that moves a vibrating element that passes its vibration to the surrounding air and causes audible acoustic signals. Piezoelectric speakers are based on a piezoelectrically bending plate or strip that vibrates when subjected to an alternating electrical current. Piezoelectric speakers do not require much space and they are light, but their frequency response is often worse than that of dynamic speakers, and as the maximum movement of their sound-producing element is relatively short, compared to dynamic speakers, they are outperformed by dynamic speakers at lower frequencies.

Quality audio speakers are essential to producing quality sound from a computer-based sound output. For example, in video conferencing, voices are reproduced with a natural quality that makes them seem as if the speaker were in the room. Providing a high-quality audio background during presentations greatly enhances their effectiveness. Often in a computer system, a loudspeaker and microphone are turned on for various modes of a computer system such as a speakerphone mode or non-speakerphone audio modes. Examples of non-speakerphone audio modes include a recording mode, a playback mode, and an idle mode. When both the microphone and loudspeaker are turned on but not in use, noise has been generated and amplified by the acoustic loop formed by the microphone and loudspeaker. Speaker response characteristics affect the quality of the audio systems. Speaker response characteristics depend upon many factors including overall speaker design, speaker material, manufacturing variations and other factors. An input audio signal to speakers can be distorted by the speaker due to the non-linear speaker response characteristics. Lower cost speakers typically have larger non-linear response characteristics and thus have more distortion. More expensive speakers typically have fixed built-in circuitry in the speaker cabinet to attempt to compensate for such non-linear response characteristics.