Computers have really proved themselves as an all in one device. Now you seldom feel the need for some expensive music players because computers are very much capable of playing the highest quality of digital music. Computers can be attached with good sound systems to get the audio output which is crystal clear and very soothing to our mind. Audio on a computer is played by a dedicated device called as a sound card which is connected to the motherboard. Sound card works in reading the digitally stored songs on the hard drive and changing them into audible digital signals which can further be played by external or internal speakers. It also captures the analogue audio signals from a microphone attached and converts them into digital signals so that they can further be treated by the digitally operated sound editing software in the computer. Conventionally every sound card has three ports available to which we connect audio devices like speakers, and microphones, Now with innovations in the sound technology, even the sound cards have become advanced. On a computer you might find more than 1 set of audio connectors available and you might also find five connectors instead of three. In this post I will discuss these 5 connectors, there use and the ways to connect your audio devices to them.

Commonly the three connectors available in all the sound cards are as follows:

1.  LINE-IN: This connector is used for connecting the sound card to an external digital audio source like a CD player. This can be used for recording or listening to the audio from some eternal source. Connecting port is globally of light blue color and requires a 3 point stereo connector.

2. SPEAKER: This is the most widely used connecting port in any sound card, because this is the one which is used for connecting external speakers to the computer for playing audio. This is also called as LINE-OUT because this is the place from where the audio is sent out of the computer. This is the jack where one needs to connect the headphone and speakers. This jack is Lime Green in color and same should be the color of the connector of your speaker.

3. MICROPHONE: This jack is used for connecting a microphone to the sound card for recording analog sound signals produced by the microphone. The color of this jack is pink and so should be the color of your microphone’s connector if is manufactured keeping industry standards in mind.

The three connectors discussed above are the ones which will always be present in any sound card. Apart from these there could be more jacks and connectors available depending upon the sound card and features available in it. After the above three connectors there is no fixed set of other connectors but let us see few more connectors which might be present on any sound card.

4: SUB WOOFER-OUT: Orange in color.

5: REAR SURROUND SOUND: Black in color. Available in 5.1, and 7.1 systems.

6: MIDDLE SURROUND SOUND: Gray in color. Available only in 7.1 systems.