I have SB Audigy 2 and a 2 speaker setup.

Simple question but I can't seem to find any resource's for it on the web.

If you go into Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Advanced (Speaker Settings). What is the difference between selecting "Stereo Headphones" and "Desktop Stereo Speakers". Also there is a setting in the SBA2 control panel to select speaker settings, so does this setting have any bearing at all?

Thanks
John

The HRTFs for desktop speakers are different than for headphones. 3d sound (surround simulation, games, environmental modeling) use HRTFs to modify the sound your card outputs to make it sound more 3d when it reaches your ear.

In many situations this setting makes no difference. In 3d games using 3d sound it would. Also if you set up the soundcard to use surround sound or the DSPs for room effect, environments, while playing music, you would notice it there.

You want to use the setting closest to your actual setup to get the best sound. Though you might not notice any difference unless the sound you are listening to is using the HRTF/DSP part of your sound card. Also the difference will be much more noticible when you listen with headphones. Using the two speaker setting with environments and listening with headphones (a miss-matched setup) you would hear the environment as being overly echoy, for instance.

HRTF = head-related transfer functions.

Thanks for an informative reply