Last week, we came up with our latest front-page poll question, asking our readers which is their preferred audio output when gaming (playing their favorite PC games). Choices included desktop speakers, headsets, and external home audio solutions (such as HT amps, HiFi systems, etc.) Over the course of the week that followed, we accumulated over 1,800 votes to build our sample, which consists of our readers (both registered members of our Forums, and unregistered readers). The interim results come as a bit of a surprise to us.

According to numbers recorded at the time of writing this article, from 1,820 respondents, 808 (44.18%) prefer desktop speakers, a close 719 (39.31%) prefer headsets, with external home audio system being a distant yet significant third option, with 302 (16.51%) of the respondents preferring it.Desktop speakers' performance in this poll is a bit of a revelation, as is the take-away that headset isn't the most preferred audio solution for gaming, which should come as a wake-up call to the countless gaming peripherals designers who are literally mushrooming in the industry. Keyboards, mice, and headsets seem to be some of their first product lines, however they aren't addressing a sizable chunk of the market without desktop speakers in their lineups. Mature players in the desktop speakers scene include Logitech, Creative, Altec-Lansing, and Edifier.