How good or bad is the internal speaker of the MacMini?

The speaker in the Mini is basically only there to give you warning or alert sounds. For anything else they a pretty much like the old tiny transistor radio speakers.

As far as any other speaker set up, there are really three options.

1. A self powered speaker that can connect to the Mini via the audio headphone jack.
2. Some USB solution with powered speakers or a DAC->amplifier->speaker setup
3. Bluetooth speakers.

With 1, there are lots of systems available and it is a matter of what size you want and how they sound to you. Since they are a direct audio connection and can connect to most anything with a standard 3.5mm plug, they will work without a hassle.

With 2, there can sometimes be USB compatibility issues (not common). With the second type mentioned with separate DAC/amplifier and speakers you can custom tailor your sound and select any speakers and get what ever power output you want to drive them.

with 3, you eliminate the need for any wiring hassle so the Mini can be anywhere as long as it is within the Bluetooth range.

One thing to note, speakers are very tuned to ones taste and the best would be to go to a store and and actually hear them for yourself and decide which ones have the sound you like the most. Reason is what may sound good to one person may not sound good to another.

I have a couple of excellent old Harman Kardon speakers I got for a tenner from the Trafford Centre about 10 years ago!

However, if you look on Amazon there are lots from £10 upwards that plug into the headphone socket. You should read the reviews with a pinch of salt but you could always return them if the sound wasn't satisfactory.

The only problem with them is that they do not automatically switch on and off so you will have the onerous task of flicking an extra switch whenever you start or shutdown your computer.

A month ago I bought a cheap 27" Philips monitor (£110) with speakers built in. Whenever the mini is woken up the monitor also wakes automatically and the speakers are working but the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired.

It's considerably better than the mini's speaker but that's not saying much. Everything is clear but there is little or no bass so I have ended up using the Harman Kardons and making the effort to switch them on and off manually.

As the image below from the Mac mini page shows, there are a couple of options. You could use Wi-Fi with a HomePod - or even a pair of HomePods for stereo; you could use HDMI if your Mac Mini is near an amplifier with HDMI; or you could use the headphone jack to output the audio to some speakers which support that. I had a pair like that once with my Mac, and it worked well enough.

I must be going mad!

A couple of years ago I bought an Anker Soundcore Mini for over £20, played with it for a bit using my mobile phone and then forgot about it.

I have just dug it out.

It's tiny yet the sound is excellent with plenty of bass.

Amazon has them on offer in the UK for under £18.........

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Anker-SoundCore-Portable-Playtime-Black/dp/B01HTH3C8S/ref=sr_1_5?crid=7T1F6X72KZIH&keywords=anker%2Bspeakers&qid=1700757984&sprefix=anker%2Bspeakers%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-5&th=1

It works by Bluetooth and has its own rechargeable battery which lasts about 20 hours. I suppose if you kept it plugged in you would never have to recharge it.

Being Bluetooth you can adjust the volume from the Mac keyboard.

I'm just surprised that I never thought of using it with my computer as it takes up less space than the Harman Kardons and sounds just as good! Thanks for reminding me of it!!!!

In fact it looks as though it has been breeding while it was out of sight!

Actually these were freebies my son gets from IT reps. They are dead cheap, some under a fiver and all work pretty well.

Bye bye Harman Kardon!

P.S. I have just realised you don't have to keep switching the speakers on and off but I don't like leaving them switched on when they are not being used.

I have no idea whether it would harm them or not . . . probably not.

The internal speaker of the mini is okay, but it has not the quality of external speakers of course

I use a HomePod mini as speaker for my iMac, that would be my recommendation

Look for a monitor with built-in speakers and webcam.

Just re-read your original post and noticed that you don't want to use Thunderbolt.

A Bluetooth speaker or soundbar wouldn't require any connection to the mini.