hdmi vs 3.5 jack

[Jarulf]

I have only limited understanding of these things, so please bear with me. I am trying

I would like to use my future pi (might arrive today with a bit of luck) as a headless music server connected to a set of active speakers and/or headphones and controlled from my android tablet. I have a few questions related to this as I'm looking to get a set of speakers as well. I live in a relatively small flat, so I'm not going to play at very high volumes (very often).

Is there a difference in audio quality between the output from the 3.5 jack and hdmi? I assume one difference is that the 3.5 jack only supports stereo? But the quality of the sound itself? Audio files will mostly be a mix of 16- and 24 bit flac, with a lot of classical music.
With a set of speakers on the cheaper end of things, would it even matter?

I know hdmi sends both audio and video, but are there powered speakers that have hdmi in for audio?

[RaTTuS]

headphone jack is of poor quality
HDMI audio is as good as it can go [i.e. a lot better]
if you are wanting good quality sound then you will need to use a HDMI input on that device or a HDMI to HDMI / TOS style splitter [you can get these for the cost of a RPi or less]

[drgeoff]

Or get a USB sound card. Others here and myself are pleased with this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/110906339035?ss ... 1497.l2649

[Jarulf]

Thanks for your suggestions. I haven't decided yet on what to get, but for now the audio jack will do.