Small desktop speakers for general use- £30

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

Soldato
Joined
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Birmingham
Hi all,

Any recommendations for a small desktop set of speakers for general PC use? They'll never be run loud, but the sound quality from my monitor in built speakers is terrible so I need some which at least give a bit of sound depth to them.

Want them to be quite small so they don't take up much desk space.

Would be looking at the red locations for the speakers?


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A soundbar for under my monitor won't work unfortunately - the monitor base i have is circular and is causing me space problems. See the monitor thread for my quest there to find a solution or look at the photo below and you can see why a sound bar won't fit.

The selection under £50 at OCUK seems to have some promise. I quite like the Edifier studio bookshelf speakers options they have for £50-£55. But it may be a waste for me - Im not going to run them loud because the office is adjoining to the neighbours. Same reason a subwoofer might just be a waste of time for me. However even if on quiet, I would like a nice full sound though.

Pebble speakers at £30 seem well priced though and will take up less room on the desk.

Ps Ive moved my monitor more to the right now and made it flat as you can see. This leaves more room either side for speakers but Im still space limited so it can't be anything too large.

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bimbleuk said:
Decide on a budget and stick to it otherwise you just keep spending more.
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I rarely set a fixed budget for my purchases unless I am genuinely constrained by available cash. What I tend to do is look for the optimum price point i.e the point at which the benefits of spending more start to tail off, to maximise value for money.
 
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Cyber-Mav said:
Thats a lot more space. I got a creative 5.1 setup but only use it as 2.1 and sounds good especially with the sub. Those 2.1 setups can easily be had for under 30 quid
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Someone at work had a set of pebble speakers v1 lying around, so I tested them on my setup at home. They are pretty good from what I can tell. In terms of volume they go loud enough and don't seem to distort. But they don't really fill the room with sound like my TV does. I think though for around the £30 mark they are a very good value for money starting point.

Not sure now whether to get the v3 pebble set which has a slightly bigger driver and does bluetooth, or get the v2 2.1 setup with the sub.
 
Nope...im floundering again. :( Now looking at other Creative options eg T20 for £70 or T40 for £100. The footprints of all these desktop speakers are similar to each other.
 
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Ok Im trying to narrow this down a bit because im floundering.

Old pebble v1 or v2 models - Im going to discount these because whilst they are cheap at £20 and £23 respectively, the newer models are more powerful and better.

Pebble V3 - definitely an option, and is £30.

Pebble V3 pro - the latest model, more powerful with the added 30W power adapter and has RGB. But all in is £86 so nearly 3x the price of the v3.

Gigaworks T40 - £100 - obviously far more power, separate tweeters, same desktop footprint but larger in height, nice looking yellow speaker cone.

Gigaworks T20 - £70 - smaller height version of the above, separate tweeters.


Shame there is such a big gap between Pebble v3 and v3 pro, but I feel a jump from £30 to £86 is not good VFM.

V3 is very good value but its still fairly minimalistic.

Looking for something a bit more exciting for a bit more money I think. Haven't quite found the optimum package yet.
 
I was just browsing through the pics of desk thread in general trying to get some more ideas.

What if I go for the Eris 3.5 speakers on some tilted stands at a total cost of around £100, what extra benefit would that get me over what I've been considering so far?

Those speakers are 5.6" wide, 6.4" deep, 8.3" high, really don't think I can go bigger than that or they will look too big for the desk.
 
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hornetstinger said:
Bigger speakers offer more dynamics, higher output, lower distortion, and lower bass frequency response
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Yeah but I won't run them loud. Im looking for a sound that is clean, resonant, and fills the room but doesn't require a loud volume to achieve this. Ive never been into hifi so I don't really know what im talking about.
 
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Im close to pushing the button on the Eris 3.5s. They seem to offer a lot for the money, probably more than I will use in all honesty but they seem excellent value.

What stands or foam pads would I need to go with them? Angled foam sufficient?
 
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Damn this is so hard!

The room is small, 2m square. Normal PC gaming situation, a bit of media consumption, some music on whilst working from home etc.

Im going to be sitting less than a metre in front of these speakers.

Is it overkill for my use and I should go back to the pebble?

...I was so close to making a choice lol.
 
JasonM said:
It's the same principle as in a room, you want speakers away from walls, and positioned more into a room.
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So do you think Im wasting my money going for something of this size/power in a small home office? The speakers will have to be near to a wall, and within a metre of my seating position.
 
JasonM said:
Your room is not great for audio, maybe I'm complicating things by talking about stands and stuff.
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Thing is, don't many/most home offices have rooms that are probably not great for audio? Yet people still have decent speakers on their set up.


I dunno...the difference between my two options is £50, I don't know why Im so worked up about it. Overthinking.
 
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JasonM said:
Power the speakers directly from a wall socket.

Also don't run them from the same extension lead as the computer, as this risks a ground loop between the computer (source) and amplifier.
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They are powered from the mains. I just meant they sound nice even when quiet. They do go plenty loud enough.

I don't have an option for alternative power source unfortunately, only a single plug in room so I run a 6 way surge protected extension lead off this to power the whole setup.
 
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