Small speakers for PC - Kanto, Ruark, Audioengine?

phinix

phinix

phinix

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I'm looking for a set of small speakers for my PC.
I have a small room, 2x4m, very tight desk space.
Don't want to go over 13cm wide, so I narrowed it down to three sets:
  • Kanto YU2
  • Ruark MR1 MK2
  • Audioengine A2+

Right now I have Harman Kardon Soundsticks III which I'm selling to get some nice 2.0 set.
However I have very small space on desk for those. Ruark are 13cm wide, so this is max I can go, so for example Kanto YU4 are already too big.

Does anyone here have or had Ruark or Kanto speakers?
Are they good, enough for a small room?
 
If you can afford the Ruark MR1 mkII then go for it. They are excellent.

Ruark is a British company that has been in business since the mid-80s. There's probably no other country in the world as fiercely competitive in small-to-medium-sized speakers as the UK. It's no accident that foreign brands struggle to get a foothold here when you look at the home grown talent that includes the likes of B&W, KEF, Celestion, Tannoy, Quad, Castle, Heybrook, Linn, Naim, Meridian, Monitor Audio, PMC, Rega and Wharfedale. The fact that Ruark not only survived but won award after award for its speakers demonstrated that they knew what they were doing, and they still do.

For decades, our cousins on the American continent concentrated on large speakers. That makes sense. If you have a big room it needs big boxes to energise it. The turning point was the boom in home cinema in the late 90s, then computer audio. Suddenly a lot of people were listening to small speaker kits using sub/sat systems. Audioengine and Kanto were both founded to ride that wave.

Their businesses were both established around the mid-2000s. With respect to them, my own impression is that they're both .com start-ups doing pretty much the same thing with pretty much the same story. In fact, it's almost like the YU2 and A2+ are products of the roughly the same variables fed in to each company's CAD program and it churned out pretty close to the same result.

You could throw the same accusation at Ruark, but that wouldn't entirely be fair. IMO, Ruark use that as a starting point rather than offering it as a finished product. All the little refinements and tweaks add up to an audibly-superior product, and that's because of the company's foundation in high-end domestic and professional audio.

Kanto YU2 and Audioengine A2+ will sound as similar as they look. There'll be minor differences. The Ruarks though will be in a different league.
 
lucid said:
If you can afford the Ruark MR1 mkII then go for it. They are excellent.

Ruark is a British company that has been in business since the mid-80s. There's probably no other country in the world as fiercely competitive in small-to-medium-sized speakers as the UK. It's no accident that foreign brands struggle to get a foothold here when you look at the home grown talent that includes the likes of B&W, KEF, Celestion, Tannoy, Quad, Castle, Heybrook, Linn, Naim, Meridian, Monitor Audio, PMC, Rega and Wharfedale. The fact that Ruark not only survived but won award after award for its speakers demonstrated that they knew what they were doing, and they still do.

For decades, our cousins on the American continent concentrated on large speakers. That makes sense. If you have a big room it needs big boxes to energise it. The turning point was the boom in home cinema in the late 90s, then computer audio. Suddenly a lot of people were listening to small speaker kits using sub/sat systems. Audioengine and Kanto were both founded to ride that wave.

Their businesses were both established around the mid-2000s. With respect to them, my own impression is that they're both .com start-ups doing pretty much the same thing with pretty much the same story. In fact, it's almost like the YU2 and A2+ are products of the roughly the same variables fed in to each company's CAD program and it churned out pretty close to the same result.

You could throw the same accusation at Ruark, but that wouldn't entirely be fair. IMO, Ruark use that as a starting point rather than offering it as a finished product. All the little refinements and tweaks add up to an audibly-superior product, and that's because of the company's foundation in high-end domestic and professional audio.

Kanto YU2 and Audioengine A2+ will sound as similar as they look. There'll be minor differences. The Ruarks though will be in a different league.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this.
Yeah, they are a bit expensive, but I got some nice deal from Richer Sounds, £299, so I would go for them.
I love how they look, this vintage style, lovely dark walnut color.
I would be using optical cable for them to plug to my PC.

I hope these will sound better than my Soundsticks.
 
lucid said:
If you can afford the Ruark MR1 mkII then go for it. They are excellent.

Ruark is a British company that has been in business since the mid-80s. There's probably no other country in the world as fiercely competitive in small-to-medium-sized speakers as the UK. It's no accident that foreign brands struggle to get a foothold here when you look at the home grown talent that includes the likes of B&W, KEF, Celestion, Tannoy, Quad, Castle, Heybrook, Linn, Naim, Meridian, Monitor Audio, PMC, Rega and Wharfedale. The fact that Ruark not only survived but won award after award for its speakers demonstrated that they knew what they were doing, and they still do.

For decades, our cousins on the American continent concentrated on large speakers. That makes sense. If you have a big room it needs big boxes to energise it. The turning point was the boom in home cinema in the late 90s, then computer audio. Suddenly a lot of people were listening to small speaker kits using sub/sat systems. Audioengine and Kanto were both founded to ride that wave.

Their businesses were both established around the mid-2000s. With respect to them, my own impression is that they're both .com start-ups doing pretty much the same thing with pretty much the same story. In fact, it's almost like the YU2 and A2+ are products of the roughly the same variables fed in to each company's CAD program and it churned out pretty close to the same result.

You could throw the same accusation at Ruark, but that wouldn't entirely be fair. IMO, Ruark use that as a starting point rather than offering it as a finished product. All the little refinements and tweaks add up to an audibly-superior product, and that's because of the company's foundation in high-end domestic and professional audio.

Kanto YU2 and Audioengine A2+ will sound as similar as they look. There'll be minor differences. The Ruarks though will be in a different league.
Click to expand...

Ruark Sceptre best speakers and best built speakers I have owned. They took massive abuse with Rotel Pre/Power setup and took everything in their stride, still used today but nasty x wife has them.
 
If £90 is going to break the bank then get the cheaper speakers and don't give it a second thought. Its not worth the heart ache of going short.

But if the £90 isn't a big sweat but you're worried about a bit of buyer's remorse then get the Ruarks and don't worry. Its not worth the heart ache of fretting over.

Never regret buying the best when you can afford it.
 
Well, situation resolved itself:)
I got a nice offer for new set of Ruark MR1 Mk2 for £230 :D
Its a returned item by client, practically new, still has 2 years warranty.
So tomorrow ill be listening of a nice music through them :)
 
Burn in: I've left speakers face-to-face, with one wired out of phase with the other, then left music playing for a couple of days. Being face to face and out of phase means that they partially cancel each other out so the sound escaping isn't as loud so you can turn up the wick a bit. As long as the drivers are moving it doesn't matter if they're out of phase for this process. The music doesn't really matter so much so long as it is full range rather than something like talk radio.

Once the speakers have 24 hours of play on them then wire up and use normally. They'll continue to run in over the next 100 hours or so but you'll have done the bulk of the work.
 
Will do.
Plugged them in, optic cable.

Wow.. I love how they play vocals and higher tones (sorry, I'm not an audiophile or music expert) - Feels like other speakers never played some tones at all.
I recently bought LG CX48 as my PC monitor and didn't use my Harman Kardon soundsticks again, just used built-in speakers. Horrible.
But now it feels like even compared to soundsticks, these play a lot more sounds.

Weird. Awesome. Weirdly awesome :)

I was a bit worried that they won't have enough bass for me. I don't listen to techno or bass full music, but wanted to make sure they will "draw" all levels.
I'm impressed how such small speakers have this much punch. Enough for music, movies and games.

I'm a heavy listener, heavy metal etc but lately (read - I'm getting old) started to appreciate other music - I love blues, jazz, old rock. Tomorrow is my 41st birthday and I bought these for myself. LOVE IT :D

Now listening Billie Holiday - All or nothing at all - amazing how you can hear all instruments.

Mike Oldfield 'Tubular Bells' Live at the BBC 1973 - mmm.... I would love to buy a turntable and listen to some vinyl, but don't have space for it. Some day...
 
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