Tiny desk speakers

Creative Stage V2 seems to be up your alley and below your budget.

PC specific soundbars tend to be small.

I do own a Yamaha SR-C20 in white which was also small and actually I like, has aux in or optical in.
 
hornetstinger said:
Would have lousy stereo seperation
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Given the space limitations, its always going to be a compromise and that's probably not top priority over clear sound, bass etc. Not every scenario requires reference quality sound and room configuration and optimal setups are not always possible.

I agree stereo speakers would be better, but I'd prefer a soundbar with poor separation over tinny stereo speakers.
 
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hornetstinger said:
I was watching a video - I think one of Linus TT, where he used a soundbar of similar width and complained about the poor stereo seperation.
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You will get this with confined space requirements any ways.

If you want the best stereo separation, get some good headphones and you should know this.
 
hartgeh3 said:
2nd hand AE Aego M 2.1
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I was in same boat as OP. My desk is 100cm x 60cm so didn't have space for some nice bookshelf type speakers. I would have quite happily spent a few hundred on a decent set but alas didn't have the space.

I was using a set of Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1 speakers that I bought in April 2008 for £87, they were connected to my PC via 3.5mm jack and I was using the built in speakers in my Mac but they didn't sound great.

Ended up buying the Logitech Z407 2.1 PC Speakers and have them connected by bluetooth to both my PC and Mac. To me they sound better than the Aego M speakers, there's more bass.

I'm happy enough with them. Might be crap compared to some proper HiFi speakers but they're good enough for my basic needs.
 
Still using my ancient harmon kardon soundsticks
Footprint on the desk is tiny
As long as space underneath/or on floor for the sub
Few inches wide circular base
Though quite tall
Which is what I required when I got them as had
A limited desk space
And i can fit the sub underneath the desk
Not an audiophile
These still sound great to me though
And as long as they keep on working cant see
Me ever replacing them
I also like how they look though that's subjective
 
My old speakers had a AUX input as well as RCA inputs. I was using a 3.5mm cable from the AUX port into the line out of the PC motherboard. I could have bought a cheap 3.5mm to RCA cable and connected that into my Macs 3.5mm headphone out socket.

That would have saved me buying a new set of speakers, but I've had them for 18 years and fancied a new set. They do sound better, especially the bass. Only issue is my Mac doesn't always automatically reconnect to the speakers via Bluetooth every time I start it.

I've added the bluetooth settings to the menu bar so its simply a case of clicking on that and connecting to them manually.
 
I discovered when I looked at the back of my old speakers that they only had the RCA inputs and I was already using them with the 3.5mm cable on the other end into the PC. Good job I wasn't tight and ordered the new speakers as there was no way of connecting them to both my PC and Mac at the same time.

New speakers have Bluetooth and you can pair up to eight devices, my motherboard being on the higher end has Bluetooth and so does my Mac. So I've got them both hooked up to the new speakers wirelessly.
 
nlel1975 said:
I discovered when I looked at the back of my old speakers that they only had the RCA inputs and I was already using them with the 3.5mm cable on the other end into the PC. Good job I wasn't tight and ordered the new speakers as there was no way of connecting them to both my PC and Mac at the same time.

New speakers have Bluetooth and you can pair up to eight devices, my motherboard being on the higher end has Bluetooth and so does my Mac. So I've got them both hooked up to the new speakers wirelessly.
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Only personal experience
But Bluetooth doesn't sound as good
As being plugged into the pc
At least with the headphones I have there's a big difference
In the sound quality
Can't see speakers being much different
But Bluetooth/wifi certainly is more convenient
 
Mcnumpty2323 said:
Only personal experience
But Bluetooth doesn't sound as good
As being plugged into the pc
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Fair enough, they sound ok to me. Better than my old speakers especially the bass. One track I have really noticed the difference is Kayleigh by Marillion it’s on one of my Spotify playlists.

Can really hear the bass line now, I noticed when I looked at the bass settings on the back of my old subwoofer that they were set to level 1 out of 3. I can’t remember why I set them to level 1 but I did so 17 years ago and have just plugged them into every PC I’ve had since.
 
nlel1975 said:
Fair enough, they sound ok to me. Better than my old speakers especially the bass. One track I have really noticed the difference is Kayleigh by Marillion it’s on one of my Spotify playlists.

Can really hear the bass line now, I noticed when I looked at the bass settings on the back of my old subwoofer that they were set to level 1 out of 3. I can’t remember why I set them to level 1 but I did so 17 years ago and have just plugged them into every PC I’ve had since.
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Yeah i wouldn't say sounds awful over Bluetooth
But definitely better plugged in
My motherboard may have some sort of DAC built in
Which could explain that thinking about it
As typing this
But a bit of compromise for the convenience
Is ok though
Your hearing changes with age too
Sadly I was around when marillion released kayleigh
So definitely old enough my hearing
Probably isn't what it used to be :cry:

It's the mid frequency i hear a lot better
When they are plugged in
Not got the bass cranked on my sub though
But it's enough as it is that I can feel it
Through my desk
November rain is probably my go to track
To test speakers
Got bass,vocal,guitar solo,and most of an orchestra on there
Plugging them in is when I hear
Parts of the orchestra I hadn't noticed over Bluetooth
Though am not an audiophile by any means
These old harmon kardon and motherboard audio
Still sound great to me
Never felt the need to spend a load on audio equipment
But each to their own
If people spend thousands on pc audio stuff
That's their choice so fair enough
 
Mcnumpty2323 said:
Yeah i wouldn't say sounds awful over Bluetooth
But definitely better plugged in
My motherboard may have some sort of DAC built in
Which could explain that thinking about it
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Bluetooth is a swamp of different audio codecs, from the original low bandwidth SBC (~2003) to the more recent higher bandwidth/better compression Apt-<whatever>, Ldac codecs.

Depending on the source of your music and the Bluetooth codec the pc and speakers both support it will be re-encoded with different levels of quality reduction, which the speakers then decode and output.

An analogue cable will just have the decode of the source by the PC then sent to the speakers for amplification
 
Think all my devices are Bluetooth 5.2 or higher
The Bluetooth carries the signal
But newer versions of hardware tend to support
Newer/or better codecs
So while Bluetooth versions may not make a difference
To sound quality
The newer hardware may do by allowing better audio to
Be sent over Bluetooth simply because of hardware capability
Rather than Bluetooth version
I guess regardless of versions
Compression probably plays a part compared to
Being plugged in
And the more I think about it
The more a motherboard built in DAC is niggling
In the back of my mind when mine are plugged in

Headphones I am using are
Sony wh1000xm4 and brand new pair of Marshall major V
Got the Marshall as a spare until I can tie down
One of my stepsons to do the fiddly repair on the Sony
With some 3d printed parts someone on ocuk very kindly
Printed for me
Have to say actually like the Marshall because they fold down
Small enough to fit in a coat pocket
But only actually picked them because it looks like
A better hinge design than the Sony and many others
And was the hinge that gave way in the Sony
 
nlel1975 said:
My PC motherboard supports Bluetooth 5.2, my Mac mini M4 Bluetooth 5.3 and the speakers support Bluetooth 5.0. Apparently the Bluetooth version doesn't affect audio quality.

There's an article about Bluetooth here...

https://www.whathifi.com/advice/bluetooth-5-everything-you-need-to-know
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Bluetooth version not so much, but Bluetooth audio codecs the pc and speakers both support affects the audio quality.

As an example

SBC a low bitrate codec, max is about 330kbps supported by almost everything
Sony LDAC is one of the highest in optimal conditions at -990 kbps

Apple, Qualcomm apt sit in between sbc and Ldac in terms of size and quality.

A cd is ~1400 kbps so to play a cd from your pc to Bluetooth speakers, the PC needs to convert the 1400 kbps audio data stream into something that fits the audio codec the pc and speakers both support.

Over SBC it needs to re encode the audio data to less than 1/4 of its original quality.
With optimal Ldac the re-encode doesn’t need to be as much.
 
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