What desktop speakers are you using?

JasonM · 1 Dec 2020 at 19:49

Tephnos said:
Dunno if the Prodipe speakers do this but one of the things that leads to a relaxing and 'smooth' response for a speaker is a rolling treble in-room response (Focal's secret house sound sauce). You could emulate this by applying a treble tilt which should take some edge off them if possible.

The great thing about quality studio speakers is that you can EQ them direct from the speaker.

The Prodipes have some high frequency level adjustment, 4 settings going from -2db to +1db, tried all settings but -1db was best.

I even had the speakers upside down at one stage (to lower the tweeter position), my speakers are on height adjustable stands, however I could never get the Prodipes correct, despite this I can tell there good quality monitors.

goodgrove · 3 Dec 2020 at 15:06

maximus123 said:
Option 1: Hi-Fi Speakers

There are some decent picks around your price-point in this article, published only 7 days ago:

https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/hi-fi/best-budget-hi-fi-speakers

They are all passive speakers, except for the Ruark Audio MR1 Mk2, which are active and slightly over your budget at £330.

That means if you go for anything outside the Ruark, you will also have to budget for an amp. On the passive side of things, the Dali Spektor 2 and Monitor Audio Bronze 2, which can both seemingly be had at £200 at time of writing, seem like good deals for your budget. That would leave you with searching for a budget amp and some cables to round out the package.

Option 2: Active Studio Monitors

Alternatively, you could go for active studio monitors. This means no need for an amplifier. An example that I like the look of is the Adam Audio T5V Studio Monitor. At time of writing, these can be grabbed as two singles for around £135-£140 each, or as a pair for around £275 if you Google around. I'm not fully up to speed on the connections on the rear of these, so you would have to research how to connect them.

Hope that helps!

____________________

thank you for your reply i was looking at the Ruark audio MR1 how is the bass response ?...as they have bluetooth wireless which is a bonus

goodgrove · 3 Dec 2020 at 15:07

JasonM said:
Just my 2p on studio monitors verses hi-fi speakers.

For my home office / workstation computer I have a choice of 2 setups.

1) I have some Prodipe Pro V3 studio monitors. For comparison despite the price the Prodipes sell they are vastly superior to say a £200 Edifier 2.0 setup. The Prodipes are entry level professional monitors, where as Edifier gear is consumer level. I mention this to give an idea on the quality of the Prodipes.

2) Some Yamaha Piano craft speakers, and a sub providing gentle fill in of frequencies below 45Hz. Again better quality than say a £200 Edifier speakers, Yamaha's have better cabinet construction, softer sounding tweeters. Again I mention only so you know where Yamaha Piano Craft speakers stand in comparison.

Now the Prodipe speakers are better then the Yamaha HiFi speakers, also the amp(s) inside the Prodipe are better then the amps i'm using on my Yamaha + Sub setup. Of the 2 setups, I choose the Yamaha setup!

So why do I choose the setup that I have just said is less quality? It's because the Yamaha+Sub is more relaxing than the studio monitors, certainly more musical. I'm a software developer and for easy listening it's the least intrusive setup, so when i'm programming I want to hear music, but I don't want to be analysing how the mix of a track is (that the Prodipes do), where as the Yamaha's are still good quality to enjoy, yet my mind is not focusing on them.

The studio monitors as mentioned are better, but there to prominent and distracting. If I was doing studio work (mixing) I would use the studio monitors, however for software programming / you tube / general music listening, I choose the Yamaha + Sub setup. With the Prodipe if I'm listing to a YouTube channel with poor quality audio, the Prodipes really emphasise this, again for general listening you may not want this.

Incidentally source for either setup is an Asus Essence ST, and I pay for a Amazon Music HD subscription.

great options there the speakers and sub combo will take some room on my desk

goodgrove · 3 Dec 2020 at 15:21

ATIorNvidia said:
Kali LP-6 would be my pick, Adam T5V is good also, both slightly over budget though. JBL LSR305P MKII is also fine, slightly under your budget but the other two are worth the little extra.

There isn't any passive bookshelf + amp combo that can come even remotely close to studio monitors in the sub £500 range for sound quality IMO. The only issue with budget studio monitors is that their amps can have a slight hiss, which you may or may not be able to hear from a few feet away

great looking at the Kali LP-6 they look quite good and cheap

Jasseh · 9 Dec 2020 at 03:59

I've been using a Sony RDHSK8IP iPod dock as speakers for my PC for the last 10 years. Nice sound quality (to me at least) but since moving house late last year I've not been able to position it right.

Upgraded my desk yesterday (after waiting 2 months for it to arrive) and now looking at getting some alternate speakers for my PC as the iPod dock sounds awful side-on. I'd rather not go much over £100 if possible and need them to be relatively small so the desk doesn't feel too cluttered.

Will be used for music, gaming (when not using headphones), movies and general youtube videos.

Any recommendations? Bluetooth would be a nice bonus but not required.

Edit: Never mind, ordered Logitech Z533. Hopefully those will be good enough.

SkyTerran · 14 Dec 2020 at 02:51

I've got a pair of Dali Spektor 2 speakers connected to a Yamaha A-U670 DAC/Amp.

Cadder · 16 Dec 2020 at 11:41

I'm in the market for some, can anyone recommend any desktop speakers/soundbar with minimal wires (preferably wireless) for around £150ish?

M4xson · 16 Dec 2020 at 14:52

Cadder said:
I'm in the market for some, can anyone recommend any desktop speakers/soundbar with minimal wires (preferably wireless) for around £150ish?

I've read the creative under monitor soundbars are pretty good.

Cadder · 16 Dec 2020 at 15:23

M4xson said:
I've read the creative under monitor soundbars are pretty good.

Thank you so much, I'll look into them

p28nay · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:14

Treated myself to some new desktop speakers recently. I ended up going for the Dali Spektor 1's and using with an iFi Zen DAC and Fosi Audio BT20A amp. I'm quite impressed with it

Smiffy-UK · 1 Feb 2021 at 18:27

p28nay said:
Treated myself to some new desktop speakers recently. I ended up going for the Dali Spektor 1's and using with an iFi Zen DAC and Fosi Audio BT20A amp. I'm quite impressed with it

They look nice.

Does anyone know where to get speaker stands from?

A Google search isn't great. Looking for something that just raises them by 3/4 inches.

JasonM · 1 Feb 2021 at 21:47

Smiffy-UK said:
A Google search isn't great. Looking for something that just raises them by 3/4 inches.

Your speakers should be at ear level, and with isolation foam. Gear 4 music has some good stands. It's not just the height, it's also distance / angle from wall, and distance between left and right speaker.

You can spend almost any amount of money, but if you just leave your speakers on the desk then cheaper speakers will still outperform them.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=VmZ5cnZ5T2wyTzNYLUQyNFY5aDhQU2VUbDM1OXBR

Smiffy-UK · 1 Feb 2021 at 22:17

JasonM said:
Your speakers should be at ear level, and with isolation foam. Gear 4 music has some good stands. It's not just the height, it's also distance / angle from wall, and distance between left and right speaker.

You can spend almost any amount of money, but if you just leave your speakers on the desk then cheaper speakers will still outperform them.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=VmZ5cnZ5T2wyTzNYLUQyNFY5aDhQU2VUbDM1OXBR

Nice, thank you for the information,

My speakers are alright. Cost me about £90 from OcUK the Edifier R1280T,

Like you said I'd like them ear hight so have been looking to get some stands.

JasonM · 2 Feb 2021 at 00:03

Smiffy-UK said:
Nice, thank you for the information,

My speakers are alright. Cost me about £90 from OcUK the Edifier R1280T,

Like you said I'd like them ear hight so have been looking to get some stands.

Edifiers are good for money - far better then the plastic cased speakers from Creative or similar.

On this forum I do bang on about stands and isolation, however it's so important. People will debate if X soundcard is better then Y soundcard, but then they miss the basics such as speaker setup.

Parsley · 2 Feb 2021 at 00:46

After using some M-Audio AV40s for years that I will keep for random duties, I went for something a little more compact. I know they're not really that big but it's nice to reclaim a bit of desk space!

iLoud Micro Monitors... I'm absolutely flabbergasted with how they sound for the size, they sound like much larger speakers. They certainly don't look like anything special (though I quite like that they just look like bog standard speakers), but they do feel solid and well put together.

For the size and the price I couldn't ask for more.

Digit · 2 Feb 2021 at 13:17

I've just upgraded from some old Logitech 5.1 set up to a pair of Edifier R1700BT. Mainly due to the great reviews they have got on here over the years.

I have to say I am impressed

TheVoice · 2 Feb 2021 at 13:18

Q Acoustics 3010s with an SMSL AD18 amp/DAC. Great little set-up.

Smiffy-UK · 2 Feb 2021 at 13:42

Digit said:
I've just upgraded from some old Logitech 5.1 set up to a pair of Edifier R1700BT. Mainly due to the great reviews they have got on here over the years.

I have to say I am impressed

They were the ones I wanted but OcUK didn't have them in stock so I settled with the Edifier R1280T, such a great company, British too I think?

Tephnos · 2 Feb 2021 at 13:58

Do I really have to try these out for small TV speakers for the bedroom or do you guys just never try anything in the reference brackets like Genelec/Neumann?

p28nay · 2 Feb 2021 at 16:50

JasonM said:
Your speakers should be at ear level, and with isolation foam. Gear 4 music has some good stands. It's not just the height, it's also distance / angle from wall, and distance between left and right speaker.

You can spend almost any amount of money, but if you just leave your speakers on the desk then cheaper speakers will still outperform them.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=VmZ5cnZ5T2wyTzNYLUQyNFY5aDhQU2VUbDM1OXBR

Good point about raising them. I do plan to do this but unsure what stands to get.

Would these Kanto SW4 Stands below from amazon be any good? They raise it off the desk but not as much as compared to yours but would that be fine?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kanto-Desktop-Speaker-Midsize-Speakers-White/dp/B077Z9GNWV/