I’m looking for some decent powered speakers that can be used in my office. These will primarily be plugged into my desktop, so I’m not looking for something super expensive. I’m currently looking at these speakers, but I’m not experienced in this area. Not married to these by any means, but something in this form factor would be nice.
My office is relatively small, about 10x12ft, so I’m really not looking for something super loud. More important to me is frequency response and quality of the sound.
TL;DR:
Budget US$100ish
Powered bookshelf speakers for use with a PC.
I've been using M-Audio speakers for a very long time. I used AV40 when I was in Korea but sold them when I left. After I saw that the AV-40 was discontinued I switched to the slightly smaller ones AV-32. Very happy with it. Plus I've seen this cheaper than Amazon at places like Guitar Center in the past 6 mo. so its very good bang for your buck IMO.
I got a pair of the MB42X (non-powered) last month and they are really really nice.
I was listening to music to test them that had a good mix, not necessarily my favorite songs. Just for fun I tried listening to Micheal Jackson's "Wanna be startin' somethin", because I know he was a mixing genius. I didn't hear the music, I heard 24 separate tracks. Then I started hearing quiet voices in the background that I had never heard before, after 35 years of listening to it.
Yeah, the wattage is the biggest limitation on the PB42X, but a thought on the two that have wattage limitations is, your office isn't too large so it might not matter all much.
From my understanding, it's enough for easy listening sessions, nothing that will be loud enough to cause pain, or listening fatigue. If you end up getting one of the lower wattage ones, make sure you can return them if they don't fit what you like.
I am using a Logitech G51 system with 25W per channel, which is good but much less than 15W. Maybe getting the standard MB42X with a small amp is an option? In a car one needs a lot more wattage than at home to overcome road noise.
That's true, for the most part. I've gotta say though, the new Mercedes E350 is damn silent. You're able to talk at just above a whisper and have people hear you. It's insane. I wish I had 60k to spend on a car but I'm poor.
That one is 3.5x my budget. Looks awesome, but can't afford it. I'm thinking the R1280T is my best bet. Looking at some specs, the frequency response is good and with 45w power, it's probably perfect.
Eh, I like quality over loudness. The reason for the loudness is because my car is not what you'd call quiet.
Remember, monitors are designed with engineering in mind. They will reveal all the imperfections in a recording, because you'd want to identify and fix those in a studio environment. Loudspeakers are meant to reproduce the recording for sheer enjoyment. However, you said your budget is around $100, so your options are extremely limited. If you listen to a lot of compressed music, I would definitely suggest loudspeakers. Some people might have a separate set of speakers for enjoyment and another for critical listening/hi-fidelity/hi-definition sources.
10W could be feasible, depending on your environment and listening preferences. You don't need a crazy amount of watts unless you're going to blast speakers. You plan on hosting any parties in the office?
I've found a local audio shop so I'm going to head down there and see if they have some speakers in my range so I can have a listen. I'll report back in a bit.
I went down to the shop and looked at a variety of speakers. Some in range and some out of range. I wound up settling on the Edifier's since they sounded great, had a $10 discount in store, bringing them to $89.99 pre tax, and they match my desk perfectly.
So, since you got the Edifiers now and seem to be happy with them, a quick question...
I see they have a remote control for switching inputs. Is there any way to control that without the remote? I'm thinking about getting those too (currently looking at those), but I'll probably loose that remote rather quickly...
Currently leaning more towards the Edifiers (they were not available when I found the Behringers) for the Bluetooth and also the price, aside from the the connections seem to be the same.
I just got these, and I find them acceptable. They're nice and loud. I would go into quality but I'm on Linux and mostly playing videos off of Youtube so... not sure how good or bad they are.
The presets on Pulse Audio are just terrible. Bass is too high on every preset. They can get quite loud with no distortion, I'll say that. Considering their small size, they are pretty damned good.
One suggestion though, tilt them so they face your ears rather than facing straight out. You will find the sound quality improves when they are in line with your ears..
