Great speakers for computer?

[Jazzjourney4Eva]

Can you guys make a recommendation? Not the usual desktop cheapie, something more Hi-Fi or pseudo Hi-Fi that is bluetooth and doesn't have to connect through something like a Focusrite (I already have JBLs for that)

Thanks!

[starjasmine]

What's your budget?

Is it practical for you to go to some music stores and stereo stores to audition near-field monitors in person? What you like in a speaker might be completely different from what I like.

Maybe a pair of Apple HomePod speakers? The fullsize ones are not cheap (~$300 apiece) but I thought they sounded pretty good when I dropped by my local Apple store for other reasons. The minis are only $99 apiece but I have no idea what they sound like.

A good pair of phones or earbuds will give good fidelity for less cost, but they aren't speakers...

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Budget dictates limits. But if you’re at or over $150 / pair, look at the Edifier 1280DB. They sound great, they’re well made, they look nice, they have Bluetooth, optical, coax, and RCA (analog line level) inputs, and they list for $150 a pair. I have 3 pairs of 1280s (these plus 2 pairs of the passive ones) and I love them. They sound as good to me as Audioengines that cost more than twice as much.

[pauln]

I use a Roland MicroCube's AUX-in for computer audio
(plug guitar into input for play along at the computer)

[RJVB]

What are you looking for - 2 separate speakers to get a proper stereo image, and what kind of computer are we speaking of?

I just bought a Klipsch The One II desktop speaker system for use in the kitchen. Having a good stereo image isn't the most important there but I get the impression that it does a pretty good job at creating one if you were to put it somewhere in front of you. Sound quality is really good for its size though, and I love its vintage look.
I think they also have active desktop'ish speakers that come in pairs.

I'd avoid BT if there's no absolute need for it, btw. There are pretty decent speakers that can be connected over USB, for instance, and TBH, if your computer is anywhere decent you shouldn't be able to hear the difference between an external USB DAC and the headphone out over desktop/computer speakers...

[dconeill]

A budget target would be useful. Otherwise suggestions will be all over the price map.

AudioEngine A2+ or A5+ (BlueTooth variant) might work for you. Available direct from audioengine.com.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I'd avoid BT if there's no absolute need for it, btw. There are pretty decent speakers that can be connected over USB, for instance, and TBH, if your computer is anywhere decent you shouldn't be able to hear the difference between an external USB DAC and the headphone out over desktop/computer speakers...

Respectfully, I disagree with this. The latest BT codecs are much much better than even those from a few years ago. The Qualcomm AptX HD codec is quite good, with sound quality equal to or better than using the ‘phones output jack. You have to have the same codec in BT transmitter and receiver or the pair defaults to the basic SBC, which is the lower quality you’re thinking of as generic BT. With AptX, sound quality is far better. But for low quality lossy files like mp3, even basic BT is fine. Critical listeners don’t use mp3.

Having said that, the Edifier 1280s still use the SBC codec. This is fine for non critical listening to mp3s, backing tracks etc. The Audioengine A2+ uses AptX and sounds better than the Edifiers (which cost half as much) if you play true high resolution, lossless files like FLACs. And you can use the digital inputs on active speakers like the 1280s if you want higher quality sound. A2+ puts out excellent sound. Unfortunately, most computers don’t have onboard AptX BT, so that extra quality is not available unless you add an external BT transmitter (which only costs about $30 & up).

I know of no computer with an onboard DAC equal to even entry level audiophile DACs like iFI, Dragonfly, Schiit, SMSL, Topping etc. The sound quality from a good $100 DAC is far far better than most of the DAC chips on motherboards. If you’re only using compressed files like low res mp3s, it won’t make a difference. But once you hit Redbook (CD) quality or better, the sonic difference is crystal clear.

[Jazzjourney4Eva]

Less than $1,000 would be good.

It looks like good speakers are bluetooth, and that most USB speakers are the cheapies. I'm looking for something self-powered that is better than my JBL monitors, is that realistic? Maybe a sub-woofer too. If not I'll just hook my Focusrite back up and attach the JBLs. I'm looking for more simplicity.

Thanks for the replies so far, keep 'em coming.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Less than $1,000 would be good.

That’s a whole different ballpark from the little Edifiers, AES etc. That gets you into Focal, Genelec, Adam, and similar small pro quality monitors. But almost none has any input other than analog. So you’d need a DAC of some kind. There are good DACs with AptX BT plus some combination of digital inputs (USB, optical, coax) for $100 and up.

I’ve had a pair of Focal towers in my main audio system for over a decade & still love them. Their monitors have a wonderful, clean and neutral sound that’s “musical” despite the lack of coloration. I’ve never owned Adam speakers, but I’ve heard a few models and they’re also excellent. Dynaudio makes fine powered monitors, of which the LYD5 and LYD7 should both be at or under $1k/pair. Yamaha also make great powered monitors for under a grand, but they too only have analog inputs.

Audioengine makes higher end powered monitors with BT that are within your budget. The HD6s are about $700/pair, have the latest AptX BT plus a set of digital inputs, and sound wonderful. And don’t count out your JBLs. The LSR305s still beat the others in comparison tests, and I love them so much I have 2 pairs in my recording setup. There are bigger models in the LSR line, and they make a matching sub. I don’t know which JBLs you have - they may be hard to beat for hundreds more than they cost.

That’s a start.

[RJVB]

Respectfully, I disagree with this. The latest BT codecs are much much better than even those from a few years ago.

I wasn't just talking about quality, but I was talking about what we can hear under normal listening conditions and from small speakers. IMHO the main problem with using the headphone or line-out from the computer is interference from the CPU, GPU and whatever can provoke this in the internal DAC. Plus of course usually more limited power. I've done the comparison using headphones roughly 10y ago; I think I could hear some difference between the audio out of my MBP and the external, supposedly "really good for the money" DAC I had bought. But with it's impossible to do a double-blind test on your own so I can't tell how real my impression was.

The Klipsch I mentioned probably only does BT/SBC. I usually use its aux-in anyway, but when I do pipe wireless music from my notebook I find the quality still crystal clearly better than the sound from the notebook itself. As you point out, high-quality and incidentally, low-latency BT requires both ends to have the proper firmware. Not an issue if you have $1000 to splurge on the speaker side, I presume, but does your computer already have the current crop of best codecs or whatever you call them? If not you're looking at finding a suitable external DAC that does have them, which kind of defeats the simplicity requirement. And then in a few years when BT29 is all the rave with its necplusultra codecs ... are you still going to be able to enjoy those still perfectly fine speakers despite the fact they won't play along (or maybe will only connect with the low-quality fallback codec)?

A wired connection also isn't subject to drop-outs and a lot less to interference (causes non too).

(BTW, what's the range of aptx ... 20-20kHz? )

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

FWIW, a good USB AptX BT transmitter is the size of a USB type A connector, and they start at about $20. Just stick one in a USB port on your computer and you have HD or low latency BT. And when BT29 arrives, so will a $20 transmitter dongle and a $20 receiver the size of a matchbook. I have several different kinds that I bought for a review article on wireless audio about 2 years ago.

Unless they’ve come out with it since I last checked a few months ago, AptX HD is not quite as low latency as AptX LL, and the LL codec isn’t quite as good for hi def audio as the AptX HD codec. No BT will yet pass DSD or other truly hi res files, but it’s fine for 16 bit 44.1 (which is the Redbook CD standard and light years ahead of mp3).

[RJVB]

Another plug for my favourite speaker brand

Speakers, Headphones, and Premium Home Audio | Klipsch

[Jazzjourney4Eva]

Another plug for my favourite speaker brand

Speakers, Headphones, and Premium Home Audio | Klipsch

Mine too, thanks.

[sgcim]

If you have a good, modern TV set near your computer, you can use a long HDMI cable to hook it up to your computer. I have my TCL 50"
Google Smart TV in the same room as my computer.
The sound is a lot better than my little JBLs , and I can even get sound out of both of the JBLs and the TV's speakers at the same time.
You can also use it to play DVDs and CDs through your computer.
When my DVD and CD payer broke down, I never had to repace them.

[RJVB]

Not really relevant, but back when I was researching a new hifi set-up that was supposed to accept a computer as one of the content sources, I got almost this advice in ArsTechnica's audio-visual club. Get a PC ("netbook" would do) with HDMI out, an AV amp and a set of speakers. Running a simple and completely free application like Foobar2000 under MSWin is a very cheap way to send high quality digital audio in "bitperfect" mode to the rendering chain. Provided you turn off all of MS's sound "improvements" of course.

(Always found it weird that the so AV-focussed Mac universe makes it so much less simple to do things like "hey, my amp accepts 24bit@192kHz data, let's just send my files like that rather than down-sampled". )

[jackalGreen]

I have been happy with a pair of KRK Classic 5s (powered monitors) put on two stands that clamp onto a desk. I run them through a little line mixer to use a few different sources. About 100 USD each, and the two stands cost about 80 USD (for the pair). Don't remember what the line mixer cost: a cheap Donner model. Not quite as flexible as a tiny little mixer, but with some small amount of ingenuity and the right cables, it works fine for all my audio routing needs for my needs. I use the Mackie 1202VLZ for keyboards in a different room and I need as much usable desk space as possible in my little home office/"guitar room." Didn't feel it was worth the deskspace for a tiny mixer, and I predict the line mixer produces less noise than some tiny Mackie or Behringer toy mixer. Besides, useful for other stuff.

For my uses, they're more than adequate. Probably far flatter response than the ancient Dynaco A-25s I rarely ever use in my front room.

I see the OPs budget is much higher than the two hundred dollars for the pair of KRKs, so there are clearly more options out there!

Most of the time I don't even bother using an external soundcard/interface from a computer source, so my example is clearly not coming from one who particularly cares about sound reproduction beyond the basics. Not BT, either...I like rats' nests of cables strewn everywhere! It distracts from the cobwebs!

For fun here's a swell picture!

[Glin66]

Any Edifier powered bookshelf speaker. I have the 1280DB, 1700BT, and S2000Pro.
You can't go wrong with any of them at their price points, even at full price, especially when compared to other brands.
No matter what your price point is, 2.0 powered bookshelf speakers will always be better than 2.1 Logitech style systems. For the love of all that is good avoid Logitech and any PC brand no matter what.

[RJVB]

FWIW, a good USB AptX BT transmitter is the size of a USB type A connector, and they start at about $20. Just stick one in a USB port on your computer and you have HD or low latency BT. And when BT29 arrives, so will a $20 transmitter dongle and a $20 receiver the size of a matchbook.

But that's in fact part of the problem. Would you find it equally normal to even that kind of money into new cabling every few year. TBH if it were necessary somehow (copper getting tired... ) I would actually find that a little less bothersome knowing that the old ones could be recycled far easier than obsolete electronic devices can be.

Also, if you're speaking about dongles that just provide a BT interface ... how are you going to interface them with your speakers?
Last time I checked the Linux BT stack wasn't really up to par with its Mac/MSWin equivalents at least in terms of reliable use for audio. I found that out trying to get a (cheap) BT headset to work. I haven't followed the evolution (my Linux rig hasn't evolved either ) so a few weeks ago when I started looking for a way to connect it to a BT speaker I concentrated on USB DAC+BT dongles because that moves the entire BT aspect into the (cross-platform) device's black box. I looked at a quite a few of the kind of dongles you referred to too because it isn't always immediately obvious exactly what you're dealing with. Most have a significant amount of negative evals on A'zon, mentioning connection or overall reliability problems. In the end I went for a Sennheiser model which was about 40€ but there are (probably more upbrow) brands that go for considerably more.

FWIW, the Sennheiser works mostly find. I haven't even looked at what bit depths and samplerates it accepts (or what DAC it has onboard), mostly because you don't get control over that anyway on a Linux system that uses PulseAudio.

[RJVB]

For the love of all that is good avoid Logitech and any PC brand no matter what.

Hear, hear

What about Altec Lansing, in fact? There's been a lot of hype around those bell/dome shaped things that apparently are still being made from what I saw the other day. Same category as the DrBeats headphones?

[Jazzjourney4Eva]

I was considering Edifier, but something about them just seemed a little off. Firstly, Bestbuy sells them, and they just royally suck. They were always bad but Covid has really made retail awful.

Then I looked at some Edifier customer reviews. One owner was complaining about the lack of a customer service phone number and another owner said they would have one - if everyone spoke Chinese. But - they answer emails! Great. (not).

[RJVB]

I was considering Edifier, but something about them just seemed a little off.

I thought you already had a decision:

Mine too, thanks.

(btw, Klipsch do answer support questions, quite happily too - tested that years before and now again to know why my The One has an undocumented USB port.)

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[Jazzjourney4Eva]

Any Edifier powered bookshelf speaker. I have the 1280DB, 1700BT, and S2000Pro.
You can't go wrong with any of them at their price points, even at full price, especially when compared to other brands.
No matter what your price point is, 2.0 powered bookshelf speakers will always be better than 2.1 Logitech style systems. For the love of all that is good avoid Logitech and any PC brand no matter what.

does that go for Apple? They’re pretty proud of theirs too.

[Jazzjourney4Eva]

I thought you already had a decision:



(btw, Klipsch do answer support questions, quite happily too - tested that years before and now again to know why my The One has an undocumented USB port.)

I do. Thanks again.

BTW - my brother had some corner horns in his bachelor apartment decades ago, lol. Then he upgraded to a house of course. I bought some of their “reference speakers” sometime after 2010. They were stylish with nice wood finishes etc. They had three sizes, $8K, $12K, then $25K. I bought the smallest ones. Still have ‘em. That line seems to be discontinued.

[RJVB]

That line seems to be discontinued.

I've got Reference floorstanders from the line of around 2014 (Mk2 or Mk3) and 2 pairs of bookshelf speakers from the line before that. They still have a Reference line but it seems they upgrade it every few years.

The only thing I don't like about the floorstanders is that they don't have adjustable feet.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

But that's in fact part of the problem. Would you find it equally normal to even that kind of money into new cabling every few year.

I don't like it, but it's part of the technical world in which we live. You can't possibly use a computer, smart phone etc without running into this at least every few years. Windows 11 won't run many of the apps that work perfectly on Win10. You can't go above Yosemite on older Macs, but you could get stuck on High Sierra or Mojave unless you go current with the hardware to run Mojave. iOS updates render apps obsolete every day - even the New York Times app finally wouldn't run on the highest iOS our iPads could use, so we had to buy new iPads to continue reading the NYT on them.

How about USB, which has gone from 1 to 2 to 3 to 3.X, first with cable changes and now with connector changes as well? Now USB C is starting to take over, and all those Lightning cables are now as useless as the 30 pin cables were when you upgraded to a 7 from your 4.

Also, if you're speaking about dongles that just provide a BT interface ... how are you going to interface them with your speakers?

We're talking about active speakers with onboard DACs, and BT is just another digital input channel along with USB, coax, AES etc. This whole thread started with a request for recommendations of BT speakers. Qualcomm's website maintains a list of active speakers compatible with their AptX codecs, so you can pick from those with the sound quality and latency you want. The alternative is to use a $20 adaptor into the optical input on the speakers so you can upgrade your BT as it gets better. BT4 was a great improvement over earlier ones, and 5 has several advantages over 4. Again, this is the way the tech world works - stuff gets better, and you have to buy new stuff if you want to take advantage of it.

Last time I checked the Linux BT stack wasn't really up to par with its Mac/MSWin equivalents at least in terms of reliable use for audio. I found that out trying to get a (cheap) BT headset to work.

I run several Linux boxes, most with Ubuntu Studio, and I run 7 Raspberry Pis from 3 and Zero to 4b on various flavors of Linux (including Rasprry Pi OS). I also have a Beaglebone Black in my audio lab running an old distro of Debian. I have no problems at all with BT audio on any of them, both using the embedded chips on the MOBO and using external USB adaptors. If configured correctly, the sound is every bit as good as it is with any other OS. I even have the Echo Dot in my bathroom connected by BT to my main media Linux box - shower time is a regular dance party!

I looked at a quite a few of the kind of dongles you referred to too because it isn't always immediately obvious exactly what you're dealing with. Most have a significant amount of negative evals on A'zon, mentioning connection or overall reliability problems.

Almost everything has a serious amount of negative feedback on the internet. I've never seen an Amazon review set that didn't include multiple 1 star reviews that say "I wish I could have given it zero stars!" I'm currently using 4 BT transceivers that have both LL and HD codecs. The little square ones were $20 each, and the bigger ones with double antennae were $35. All of them are switchable from transmit to receive, all have optical and analog outputs, and all work great with any Linux distro I've tried (which is about 15 of them - I also wrote a review of Linux for audio on audiophilestyle.com within the last 3 years). The little ones work as well and sound as good as the big ones in our home.

I tested a bunch of these for an article I wrote on wireless audio, and these worked great throughout a 2000 square foot apartment in which there was no line of sight between any two of them. I run the optical outs from the transceivers into active Edifier 1280DBs because the speakers do not have the latest codecs. And when BT 29 comes along, as you predict, I'll buy a new BT adaptor. You only need one receiver because the signal is stereo and each pair of active speakers only has one input.

FWIW, the Sennheiser works mostly find. I haven't even looked at what bit depths and samplerates it accepts (or what DAC it has onboard), mostly because you don't get control over that anyway on a Linux system that uses PulseAudio.

You have complete control over all parameters with current Linux audio - bit depth, sample rate etc. You probably had experience with OSS, which was the Linux audio system in the kernels before ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) became the default. ALSA has been the audio architecture in Linux kernels for some years now, and it's excellent. PulseAudio is one of a number of audio servers that interface between sound sources and ALSA - but if you don't want to use it, you can go into ALSA directly with a single source. The audio servers live in the layer above the audio architecture in Linux, and they enable selectable use of multiple sound sources. I use JACK, which is a lot more comprehensive than PulseAudio.