I’m changing some things around in my office at work, and now that I’ve got my Zen DAC v2 and Asgard 3 up and running in there I 'm thinking about getting getting a pair of speakers to run off of the Asgard’s pre out. I’m not looking to spend a ton, and they can’t be huge anyway, but they need to sound good at lower volumes since I’m rarely going to have opportunities to blast them. I was looking at the PreSonus Eris E3.5 non-Bluetooth model, but I figured I’d see if any of you out here have had better success with anything else.
I think the Adam Audio T5V is a great desktop speaker. It has exceptional clarity at low volumes. They never get fatiguing, either. The imaging is spot on, too.
Sound signature is either love or hate, but the iLoud Micro Monitors are a small footprint option to consider. A little Roon DSP dials in the sound to my taste. At low volume I wouldn’t mess with DSP. But when I crank it, a little top end reduction around 11k is nice to my ear.
Under $200 would be preferred. They’re primarily going to be playing music in the background while I’m working, and don’t serve any purpose during off hours because I’ll be at home.
My desktop speakers shopping follows a similar budget. And I struggled to find anything very interesting under $200 (maybe I missed something, but that was my conclusion). I ended up on the used market, and got a set of audioengine A2’s and iLoud Micro Monitors for <<$200 each. Had to be patient to find the deal…
mackie. mackie powered monitors have some of the best low level volume. they are one of the best on the market for quite listening as they retain their bass and dynamics better then most at low volume. that being said. most others are better at medium to loud volumes as the mackie’s are not the best sounding in the bunch over all. they just excel at low volume better then most. bass typically falls off the most at low volume on most powered monitors. the mackies manage to pretty much keep all of it. i dont suggest these to anyone who is doing more then low level listening on a routine basis. but they are kinda hard to beat, without spending a chunk more, at low volume.
edit:
edit2: thats the base model. the 4" isnt much more
I have some earlier model Mackie CR3s that I use for playing retro games, and they’re not too bad for that purpose. I really don’t listen to music on them though, funnily enough, so I can’t say much in that regard.
For the -200$ there ain’t many options.
Having also the older pair of CR3’s as garage speakers and they work as back ground music when being close to wall. Better than many cheaper BT speakers but that aint much…
Without the wall, there aint no bass.
JBL305 sound much much better in any situation but are also ~100 more and no BT.
