Seeking better home office audio...what am I looking for?

April 9, 2021 8:08 AM

I would like to improve the audio in my home office from old computer speakers to something richer. I'm not even sure what product I'm looking for. Help?

I'd really like to up the audio quality in my 10x10 home office.

My office computer is a laptop running linux that has good audio support. I currently am using the headphone port out to an old pair of computer speakers. The laptop supports bluetooth audio as well. I listen to a lot of music during the day and want that to sound better/richer/fuller, but am also in video conferences frequently and need conversation to come through cleanly as well.

I typically use The Wirecutter as a starting off point, but their audio section has a bunch of product categories that seem like matches to what I want.

For example, this seems like the right product category
Best Computer Speakers

But would I be better off doing this?
Best wireless powered bookshelf speakers

or even this?
Best Bookshelf Speakers plus this Best Bluetooth Audio Receiver for home stereo or speakers
(I have a couple of very nice stereo receivers gathering dust that could power regular speakers)

I'm interested in better sound, but I don't even know where to start with this. Thanks!

posted by mcstayinskool to Technology (16 answers total)

Best answer: I think a lot of this comes down to your specific circumstances. How much room do you have? How much tolerance for wires running everywhere? How discerning a listener are you? How are the acoustics in your space? If you're using tinny crap speakers now, even moderately nice ones will feel like a big upgrade.

For conferences, in my own experience, you're better off with some kind of headset. Audio quality isn't all that important, so even cheap earbuds are fine. Whether you'll be satisfied with a headset for listening to music is a question only you can answer, but there certainly are some nice headsets out there.

For music listening, IMO, bluetooth is good enough for normal people (ie, not audiophiles who can discern whether a cable was twisted clockwise or counter-clockwise) and it's nice to get rid of the wires. That said, I'm currently using powered wired bookshelf speakers (from Edifier) that are pretty nice and didn't break the bank. I would not have the space for a separate amp, or the desire for larger speakers, and my desk is already aswarm with cables. I would go with bluetooth bookshelf speakers if I were buying today.
posted by adamrice at 8:27 AM on April 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

For speakers, I have had much better luck with standard unpowered bookshelf speakers and a small stereo amp (currently I have one from Fosi Audio I got on amazon). To my ears, this setup sounds better than any powered computer speakers I have heard, and was similar in price to the nicer ones (maybe a bit cheaper). If you really want powered computer speakers, I've had pretty good luck with Audioengine. I think they have a liberal return policy (at least last time I checked) so you may be able to try them out and return it if you don't like it.
posted by primethyme at 8:31 AM on April 9, 2021

Sorry I missed at the end that you have some spare receivers already. In that case, assuming you have room for one at your desk, I'd start with that plus a set of nice bookshelf speakers.
posted by primethyme at 8:32 AM on April 9, 2021

I haven't had much luck with powered computer speakers either, even decent ones with a subwoofer.

I have a cable going from my laptop's headphone port to two RCA plugs that I plug into a stereo receiver's inputs (ex. 'CD' or 'Tape' or 'Aux''), which drives some decent bookshelf speakers (JBL Control Ones), and it sounds very good. The speaker wires are hidden between the back of the desk and the wall. Maybe it's because I grew up in a wired-only world, but using Bluetooth feels like adding unnecessary cost and complexity to the process for minimal gain.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:33 AM on April 9, 2021

Best answer: I don't understand the "no luck with powered speakers" comments - many higher-end speakers are powered these days. Maybe this comes from using "computer speakers" which is a category I tend to avoid.

In your situation I would opt for Bluetooth powered speakers:

- Bluetooth means you can easily connect most devices to them, making them easy to repurpose later if something in your situation/setup changes
- You are not FORCED to use a Bluetooth connection; they will almost always have analog (and possibly digital) inputs as well, if you find the Bluetooth quality-compromise unacceptable. But, its a great option to quickly throw something from your phone onto the speakers.
- Powered speakers make your setup simpler, and again, makes it easy to repurpose them for something else later.

I think you would do well with one of the Wirecutter choices from The Best Wireless Powered Bookshelf Speakers. I have the Edifier S1000DB speakers and use them (with Bluetooth) for my home cinema, and I find the sound quite good, and sometimes shockingly good. Those are pretty big speakers, though - I wouldn't want them two feet from my face if you plan to put them on either side of your monitor. They are also not the best looking speakers I've seen :)
posted by SNACKeR at 9:01 AM on April 9, 2021

I do some (aspirational, more than actual) music stuff, and have a pair of JBL 305 Mk II powered monitors connected to a MOTU M4 Audi interface. Probably wouldn’t satisfy if you wanted bass-heavy tunes, but is pretty great for most of what I do. For work (and listening to music while working) I use a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 Bluetooth headphones. If I didn’t share a workspace with my wife, who dislikes music while working, I’d probably use my speakers more, but the Bluetooth headphones are great for meetings and plenty good for background noise. This is all moderately pricy (probably $1k in gear if purchased new, though I got one of the speakers free from a coworker and the other one on Craigslist, pre-pandemic, and work provided the headphones..). Good stuff, though.
posted by Alterscape at 9:29 AM on April 9, 2021

I had a pair of the second gen AudioEngine powered speakers which overheated during light use and I couldn’t get warranty coverage because I was in Canada. $500 gone. This was 10 or so years ago, so they've probably improved but I never miss an opportunity to slag AudioEngine (or Iomega).

I do same as Greg_Ace. I have an older iPad Pro with a headphone jack, running to the aux in of a medium priced Marantz integrated amp and a pair of Focal bookshelf speakers. It's by far the best stereo setup I've ever had. Fills a 20’x20’ room nicely.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:31 AM on April 9, 2021

I recently upgraded my computer to a pair of AudioEngine A2+ speakers ($300 with stands) and an SSW-8 subwoofer from Monoprice ($100). Music now sounds absolutely amazing. Zoom audio quality is good, but then it was before too. Beyond sound quality, I like the A2+ speakers because they are very compact and look nice.

The A2+ are bluetooth-enabled, but I have them wired via USB so the DAC in the speakers is being used (traditional line out/RCA stereo is also an option, uses your soundcard DAC).
posted by lefty lucky cat at 10:17 AM on April 9, 2021

Also, if you go with unpowered bookshelf speakers, make sure they're rated for a wattage relatively close to the watts/channel output of the receiver you use. It's not great to under-power or over-power speakers by a large margin.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:20 AM on April 9, 2021

Why not consider non-solid-state?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:26 AM on April 9, 2021

I'm also a Linux user. My setup is a USB DAC (Fiio) connected from my computer to a Yamaha receiver / CD player (I've had this for ~18 years now) and the bookshelf speakers that came with it mounted up top my bookshelves so that the sound is not blasting directly in my face. (Basically this but about 10 years older.)

I have used Bluetooth speakers but I don't love Bluetooth overall. I'd rate the old Bluetooth setup I had as about 92% stable, 8% PITA. I found that 8% PITA is way more PITA than I was willing to deal with when I just wanted to press "play" on Spotify, Bandcamp or Clementine and have music come out the other side.
posted by jzb at 10:27 AM on April 9, 2021

Use a headset on a call, speakerphone makes the audio latency and echo even worse than it is on Webex/Zoom/Teams/SIP. Speakerphone is for people who don't care about others they're sharing space with or who they're calling. The Sony WH-1000 mentioned above are trusted, if you can tolerate wired buds, Sony also make wired buds that passively reduce background noise and sound great.

For out-loud listening, the bang-for-buck is impeccable with a Raspberry Pi plus DAC board as a network sink for your laptop, running into one of your receivers and get some small speakers. I'm in the UK so KEF are great and I love my pair of Q350s.
posted by k3ninho at 10:28 AM on April 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

I use line out from PC and Laptop to a simple mixer to a small amp powering bookshelf speakers. I'm happy with this for work teleconferencing, music, TV/Movies, and gaming.

Laptop mic/directional mike doesn't pick up too much bleed (this kind of cancelation is built in to laptops/teleconference SW).

Audio quality is superior to typical "computer speakers" and the overall experience is way better than wearing headsets, IMO. I've used an old receiver as an amp as well as a very small one with bluetooth. I typically don't use the bluetooth for this as I have multiple input sources at the same time and bluetooth is not my favorite for non-portable setups.
posted by jclarkin at 2:03 PM on April 9, 2021

Depending on your budget, tastes, space available, and interest in going down rabbit holes, you might want to look into studio monitors, rather than “computer speakers” or “bookshelf speakers”. They’ll generally sound better than computer speakers and, unlike bookshelf speakers, are designed for listening at close distances. A downside could be that they might sound very “neutral” rather than “fun”, although this could be tweaked with equaliser-type software on your computer. The JBL 305s that Alterscape mentioned are, I believe, quite a classic choice of powered monitors. I like the look of the Adam Audio T5Vs myself (but have never heard either, so what do I know).

I use a pair of AudioEngine A2+s which I got because they don’t take up much space and they look nice. But speakers that small are never going to sound brilliant. I don’t need mega bass but I want to be able to tell it’s there. I added a subwoofer which helps a lot but (now that I have more desk space) I wish I’d got bigger speakers instead and will do so at some point.

You could also look at getting a DAC (digital to audio converter) to go between your PC’s audio out/USB and whatever speakers you get. Supposed to do a much better job at turning the bits into good sounds than the one built into any PC/Mac. Schiit (American) and Topping (Chinese) are two brands getting good reviews and have models from around $100 upwards. I haven’t tried a DAC.

(I’m not much of an audiophile but I do enjoy reading about it all. My current favourite source is the geeks at Audio Science Review.)
posted by fabius at 6:30 AM on April 10, 2021

The main question here is... what is your price point, and what do you have at the moment? The answer depends on what you have to work with, and there are many things that can link your existing stereo to a PC, if you have one. Else, we're starting with a clean slate.

For simplicity, let's start with a clean slate... You want actual speakers, but you don't want to pay an arm and a let. Old computer speakers, which I assume to be something like simple Logitech stereo? No subwoofer? Or generic versions from Best Buy and such?

Just an upgrade from that, to say, $100 set or as many have suggested, $300 set will improve your audio quite a bit.

Personally, I often wonder why don't people just use a soundbar. Sure, they're designed for the TV, but a monitor is just a TV without a tuner, right? Indeed, Dell makes several models, while Razer Leviathan is a 5.1 BT system w/ Subwoofer. SoundBlaster X Katana is the same idea.

Personally, using a DAC is a bit of overkill but it's your money.
posted by kschang at 7:32 AM on April 10, 2021

I use a Schiit DAC connected to Audioengine A5+ powered speakers on Kanto speaker stands. Depending on what you're listening to, a setup like that might be overkill (and there's a good chance it's more money than you want to spend), but it sounds good.
posted by box at 3:07 PM on April 10, 2021