250$-300$ Compact (powered) Bookshelf speakers that don't look ugly?

[NiagaraPete]

There is no shortcut to the perfect HiFi sound so ...he he .......

Edit:
In fact, a friend when he was in his 20s received an ultimatum from his then-girlfriend, who was jealous. Zappa collection (which should be mentioned he spent the most time on) or more time with his girlfriend ... he chose Zappa.
(it would probably have ended regardless of Zappa).

I saw Zappa a couple times. I understand how you friend was interested.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Get a C-Note kit and veneer / paint / decorate it whatever color makes your wife happy. Adding a grille isn't much work if that's needed for cosmetics.

The S2000 (pictured) and Overnight Sensations kits are a little smaller and (if you want the look of wood) can have a nicer finish that dealing with MDF. If you're painting or veneering then MDF is fine.

 

[svinyard]

Well, hm. It's nice to have a small stereo where the kitchen table is, if you sit at that table and listen. But that small type of speaker you are looking for and then fill the entire living room with music, .... hm ... Let me be honest. It's just going to be like a pfffff sound of it all. Maybe as an emergency solution if it is the only sound system you can have, just to get some sound in the living room but it will not be more than that.

You can count on slightly different listening distances and volume / dB here and you will realize the challenge.

How much power does an amplifier need with this type of range of dynamic music

Feel free to use this calculator. Add sensitivity to the speaker and then tell which effect you have chosen and why. Weigh in that you want some headroom. http://www.mh-audio.nl/Calculators/REAP.html You can select music from this list. Or something else, but in that case tell us how you...

audiosciencereview.com

Amplifiers, speakers that are pressed too hard against their limit for what they can handle sounds bad. Sometimes really bad.

Edit:
Then I have not even discussed the placement of the speakers and how they will sound there on the bench if you are sitting on the couch and listening to music.
If you move around a lot in the living room, then perhaps a pair of omni speakers instead?.

OK got it. What about for just dinner table/kitchen listening (not far from those speakers)? My hope is that it'd sound decent (again with compact 5" woofer speakers) and then just be "sound" for the living room. My guess is that you and I listen to music very differently, which is cool. I'm likely just trying to get a half-measure and will be happy with that assuming its not a fortune. What do you think?

 

[DanielT]

OK got it. What about for just dinner table/kitchen listening (not far from those speakers)? My hope is that it'd sound decent (again with compact 5" woofer speakers) and then just be "sound" for the living room. My guess is that you and I listen to music very differently, which is cool. I'm likely just trying to get a half-measure and will be happy with that assuming its not a fortune. What do you think?

You will get sound. It kind of depends a bit on what you are looking for.
If you get happy, it's good and many of the speakers suggested in the thread are in themselves good, affordable. For the money they cost - good sound.

I'm so used to having two speakers in front of me when I sit on the couch and listen to music. I could not imagine having it any other way. Note, I, you have other wishes. However, what others in the thread mentioned, I agree 100%, that is, with small speakers, a subwoofer is needed, if it is to sound sensible.
(especially if you choose really small speakers)

Edit:
About as big a room as yours, an open solution, the living room that is. She listens to vinyl. 7:05 into the video. Her new speakers:

It all depends on what type of sound you want.Now it is not possible to compare your choices with hers because she has a different budget. In which case. In short, yes it will sound a little bit better if you get a little better speakers.

 

[NickSim86]

Wharfedale D310? I just bought a pair and they have decent bass. I also have those 4" Elacs coming this week to try.

In my kitchen I have some JVC SP-UX7000 cherry wood speakers from an old shelf system running off a class D amp and Chromecast audio. They're around $50 on ebay.

Have you tried any of the smart speakers in a stereo pair? Like the Google nest or JBL? It's discontinued but the Google home max was supposed to be pretty good and you could get one off eBay. Kanto makes a similar speaker called the Syd.

 

[DanielT]

Wharfedale D310? I just bought a pair and they have decent bass. I also have those 4" Elacs coming this week to try.

In my kitchen I have some JVC SP-UX7000 cherry wood speakers from an old shelf system running off a class D amp and Chromecast audio. They're around $50 on ebay.

Have you tried any of the smart speakers in a stereo pair? Like the Google nest or JBL? It's discontinued but the Google home max was supposed to be pretty good and you could get one off eBay. Kanto makes a similar speaker called the Syd.

It's a really good price on those Elac 4. Had I been able to order a pair I would have done that.

Elac 4 together with one (or more) active subsoffers. A good budget solution. It can be a little difficult for OP to find a good new subwoofer for around $ 150, but offers can appear. Although they are passive those Elac 4 so then the $ 150 will need to be invested in an amplifier.

Here in this thread I saw a good compilation:

Looking for advices for speakers

Hi everyone, I'm looking for bookshelves speakers for my Audiolab 6000A. I'm a beginner and knows nothing about hifi. I had the opportunity to listen to several speakers as Dynaudio emit 10 (which I liked), the Bower and wilkins 707 (not bad but too expensive for my budget) and the Wharfedale...

audiosciencereview.com

Amazon.com: ELAC 4" Passive Bookshelf Speakers : Electronics

Amazon.com: ELAC 4" Passive Bookshelf Speakers : Electronics

www.amazon.com

 

[svinyard]

OK So I tried a few sets of speakers along with some passive (on Aiyima D03) over bluetooth and also my Fluance RT82 (Art DJ Pre II phono). We so far from experts but regardless we have ears and the difference in speaker setup has been noticeable. We are in a large room so we did listening in a proper position but also out in the larger room where things aren't ideal. Listened to some AC/DC, White Stripes, Jack Johnson, Journey, Ye etc. So I just bought a bunch of stuff to try out and see what actually mattered to us as less-than-experts.

1- JBL Studio 530 - too big and too ugly. Not worth testing for our case because of the fit/form but I'm sure they sound wonderful

2- Neumi BP5P - these things kind of suck. They are the latest firmware and have the port plugs etc straight from Neumi. Totally lame, anemic, zero bass sound and zero warmth. Even if you could EQ them I wouldn't want them. They sound better than a nice Alexa speaker but not far off from that. Wife had me throw on some Kanye Golddigger (ironic song for that guy these days) and it was a joke how it sounded. I had high hopes but even my wife was like, "nahh those are lame sounding compared to the other stuff". Perhaps you get what you paid for here, but Erin's relatively high scores weren't entirely accurate in our experience...I assumed that they would punch way above their 160$ weight class and they didn't. I don't love that they have a power supply brick too. They did come with pretty dang nice speaker wires tho! For 160$ I’m positive you can find something twice as good that’s on sale for about that price.

3- Jamo S 803 - these weren't bad at all with the Aiyima D03. Big housing tho and pretty striking looks...not in a good way depending on your decor. If you're an ikea decorator, then their white with wood and grey grills will look nice. I didn't like the looks as much as I thought I would and the housing is pretty big. The sound was good, a bit lighter on bass tho and not super clean in the middle (If I'm saying that right). Tuning the bass EQ up a touch didn't really work so well as they distorted.

4- Klipsch R-51M - these are beauties in person. The copper aluminum woofer pairs really, really nicely with wood/stone decor which we have. I was surprised at how much I liked them. My wife is the interior decorator and she liked the looks as well without the grills. Perhaps unsurprisingly these sounded the best as well. Everything was really warm and vibrant but also clean and un-muddied sound wise. The bass wasn't stunning but a couple clicks of EQ could get some thump out of these without distorting either. It was pretty damn good compared to the competition. Jamo's weren't super far behind but not as good either. All of the stuff I listened too sounded good on them. The Jackson stuff was expectedly warm and really sounded nice. AC/DC was awesome with a bit of bass as was white stripes. Journey stuff was super good too. I'm sure there are better speakers but for 215$ these just sounded nice, especially when you were in a proper position to listen...tho they still sounded decent elsewhere in our big room. I may strong arm the wife (metaphorically) into getting the powered version of these (has phono too) despite their height. We'll see how the Ai41's do.

I have the Fluance Ai41's coming Monday to try out as we like that 250$ price point and they are more compact than the Klipsch's (which are unfortunately too tall I'm told). Also the Klipsch's (215$) with the 160$ amp are getting a bit spendy and the amp, amp power brick, plus preamp (and its power brick) is significantly cluttered. Hoping the Ai41's get a bit closer to the Klipsch's and they still have a 5" woofer despite being a smaller cabinet by a few inches (height is the issue).

A couple of side notes:
1- The Fluance RT82 turntable is pretty badass. It plays so cleanly with zero variation. Compared to the el cheapo we had tried before (220$ with built in garbage speakers...its NIGHT AND DAY). I don't want to pay 365$ (TT and phono) but I don't think I can move down to a cheaper TT. Its sweet and is beautiful too.

2- The ART DJ Pre II is super rad but looks super ugly lol. I don't have a lot to compare it too BUT...being able to adjust the gain is no joke. Even going from neutral/flat to +2 makes it sound WAY better and more vibrant. Not sure I'd want something without adjustable gain but have little experience with anything else. You just have to hide the damn ART pretty good somewhere.

3- Aiyima D03 - everything sounded good/great out of this thing to my untrained ears. The turntable into its RCA sounded wonderful too (some have said it lacking). Bluetooth sounded great as well. Of note, the build quality is a bit lame. Volume knob rattles a bit when using it. The Bluetooth constantly drops you when you aren't using it so you have to go and reconnect on the iPhone. This is actually pretty damn lame. I don't want to constantly have to make those clicks as its not just a short quick thing on my iPhone. BT range was good tho and it got plenty loud for us. Especially on the Klipsch's.

 

[hardisj]

Perhaps he's biased because they let him help create them.

Dude. How in the world did you come to that conclusion? I had nothing to do with creating them. I measured the speaker and it didn't measure like they had designed it. And even worse than the passive one I purchased and reviewed a year prior. Still, I published that review and video. Both are still up.

They found the issue. They fixed it with a FW update and I re-measured and re-reviewed it. I was completely transparent about the process. I don't know how you would think that I designed it based on what I wrote in my review.


As for what you thought about how they sounded ... ok. You didn't like them. NBD. I'm "biased" because I still think it's the best option for a powered speaker at a price of $150/pair. You're welcome to prove me wrong with data that backs up your recommendation.


- Erin

 

[DanielT]

OK So I tried a few sets of speakers along with some passive (on Aiyima D03) over bluetooth and also my Fluance RT82 (Art DJ Pre II phono). We so far from experts but regardless we have ears and the difference in speaker setup has been noticeable. We are in a large room so we did listening in a proper position but also out in the larger room where things aren't ideal. Listened to some AC/DC, White Stripes, Jack Johnson, Journey, Ye etc. So I just bought a bunch of stuff to try out and see what actually mattered to us as less-than-experts.

1- JBL Studio 530 - too big and too ugly. Not worth testing for our case because of the fit/form but I'm sure they sound wonderful

2- Neumi BP5P - these things kind of suck. They are the latest firmware and have the port plugs etc straight from Neumi. Totally lame, anemic, zero bass sound and zero warmth. Even if you could EQ them I wouldn't want them. They sound better than a nice Alexa speaker but not far off from that. Wife had me throw on some Kanye Golddigger (ironic song for that guy these days) and it was a joke how it sounded. I had high hopes but even my wife was like, "nahh those are lame sounding compared to the other stuff". Perhaps you get what you paid for here, but Erin's super high scores weren't entirely accurate in our experience...I assumed that they would punch way above their 150$ weight class and they didn't. Perhaps he's biased because they let him help create them. I don't love that they have a power supply brick too. They did come with pretty dang nice speaker wires tho!

3- Jamo S 803 - these weren't bad at all with the Aiyima D03. Big housing tho and pretty striking looks...not in a good way depending on your decor. If you're an ikea decorator, then their white with wood and grey grills will look nice. I didn't like the looks as much as I thought I would and the housing is pretty big. The sound was good, a bit lighter on bass tho and not super clean in the middle (If I'm saying that right). Tuning the bass EQ up a touch didn't really work so well as they distorted.

4- Klipsch R-51M - these are beauties in person. The copper aluminum woofer pairs really, really nicely with wood/stone decor which we have. I was surprised at how much I liked them. My wife is the interior decorator and she liked the looks as well without the grills. Perhaps unsurprisingly these sounded the best as well. Everything was really warm and vibrant but also clean and un-muddied sound wise. The bass wasn't stunning but a couple clicks of EQ could get some thump out of these without distorting either. It was pretty damn good compared to the competition. Jamo's weren't super far behind but not as good either. All of the stuff I listened too sounded good on them. The Jackson stuff was expectedly warm and really sounded nice. AC/DC was awesome with a bit of bass as was white stripes. Journey stuff was super good too. I'm sure there are better speakers but for 215$ these just sounded nice, especially when you were in a proper position to listen...tho they still sounded decent elsewhere in our big room. I may strong arm the wife (metaphorically) into getting the powered version of these (has phono too) despite their height. We'll see how the Ai41's do.

I have the Fluance Ai41's coming Monday to try out as we like that 250$ price point and they are more compact than the Klipsch's (which are unfortunately too tall I'm told). Also the Klipsch's (215$) with the 160$ amp are getting a bit spendy and the amp, amp power brick, plus preamp (and its power brick) is significantly cluttered. Hoping the Ai41's get a bit closer to the Klipsch's and they still have a 5" woofer despite being a smaller cabinet by a few inches (height is the issue).

A couple of side notes:
1- The Fluance RT82 turntable is pretty badass. It plays so cleanly with zero variation. Compared to the el cheapo we had tried before (220$ with built in garbage speakers...its NIGHT AND DAY). I don't want to pay 365$ (TT and phono) but I don't think I can move down to a cheaper TT. Its sweet and is beautiful too.

2- The ART DJ Pre II is super rad but looks super ugly lol. I don't have a lot to compare it too BUT...being able to adjust the gain is no joke. Even going from neutral/flat to +2 makes it sound WAY better and more vibrant. Not sure I'd want something without adjustable gain but have little experience with anything else. You just have to hide the damn ART pretty good somewhere.

3- Aiyima D03 - everything sounded good/great out of this thing to my untrained ears. The turntable into its RCA sounded wonderful too (some have said it lacking). Bluetooth sounded great as well. Of note, the build quality is a bit lame. Volume knob rattles a bit when using it. The Bluetooth constantly drops you when you aren't using it so you have to go and reconnect on the iPhone. This is actually pretty damn lame. I don't want to constantly have to make those clicks as its not just a short quick thing on my iPhone. BT range was good tho and it got plenty loud for us. Especially on the Klipsch's.

Okay, obviously listening impressions are mixed with the visual, aesthetic. As long as you are happy, it's good.

I still do not understand how you get it together with that listening room, the placement of the speakers and the size of them. But the same thing there, as long as you are happy, it's good.

Then it is bad style to indirectly suggest that Erin would have any commercial interests in the proposal he gave.

In any case, keep in mind that if you have received suggestions based on other people's listening impressions, this is exactly that. Others' listening impressions. Probably the proposed speakers have also been placed in and listened to in a more suitable way.

 

[svinyard]

I'd appreciate you editing your post because what you are saying is not truthful.

Apparently I stepped on a hornets nest, apologies as I'm clearly out of my league and made a mistake. I thought you'd had a bit of input on the outcome of that speaker. What would you like the post to say instead?

 

[ohio]

Apparently I stepped on a hornets nest, apologies as I'm clearly out of my league and made a mistake. I thought you'd had a bit of input on the outcome of that speaker. What would you like the post to say instead?

Just delete the sentence about bias.

FWIW I've been going through a parallel selection process for my kitchen/dining/home office space. Needs to look nice, work with the turntable and bluetooth, and bonus is play via USB from the laptop. No one listening position as it's used on foot while cooked and seated while eating. I considered Kanto, Audioengine, Edifier, Dali (lots of others that would fit The space but not the aesthetic), and currently have a Klipsch the Three placeholding. I finally landed on Klipsch the Fives which are en route now (and I've already downloaded the firmware update to make sure I can try them "flat" and "bass cut"). They're out of your range, but the Three has all of the connectivity very well integrated, and good looks, and is currently $250 on Amazon. It won't win fidelity wars, but for your purpose, stereo is irrelevant and it should fill the space for casual listening.

 

[svinyard]

Just delete the sentence about bias.

FWIW I've been going through a parallel selection process for my kitchen/dining/home office space. Needs to look nice, work with the turntable and bluetooth, and bonus is play via USB from the laptop. No one listening position as it's used on foot while cooked and seated while eating. I considered Kanto, Audioengine, Edifier, Dali (lots of others that would fit The space but not the aesthetic), and currently have a Klipsch the Three placeholding. I finally landed on Klipsch the Fives which are en route now (and I've already downloaded the firmware update to make sure I can try them "flat" and "bass cut"). They're out of your range, but the Three has all of the connectivity very well integrated, and good looks, and is currently $250 on Amazon. It won't win fidelity wars, but for your purpose, stereo is irrelevant and it should fill the space for casual listening.

I love the throwback look of those Fives but damn they are overpriced lol. I’d try those in a heartbeat tho.

In your setting, how does The Three hold up to a more tradition two bookshelf speaker setup (5” woofer)? Does it still have some warmth to it?

The Neumi’s were enlightening in how a decent sized bookshelf speaker could sound so dang small/thin. I’m guessing the inverse is true perhaps. The wife likes the look of The Three for sure and it has a phono in it too (hopefully it’s decent). Thanks

 

[ohio]

Caveat being I'm new to HiFi and inexperienced, so can offer an opinion that is probably closer to your wife's than the other members here. I haven't compared them to the Fives or to another remotely comparable bookshelf. I stumbled upon this site in the last week while I was waiting for the Threes to arrive, and the reviews of those two and others convinced me to order up the Fives to at least audition both.

They are replacing a vintage Kenwood integrated amp and a pair of 3" full-range cigar box speakers (using Tang Band W3-2141). Those speakers theoretically have a perfectly flat response from maybe 100 or 120Hz up (never measured), but don't play bass and don't play loud. They were used with vinyl or a 3.5mm aux to RCA. Compared to those, the Three plays louder (more than loud enough to be annoying to anyone eating, working or conversing), fills the space with more bass pressure. It doesn't make it feel like Nina Simone is in the kitchen to me, but I'm certain non-audiophiles would like it. It's very Bose. If you don't know the engineering of a track and you aren't going to be in the right place for imaging, it fills the space well and doesn't have distortion in the noticeable midrange.

If I hadn't read the reviews here and seen the data, I would have perfectly happy with the Three. Given the reviews, I am really curious to hear what the music is supposed to sound like, and it was worth another ~$350 to me to find out. For all I know, for this use, I may return the Fives not the Three to save space and cash.

One other note was I found the phono amp in the Three intolerably noisy. May be a balance issue, but I had to switch to the internal phono amp in my turntable (Teac TN-300) and aux on the Three to eliminate the terrible floor.

Pic below: the old amp and cigar boxes fit previously on the shelf below the turntable, and the vintage typewriter went up top. The space doesn’t really want two bookshelves, but now that I know the delta in measurements…

 

[DanielT]

Also weigh the SPL of the speakers. Ability to play at higher volume without starting to distort too damn much. This is because you are going to fill up the WHOLE living room with music. You can always add a subwoffer at a later stage.

That given that in # 8 you said:

On the back wall under those two mini-windows. There is a wide dark wood table just past the dining table.

Edit:
Note I mean audible distortion, not just something on paper theoretically. It sounds ..sad ... cloudy..in bass spongy, treble screaming.
Worse is the distortion from an amplifier, which I still think it's about in this case, test for yourself:

Insanely distorting speakers or amplifiers driven into clipping?

What do you think. I tried turning the volume up a lot on my Tablet, a Lenovo Yoga. I listened to my Lenovo, with its built-inthe amplifier / speakers. It sounded ... too damn bad. What do you think it depends on? The amplifier that is driven into the clipping or the speakers that start to...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[svinyard]

Also weigh the SPL of the speakers. Ability to play at higher volume without starting to distort too damn much. This is because you are going to fill up the WHOLE living room with music. You can always add a subwoffer at a later stage.

That given that in # 8 you said:

On the back wall under those two mini-windows. There is a wide dark wood table just past the dining table.

Edit:
Note I mean audible distortion, not just something on paper theoretically. It sounds ..sad ... cloudy..in bass spongy, treble screaming.
Worse is the distortion from an amplifier, which I still think it's about in this case, test for yourself:

Insanely distorting speakers or amplifiers driven into clipping?

What do you think. I tried turning the volume up a lot on my Tablet, a Lenovo Yoga. I listened to my Lenovo, with its built-inthe amplifier / speakers. It sounded ... too damn bad. What do you think it depends on? The amplifier that is driven into the clipping or the speakers that start to...

audiosciencereview.com

So far it hasn’t been bad but it does get too loud to eat there with it louder. But that’s not something we do with it cranked obviously. I do think you are right on the multi zone. Which is cool tho because just because my space isn’t designed for a listening station, I think it can still have decent music…tho it’ll require a more creative approach.

I ordered a Klipsch the Three. Should be here today.

 

[svinyard]

A couple of updates:

1- I was able to A/B the Neumi BS5P vs Edifier R1280Db that a buddy has. Neither are amazing but the Edifiers were a big step up in bass by a mile from the Neumi's. The Neumi's have nearly zero bass where the Edifiers do and you can add in more via the EQ. All three us were in easy agreement (buddy is pro musician). I'd go with the Edifiers 10 out of 10 easily because they actually sound decent in a pinch for their price/size I guess. Everyone I put the Neumi's in-front of didn't care for them. For a 160$ speaker there's just better options in our recent experience. Especially considering the typical average-joe use-case for powered 150$ speakers.

2- Fluance Ai41 - these were nice speakers in a nice compact package. Their bass didn't do anything special considering their size but they sounded nice enough. We listened in a proper position but also further out into the house and they didn't really cut it but not bad. Not as nice as the more expensive, passive Klipsch R-51M but almost on par with the bigger Jamo 803's. I'm not sure how to explain it but the mid-high tone was a bit thin I guess or digital sounding (especially noticeable when A/B'ing them). EQ didn't have much range or impact. Light years beyond the 90$ cheaper Neumi's/Edifiers but it didn't sound as "real" as you'd want. It was doable for the price until I put on the Klipsch The Three. I had a lot of high hopes about the Ai41's but for us they didn't really impress us as much as I thought they would.

3- Klipsch The Three II - well I'll be damned. This thing is pretty damn impressive for 250$ and it looks damn good. Tested everything over bluetooth. I thought we'd go for the grey/walnut but I ordered the Black/grey combo which looks sick in person. Like a throw back amplifier a bit and less new-but-retro. So obviously my listening area isn't ideal but we (as a small group) would listen within 6ft of the thing and then further back in the space to get a couple of real world perspectives on the sound (for our less than trained ears). The Three has incredible bass for its size. It easily out did the Ai41's in all areas even when turning the bass EQ up on the Ai41's. More importantly the mids-highs sounded way more "real" than the Ai41's when we'd A/B them in the middle of a song. It was noticeable for sure. We did some R&B, Journey, AC/DC, Jack Johnson, Colter Wall, Sabe and Fergie (not my choice but its valentines day so...). The Three was just immediately better sounding to everyone at every listening position...which was really odd considering its just a single cabinet. I don't know what they did there or maybe we are just audio-idiots but it was great for the price. Certainly not as dynamic and full sounding of course as the Klipsch R-51M when in a proper listening position...but The Three sounded better with better thump in the other parts of the room aside from when going really loud (too loud) where the R-51M's handled it better. The Three's bass configuration just seems to be designed better for the "general-non-critical listening" setup that I'm left with. It looks looks dope. Out of everything its the winner considering my open space needs and aesthetic requirements. You could pair it with a Belkin SoundForm dongle to get Airplay 2 capabilities too for multi-room zoning as well.

Side note: about The Three's phono. We jumped back and forth from the very nice Fluance RT82 turntable running an ART DJ Pre II phono pre-amp to using the Klipsch's The Three II built in phono. I swapped those two phono's constantly using a couple different records: a lot of Journey stuff (it was already out and its got a wide range of sound needs on some of those classics). We struggled to tell the difference between The Three's onboard phono and the DJ Pre. The ART DJ Pre II is an interesting thing. For one, its hideous with huge LED lights. The adjustable gain is great but the damn thing clips at even +2 and very reasonable volume levels so that kind of takes away some of the shine. Any advantage there is negligible to our ears (we really tried!) so we are returning that and saving the 65$. I think neither are going to do any magic with an entry level Turntable/cartridge and pretty affordable speakers...but its great to not have to spend the 65$ and have the ugly housing and cable mess of that ART.

​

So, for 250$ the Klipsch The Three II did well enough and even got cheaper considering it did well enough to not need the ART phono. I might need another one for multi-zoned stuff/parties.

 

[Bsmooth]

Audioengine A5+ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../audioengine-a5-powered-speaker-review.13803/

"
Conclusions
You can buy $100 powered monitors these days. So $400 seems quite a reach in the age of commoditization. Fortunately if you care about fidelity, the Audioengine A5+ delivers. It has higher than normal power and bass capability. And with a bit of equalization, produces truly high fidelity experience on your desktop.
As such, the Audioengine A5+ gets my recommendation and changes my opinion of the company/brand.
Yes they are a bit more , but I got mine right around $320 refurbished, and I think they look good as well, but I bought them for there great sound.

 

[ohio]

A couple of updates:

...
3- Klipsch The Three II - well I'll be damned. This thing is pretty damn impressive for 250$ and it looks damn good.
...
So, for 250$ the Klipsch The Three II did well enough and even got cheaper considering it did well enough to not need the ART phono. I might need another one for multi-zoned stuff/parties.

Glad that worked out. And sorry I deleted my post about multiroom audio (I took a second look at your space and thought you might be able to get away without it), but looks like you caught it before it was gone. Yeah, I think for $250 it can't be beat for looks, flexibility/connectivity, and good enough sound. I don't think it's worth the $400 retail though.

I don't know how well the Three does multi-zone. Maybe I missed something in the manual, but I *think* the version with inputs is BT only for wireless. The Google Assistant version is WiFi and could do multiroom on the Google platform, but has no inputs so won't do Aux or Phono. So I think you'd have to track down Echo Inputs or Chromecast Audio to enable multizone, wireless on the cheap with two Threes.

 

[svinyard]

Glad that worked out. And sorry I deleted my post about multiroom audio (I took a second look at your space and thought you might be able to get away without it), but looks like you caught it before it was gone. Yeah, I think for $250 it can't be beat for looks, flexibility/connectivity, and good enough sound. I don't think it's worth the $400 retail though.

I don't know how well the Three does multi-zone. Maybe I missed something in the manual, but I *think* the version with inputs is BT only for wireless. The Google Assistant version is WiFi and could do multiroom on the Google platform, but has no inputs so won't do Aux or Phono. So I think you'd have to track down Echo Inputs or Chromecast Audio to enable multizone, wireless on the cheap with two Threes.

I’d just use an Airplay 2 dongle that way I can cast to multiple devices into their Aux input. It adds cost but if the Three is 240$ it’s not bad all things considered. Airplay 2 is pretty damn nice for Apple Music and it doesn’t cost Sonos money

 

[Walter]

I'm not surprised at your choice. I've never heard the The Three, but as soon as it was mentioned I thought it would probably be a better choice for such an un-ideal positioning, except maybe when you were sitting at the table. I wasn't sure about the volume, but it sounds as if that was not a problem.