Desktop vs Full Room

[Yorkshire Mouth]

In Ye Olde Dayes, hi-fi by default meant a lounge, or dedicated room.

Now it appears that, not only have desktop set ups become ‘a thing’, they’re almost starting to dominate, based on the volume of traffic we see here.

There’s a whole world of discussion to be had there. Am I right, or is this an illusion? Is this a good or bad thing? Is nearfield ‘bettter’ than medium field listening, or nice versa, or is it pros and cons? And why is this happening?

 

[Berwhale]

When I commuted to the City every day, most of my music listening was done on the train (over 3 hours per day), so most of my hi-fi spend went on headphones, DAPs, etc.

Now I work from home most days, and have a much shorter commute when I do go in the office, so the money goes on the desktop setup in my study as that's where I listen most often.

The pandemic was also a factor here; I cancelled my rail season ticket on the first day that my company asked us to work from home. I had 11 months on the ticket and the refund paid for quite a bit of my kit

For me, the lounge (and family room) is for watching TV and movies and the spend there has been limited to upgrading or replacing AVRs and TVs for the last 20 years. I'm still using the Rega Jura's I bought in the 90's as my mains in the lounge.

 

[Purité Audio]

Many more work from home, particularly since covid.
Keith

 

[Svet Angelov]

And why is this happening?

Audio geeks nowadays are largely also computer geeks. Computers need desks

There are also more amateur producers/DJs than ever before

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

My ‘journey’ in this respect, I got into hi-fi first, then AV. I love music and films pretty much equally.

I tried to build my surround system round a god pair of stereo speakers. This worked, sound-wise. But it meant I might want to listen to Eventide whilst SWMBO wanted to watch Great British Bake Off.

This sort of nudged me towards headphones, and I found feeding these from a DAC, linked to a PC was easiest - hence, it became a desktop set up.

Then it was reading Amir’s reviews of studio monitors which prompted me to put a stereo pair either side of my desk. So now my stereo listening has moved from lounge to desk without me really thinking about it.

I have to be honest, and there’s some heresy coming up…

I prefer the sound of my desktop set up. I suspect (though I’m not sure) that it may be something to do with the classic nearfield theory (remove more of the room). It may also be down to being able to listen at relatively higher volumes (or lower volumes sounding louder).

And finally, here’s something I don’t think I’ve ever heard discussed. I actually feel more comfortable sat in a desk/‘gaming’ chair listening to music than I do sat on a couch.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

When I commuted to the City every day, most of my music listening was done on the train (over 3 hours per day), so most of my hi-fi spend went on headphones, DAPs, etc.

Now I work from home most days, and have a much shorter commute when I do go in the office, so the money goes on the desktop setup in my study as that's where I listen most often.

The pandemic was also a factor here; I cancelled my rail season ticket on the first day that my company asked us to work from home. I had 11 months on the ticket and the refund paid for quite a bit of my kit

For me, the lounge (and family room) is for watching TV and movies and the spend there has been limited to upgrading or replacing AVRs and TVs for the last 20 years. I'm still using the Rega Jura's I bought in the 90's as my mains in the lounge.

This is a great post, and an excellent read.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jeromeof]

I have had a similar experience I was mainly a 'closed back' headphone person for a long time in the company office (so I could 'zone in' on work stuff but not disturb those around me with loud music) and I would also bring some noise cancelling TWS sets for the Train. My house had an 'aging' setup, but Covid got me upgrading the audio in my house and it's been a very enjoyable experience especially with the help provided here.

Now with COVID 'over', we are not fully gone back to the office, so its basically a few days a week are in a shared 'hot-desk' environment and the rest of the time I am working from home. The hot-desk environment meant I couldn't just leave a desktop headphone dac amp like I did previously but has given me the excuse to try various devices e.g. a Qudelik 5K.

The fact I am mostly on my own in the house when working from home (my kids are young adults now and out working and my wife would be out of the house either working partime or visiting other people) meant I setup a few 'spaces' with nice reasonable priced but well reviewed audio gear, so I can work in different spaces around the house.

 

[Ron Texas]

There are certainly a lot of questions about desktop systems and a lot of interest in near field monitors. That does not establish that they dominate but they are very important.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

There are certainly a lot of questions about desktop systems and a lot of interest in near field monitors. That does not establish that they dominate but they are very important.

Yes, I wouldn’t like to make a definitive claim that desktop has overtaken traditional.

But I suspect it has.

One of the reasons being that I think a lot of traditional has gone because of soundbars, and lifestyle systems like Sonos.

On the other side of the equation, I don’t think desktop systems were even a proposition for many people. They’d just not considered it.

 

[Berwhale]

And finally, here’s something I don’t think I’ve ever heard discussed. I actually feel more comfortable sat in a desk/‘gaming’ chair listening to music than I do sat on a couch.

Me too. I also prefer watching movies at my desk. A 34" curved UWQHD screen at arms length is a lot more immersive than the 55" TV 10 feet away in the lounge. Obviously I still watch things together with my family, but if it's something i'm going to watch on my own, i'll watch it in my study.