iLoud Micro Monitor non-Pro vs Pro as PC speakers

[thetrystero]

How much better will the Pro vs the 2016 non-Pro as PC speakers? The non-Pro are quite a bit cheaper (USD330 vs USD720 for the Pro, per pair in my locale). My use case is mostly near-field desktop work, a mixture of gaming, YouTube, keyboard/guitar models (Keyscape, neural amp). When I'm not sitting at the desk actively using it, I'll probably play some Tidal as ambient background music as part of my multiroom playback. Do the improved features of the Pro actually translate to anything sonically audible for my use case? I should probably mention this is also on a secondary desktop setup, hence why I don't really want to spend more than is required.

 

[Palladium]

The non-pro Micros are more than good enough without calibration from my experience. (-3dB LF on, placed directly in front of wall on desktop).

There's also the Adam D3V to look at for small desktop monitors (I liked them better than T5V myself). It also has a direct USB input so you don't even need a standalone balanced DAC or interface.

 

[thetrystero]

The non-pro Micros are more than good enough without calibration from my experience. (-3dB LF on, placed directly in front of wall on desktop).

There's also the Adam D3V to look at for small desktop monitors (I liked them better than T5V myself). It also has a direct USB input so you don't even need a standalone balanced DAC or interface.

i'm sure this was not very objective at all, but in the store when i was going back and forth between the d3v and the micro pro, i found the iloud more to my liking. i'm coming from a bose companion 2 and i didn't find the d3v to be much more of an improvement (to my ears at least).

however i didn't get to test the micro non-pro and the pro back to back because they replaced the display non-pro with the pro. so between the time i tested the non pro and the pro it was months apart. i thought the pro sounded a lot better, but i wouldn't count on this as a reliable measure. knowing it was a pro to begin with probably added a bunch of placebo, especially without the non-pro immediately available to disprove my bias.

 

[RobL]

I have both versions. They sound very similar. The Pro’s play louder, come with ARC X (room correction, EQ and simulator software), and have XLR connections as well as RCA.
If you are just using them as PC speakers, the non-pro version would be fine I think.

Edit: US$720 seems a little high for the pro version?