Looking For High Fidelity Near Field Desktop Speakers

[Sal1950]

This is no longer the world old geezers grew up in.

Sadly true, a much poorer place to live it has become.
Besides, what do a bunch of French tire makers know about food???

 

[JJB70]

I used to spend a lot of time in Trieste and my hosts used to enjoy taking me to a nice Neapolitan restaurant which they considered to be an exotic foreign food.

 

[svart-hvitt]

Sadly true, a much poorer place to live it has become.
Besides, what do a bunch of French tire makers know about food???

I think you are a gourmand? Gourmand audiophile?

As opposed to gourmet, gourmet audiophile

It’s all about those subtleties lost in a Big Gulp. I think we should have a picture of a Big Gulp speaker

 

[Eurasian]

If you can find a set of ET LFT-11s, I think you will be happy. They are incredible in the near-field.

 

[digititus]

Another vote for Genelec. Bedroom system has active monitors with sub. Kids have PS4 connected to the tiny 6010B/5040A combo. Very impressive with games. Really nice speakers with excellent build quality. These things are designed to last forever.

 

[Eurasian]

The classic near-field speakers are QUAD 57s. They may not fit on your desk, but they are in your price range and are the benchmark of mid-range transparency. Excellent resale value, too.

 

[chaochao6]

I just (~10 minutes ago) upgraded to Genelec 8331 from 8330 in a desktop near-field setup. I also have the 7350 sub. I don't have enough experience yet to compare 8331 and 8330, but I can you tell you this - GET A GENELEC SAM SETUP! They are amazing and the room correction does wonders. 8330 are also way cheaper than the 8331 and you would be happy with those as well.

I also had the RME ADI-2 Pro but decided to sell it, since you don't need it anymore with the Genelec GLM system, if you don't listen to headphones that much. Selling the ADI-2 Pro can finance the 8331...

I am a newer here. And I am also interested between the 8830 and 8831, how about the improvement from 8830 to 8831? Does it worth the price difference? Thank you!

 

[soundwave76]

I am a newer here. And I am also interested between the 8830 and 8831, how about the improvement from 8830 to 8831? Does it worth the price difference? Thank you!

Yes and no. The first reaction was that hmmm... nothing spectacular. But later I realized that I don't tweak the volume that much anymore, nor do I think about the sound - it just feels right, 'boringly good' if you can grasp what I mean. If one has a pair of 8330s, I would advice first to get a subwoofer. The smallest 7350 works great in a small room I have.

 

[chaochao6]

Yes and no. The first reaction was that hmmm... nothing spectacular. But later I realized that I don't tweak the volume that much anymore, nor do I think about the sound - it just feels right, 'boringly good' if you can grasp what I mean. If one has a pair of 8330s, I would advice first to get a subwoofer. The smallest 7350 works great in a small room I have.

Thank you for the vivid statement. I think I can get the point. Sorry that they should be 83XX instead of 88XX. I heard 8351 at the Genelec Store and was attracted by it. But 8351 is too big to put on the desk, so I turns to 8330&8331. Thank you again.

 

[soundwave76]

8341 is a better buy now than the 8351 - it's newer and has better DSP. It's a bit smaller, so check them out as well. In my opinion 8331+7350 is an 'endgame' solution to ultra near field listening. If money is not an issue, buy these and be happy for ever

 

[andreasmaaan]

8341 is a better buy now than the 8351 - it's newer and has better DSP.

It also has a better polar response.

 

[Vittorio Martini Donati]

I am looking for a nearfield speaker setup where the speakers are to the left and right of my main PC display. I plan to have them about 4.5~5 feet out maximum and toed in towards the chair. I am fairly new to speakers and I believe that for some larger bookshelf speakers they need to be separated in order to sound proper (or maybe I'm wrong)?

I was looking at bookshelf speakers and have ruled out active speakers for now just because most of them use digital inputs and xlr inputs and have built in DACs and amplifiers that I already have.

I am using the RME ADI-2 DAC as the DAC and preamplifier (the digital volume control is amazing, works perfectly at super low volumes where my Schiit Sys started to have volume mismatch at low volumes) connected to the Nuforce STA 200 which is an 80 Watt Amplifier (I am pretty sure 80W is enough for a desktop speaker setup? Correct me if I'm wrong).

The only 'real' speakers I own are the JBL LSR 30X from Massdrop. Although I love them I want to know what more money can get me fidelity wise.

I enjoy a neutral and super clean sounding speaker (I just want to hear what is meant to be heard!).

My max budget is probably $3-4k?

I have auditioned a few test subjects already:
Ascend Acoustics Sierra Luna (don't like the sound of the RAAL tweeter, just sounds unnatural)
KEF LS50W (doesn't sound a lot better than the JBL LSR 30X IMO, only a 1 year warranty)
ATC SCM 7 V3 (Testing right now, sounds pretty good to me so far, sealed box makes bass sound better to me)
KEF Q100 (The JBLs are better)
B&W 705 S2 (Sounds pretty good to me but it definitely doesn't sound neutral so I returned it, also it might be too big as the minimum distance in the manual states about 1.5 meters minimum)

Speakers I want to try:
Elac Adante AS-61 (probably way too big haha but I am curious, Amirm seemed to have a great impression of the floor stander version!)
Harbeth P3ESR (apparently the mids are amazing though that probably means its not exactly neutral?)
Revel M105 or M106 (looks like much engineering went into these and company is part of JBL too!)
Revel M126Be (Upgraded M106 with Be tweeter and new woofer but comes out in April apparently)
ATC SCM20PSL Pro (Might be too big? They are 40 lbs each but only have a 6.5 inch woofer)
Genelec 8331 (The only active monitor I consider getting maybe )
Dynaudio Special Forty (another respectable looking company)

I'm having trouble finding other speakers and was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for any other speakers that are suitable that I may have missed. Thanks in advance!

in case you are still looking I can help you as I just got a fantastic system for a reasonable price , Sound Artist LS3/5A (600 dlls from China) + Yamaha RN803D (all in one receiver for 800 dlrs) please advise if you need more detailed info and I will be glad to oblige

 

[watchnerd]

in case you are still looking I can help you as I just got a fantastic system for a reasonable price , Sound Artist LS3/5A (600 dlls from China) + Yamaha RN803D (all in one receiver for 800 dlrs) please advise if you need more detailed info and I will be glad to oblige

 

[Vittorio Martini Donati]

????

 

[watchnerd]

????

First off, the LS3/5A measures terribly by modern standards.

Second of all, you're making a sales pitch.

 

[Vittorio Martini Donati]

I assure that system is great (check this out

) and no this is not a sales pitch as I am in the medical business, have a great day!

 

[watchnerd]

I assure that system is great (check this out

) and no this is not a sales pitch as I am in the medical business, have a great day!

And I assure you that this is not a competitive, let alone good, measurement for a $600 speaker in 2020:

 

[ctakim]

And I assure you that this is not a competitive, let alone good, measurement for a $600 speaker in 2020:

But they have the BBC bump in bass just above 100 Hz and the midrange that this class of speaker is well known for. I purchased these a few months back because I've wanted to hear what a famous LS3/5a-like speaker sounded like without spending $3000+ for "official" LS3/5a. I am using them as desktop speakers in a small office much like they might have been used in a mobile BBC recording van. They are delightful thus far with fantastic imaging and a sweetness in the vocal range. But these are not likely to be the ideal ASR speaker, I will grant you that.

 

[ta240]

I assure that system is great (check this out ) and no this is not a sales pitch as I am in the medical business, have a great day!

I enjoy a lot of his videos but I don't know if any can be used as argument ending points.

The trend towards using youtube infomercials as proof about a product's quality is an odd one.

 

[ernestcarl]

They are delightful thus far with fantastic imaging and a sweetness in the vocal range.

What is “sweetness in the vocal range”?