Mixing and matching 3" or 4" desktop speakers with small subwoofers.

[maxxevv]

A friend was looking at adding a desktop system for his office desk but came up onto some road blocks.

Mostly from the reason of limited space on the desk. The most obvious choice being 2.1 setups from PC gaming speaker sets or TV soundbar sets.
However, from what I have seen, they are really tuned towards gaming and to some extent, movies. Not quite a pleasant listening experience with music in general which is what the aim of the setup was. There are complaints even for systems such as the Klipsch Promedia 2.1. ( works quite well for pop music and dance stuff but not so much for classical and quieter tracks in my experience.)

So was looking at desktop speakers that fit the space available and it seems that 3" or maybe 4" (driver) speakers were at the limit of size which unobstrusively fit the desk in question. But the low end was to severely lacking in those that we have tried . They really need a subwoofer to shore up the low end.

( Haven't had the chance to try the iLoud speakers but that is not completely off the table yet. )

Hence, the question here.

What would be the recommendations for such a setup above?

Say keeping it to under US$500/- ?

 

[staticV3]

Kali IN-UNF?

 

[maxxevv]

Kali IN-UNF?

Interesting ! Didn't know they existed. Definitely worth exploring in terms of suitability, though price point is a little over the boundary limits.
Thanks !

 

[sharock]

At work I was using iLoud Micro Monitors and a Presonus Sub8 at my desk.

A decent budget option.

 

[maxxevv]

At work I was using iLoud Micro Monitors and a Presonus Sub8 at my desk.

A decent budget option.

Thanks. Have considered the iLoud Micro with a 6.5" or 8" sub just to flesh out that 40~55hz range that's critical in a lot of quieter music tracks.
Need to find a place to audition the iLoud's.

As for the Kali IN-UNF, that desktop bass unit is taking too much prime estate for my friend's application. His desk uses 3 display monitors on arms. So that unit will not work unfortunately. The bass unit will need to go under the desk. But according to Kali, it will end up being really bad if done that way.

 

[Ellebob]

Edifier S350, S351,S360 or MR4 with T5 sub.
I haven't used any of these but meet your price point and the MR4 review is not bad.

Mackie CR3 or CR4 with CR8 sub. I have used these for customers and they have been very happy. To me they are decent for the money but nothing spectacular. They do boost the lows and highs which impresses a lot of people but your friend might be a little more discerning. At lower volumes we don't hear bass as well so a little bass boost can be desired for lower volume listening.

The iLoud Micro is a good choice, maybe with an Edifier T5 sub. I think by themselves just not enough bass.

With any of these EQ can help tailor the sound and there are a number available for PCs and Macs.

 

[sharock]

The iLoud Micros have been measured quasi-anechoically here on ASR.

iLoud Micro Monitors measurements and quasi-anechoic spinorama

I've had these little monitors for a while. I'm a big fan. Their name might sound like a cheap Apple knockoff product, but for $300 a pair, they sound great so long as you intend to use them in the nearfield and don't intend to listen at ridiculous volumes. I'm a 70dB kind of guy, so that's...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[dasdoing]

Edifier MR4 measurements (It's probably been upgraded.)

Hi Guys! I actually measured Edifier's MR4 in its early days, too. This is what I had measured before using Klippel's equipment and software, and the FR(on-axis) of the speaker tended to be similar to what @amirm had measured...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[maxxevv]

Edifier MR4 measurements (It's probably been upgraded.)

Hi Guys! I actually measured Edifier's MR4 in its early days, too. This is what I had measured before using Klippel's equipment and software, and the FR(on-axis) of the speaker tended to be similar to what @amirm had measured...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The MR4's look a good fit considering that its more a powered monitor rather than a bluetooth speaker. Since there is already a EX-5 available for source + Bluetooth duties. And that it already has a sub-out connection saves a lot of hassle too!

The measurements look amazing (for its size and price point) too!

 

[dasdoing]

The MR4's look a good fit considering that its more a powered monitor rather than a bluetooth speaker. Since there is already a EX-5 available for source + Bluetooth duties. And that it already has a sub-out connection saves a lot of hassle too!

The measurements look amazing (for its size and price point) too!

It looks great for the price, but the distorision peak at 550Hz is worrying. Wouldn't buy them without trying out before.
On the other hand, probably hard to find a 4" speaker that wont distort.
ignoring distorsion a 4" is perfectly fine in the nearfield if coupled with a subwoofer though

 

[maxxevv]

It looks great for the price, but the distorision peak at 550Hz is worrying. Wouldn't buy them without trying out before.
On the other hand, probably hard to find a 4" speaker that wont distort.
ignoring distorsion a 4" is perfectly fine in the nearfield if coupled with a subwoofer though

Noticed that the output levels were 85- 90dB at 1 meter. I think for nearfield, desk bound listening, that's pretty high a volume. Usually, such small speakers would less than that distance away from the ears and even then, the volume is lower than that. Probably in the 75-80db range.

But like you mentioned, its likely not an issue once paired with a subwoofer, which was part of the intent originally.

It does look like a compelling buy. Found a good price for a pair for US$90, will probably place an order for one since there is very little downside to it even if its not a good as it looks on measurements. Won't lose too much if resold as not suiting the need.

Thanks for the recommendation!

Now looking for a small subwoofer that has both phase as well as crossover frequency adjustments.

 

[Foxenfurter]

I use iLoud micro monitor with Fostex sub-mini and this fills in the bass nicely. The Ilouds are on mini microphone stands to raise the tweeter to ear level and this reduces the output some. I think any decent small sub would pair well with these.

 

[Blevee]

I recently purchased a Presonus Eris Sub8 to use with Kanto YU2's (3" main) on my large but cluttered 6'x3' desktop in a near field setup. The Kanto's I've had since 2014 after a bargain sale price I could not ignore but I never really used them on the desktop in my basement home office due a person living with us on the other side of the rather thin walls. The Presonus Sub8 works FANTASTIC when fed from the LFE port on the YU2's.

Notably, when I first acquired the YU2's, I did use them for a month or two on the desktop, but I was not that impressed by their sound. I had them on foam wedges aimed up at my head but they were lacking in bottom end and imaging was *shrug*. Drums had no body/weight. I switched to headphone use in my office and moved the YU2's upstairs to use as background music speakers in the living/dining room. Oddly enough, I enjoyed their imaging in the living room but never connected the dots at the time. There they sat for the last 8 years, mostly collecting dust.

For a period I did have an inexpensive set of Logitech's on the desktop to the side and bottom of my LCD monitors but again found the sound bland but bloated and there after used headphones via a DAC and amp.

This second time around for the YU2's, I placed them on some old speaker stands. The stands are on my desktop in behind a wall of two LCD monitors and a laptop with the speakers above the monitors and their tweeters about the level of the top of my head when I'm sitting upright. I use a set of Kanto S2 speaker stands to angle the YU2's down to line up the tweeters to my ears. The ceiling and side walls now come into play much more significantly for imaging. The whole setup is quite ghetto in appearance but, as the sound is exceeding my expectations and I'm the only person in that room 99% of the time, ghetto and WAF are not issues.

To this point adding the subwoofer and better placement of the small satellites made a HUGE difference. Tremendously enjoyable! After years of no loudspeakers in the house for personal laid back music listening, I'm quite pleased by the sound from this combo. I think this is good bang for buck with the YU2's.

Costing is about $350 CAD for the sub, $120 CAD for the YU2's in 2014, plus ~ $30 for cables. But the YU2's today are about $300 CAD new or $150-200 CAD used. It might be best to look for something like the Edifier MR4s ($180 CAD/pair) or Presonus Eris 3.5 ($160 CAD/pair) or similar small active speakers from M-Audio ~ $130 CAD or Mackie ~ $135 CAD . If the OP is in the USA costs will be about 25 to 40% less than stated here. The only issue is that none of these have a sub out / LFE port and there lies a problem.

I wanted a sub with a line in and line out pathway (unbalanced & balanced), preferably with a switchable High Pass Filter, in order to use it with active speakers that have no LFE port such as Kali LP-6's or JBL 305's (possible future purchase). The Presonus Eris Sub8 offers this and as I'm using the sub in a small home office (10x12ft) I thought the Presonus with it's 8 inch driver would work well with this room or could be paired with larger active satellites in a workout room that is bit bigger. Unfortunately, while the Presonus works fantastic fed from the LFE port on the YU2's, it does not like being connected from the unbalanced RCA line out of my headphone DAC/amp or from the headphone line out of my laptop. There is an unexpected dramatic increase of gain from the sub, but not the satellites, using unbalanced Line IN/OUT vs LFE into Line IN only. I'm going to make a post in the Newbie Tech forum on this issue.

.