New near-field speaker setup for a home office? Pictures!

[Vict0r]

Hey everyone!

I bought a house a while ago and had two extra rooms to go absolutely audio ham in. One of them I already transformed into a cinema, with 2 floor to ceiling corner bass traps, acoustic panels (3 on each side) and diffusers (3 skyline diffusers behind the listening position), a 65" Oled, Denon X2600h, Q Acoustics speakers (3050, 3090Ci, 3010i's that I still need to mount as sides), some ProAudio Sa-2 rear channels and a BK XLS200 sub. Messed around with Audyssey, measured it all with REW and a Umik1 and it's getting there. Still want to do an acoustic ceiling cloud with Atmos speakers in it, but I'm quite content so far!

That's not what this thread is about, though...

I have another room that I use as a home office. It's smallish, 3.5m x 2.75m but it's cozy and I have started a little desktop setup with the gear I had laying around. The room would ideally be used for my design work, reading, listening to music and gaming.

Quick sketch of the layout:

- 150cm x 55cm wooden desk
- 32" Dell monitor
- a pair of Quad12L passive bookshelf speakers (gloss cherry finish).
- a Topping E30 DAC
- a NAD 3020e stereo amp

It's the Quads that aren't working for me right now. They're too large. These are nice speakers but they don't work in a near-field setup for me. Besides, I want to be able to put my custom gaming pc on the desk itself (it's on the floor now) so I need more room. I'm not getting a wider desk, because I love the one I currently have. Do you know how hard it is to find an ATTRACTIVE wooden desk?

I made a sketch of the amount of space I have left when I put the PC on my desk (the black rectangle on the right). The two black shapes are the ideal size my new speakers would be, to make sure everything has enough room to breathe. Let's say they could be about 18cm wide to fit properly.

Current situation. Sorry about the awful picture, it's the best I had at the moment. Also, hardly any time has gone in decorating the room yet. I'm stuck.

I'd like to keep the speakers below $800, if possible. Second hand no objection. I'd preferably go active, since I wouldn't mind getting the NAD 3020a off my desk (I use it as a monitor stand now). I have also considered a smaller T-Amp that I could tuck away UNDER the desk, but my knowledge about those is very outdated. I have an old Topping 22 stereo T-amp that still works, but the NAD sounds a lot better to my ears. I looked around and found the following options in the small, active speaker section:

- iLoud MTM
- Genelec 8010a
- Eve Audio SC203
- KRK Rokit5 Gen4

Is there anything I'm missing?
What would you do with a space like this?

Any suggestions about the room's layout, positioning of the desk and acoustic treatment, speaker setup or other improvements are more than welcome. I'm totally out of inspiration right now.

Thank you!!

 

[BDWoody]

I'd throw the JBL705P's in the mix.
They are quite deep so you'd have to check that...

 

[Vict0r]

I'd throw the JBL705P's in the mix.
They are quite deep so you'd have to check that...

Wow, those are more expensive than I was hoping they'd be. They go for around a €1000 each here in NL. I could do €1000 for a pair, perhaps, but those 705P's are out of my budget, alas.

 

[LearningToSmile]

Any reason you're not considering putting speakers on floor stands the way you've visualized in the 3D sketch? You can then move your desk further into the center of the room and make large speakers work with a desk setup. It's how I got my JBL 308p placed in my desktop setup.

 

[Vict0r]

Any reason you're not considering putting speakers on floor stands the way you've visualized in the 3D sketch? You can then move your desk further into the center of the room and make large speakers work with a desk setup. It's how I got my JBL 308p placed in my desktop setup.

I had the Quad 12L's on stands behind the desk for a while, but there's a large window right behind them and it reflected my ears off, despite the heavy curtains. I couldn't find a way to absorb the reflection. I am toying with the idea of rotating the desk and having it face a side wall. Also, since I would prefer my tower PC sitting ON my desk, the stand-mounted speaker would play against the pc's case, obstructing the sound. I figured this was a bad idea. Could be wrong, ofcourse! The only working compromise that I came up with was finding small enough speakers that would fit between the case and the monitor, sitting on top my desk.

 

[BDWoody]

Wow, those are more expensive than I was hoping they'd be. They go for around a €1000 each here in NL. I could do €1000 for a pair, perhaps, but those 705P's are out of my budget, alas.

I got mine on B-Stock sale for $500/each, but I haven't seen that sale lately...I think they had some early issues that led to a string of returns, and I ended up getting lucky.

I haven't heard any of those on your list, but I'm sure you've got some great options there.

 

[LearningToSmile]

I had the Quad 12L's on stands behind the desk for a while, but there's a large window right behind them and it reflected my ears off, despite the heavy curtains. I couldn't find a way to absorb the reflection. I am toying with the idea of rotating the desk and having it face a side wall. Also, since I would prefer my tower PC sitting ON my desk, the stand-mounted speaker would play against the pc's case, obstructing the sound. I figured this was a bad idea. Could be wrong, ofcourse!

I have mine setup the way that woofer is partially obstructed by one of my monitors but it surprisingly doesn't matter, I can't hear channel imbalance after playing with toe-in a bit - but yeah, a tall and thick PC tower would probably affect it more unless you put the speakers way out to the side.

Your window is too big to place the speakers to the sides of it, right? Then yeah, it probably would be hard to make it work.

 

[Vict0r]

Your window is too big to place the speakers to the sides of it, right? Then yeah, it probably would be hard to make it work.

Yes, the window is exactely in the middle of the wall. I tried to show its postion in my sketch. Makes it impossible to position the speakers symmetrically besides it.

 

[q3cpma]

I would seriously consider the 8010, 8020 or SC203. Don't have any third-party measurements for the SC203, but the company's are good, and USB input make them perfect for such a job.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

- iLoud MTM
- Genelec 8010a
- Eve Audio SC203
- KRK Rokit5 Gen4

Is there anything I'm missing?
What would you do with a space like this?
!

Maybe too obvious, but the Neumann KH 80 is missing in this competition IMHO. Around 460,- EUR a piece. Very small. As a compact stand you could use a K&M 26772 Table Monitor Stand for example.

 

[Vict0r]

Maybe too obvious, but the Neumann KH 80 is missing in this competition IMHO. Around 460,- EUR a piece. Very small. As a compact stand you could use a K&M 26772 Table Monitor Stand for example.

They are considerably larger than the iLouds (the MTM's smaller brother, which I am considering now as well), though. I'll have to measure the available space again to see if something the size of the KH80 could squeeze in there.

 

[Vict0r]

I found this image, which is very enlightening. It's so hard to find size comparisons of monitors! The Genelecs are currently at the top of my list. Still have to get an idea of the size of the Eve SC203.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

8020 and KH80 are pretty much the same size (8020 a bit taller with iso-pod, kh80 5cm deeper). Eve SC203 is smaller, but also has an even smaller "woofer".

Genelec 8020:

The Genelec G2 is the home equivalent of the 8020. Acoustically there is no difference. It is a ver compact 2-way model with a 4" woofer. On first glance the axial response is not perfect. Subjectively I don't believe these flaws are very audible. Compared directly in a large room to the Neumannn KH80 they don't differ drastically tonally, but the G2 throws a larger image in the mono test on account of its wider directivity, which I preferred. Please note while the crossover is active, there is no DSP processing going on in this speaker. Low frequency data (<360Hz) is based on nearfield measurements and merged with the 2m measurements (5ms time window).

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KH80:

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[test1223]

Hey,

1. The computer monitor should not be in front of a window. It is not good for your eyes.

2. It is important to avoid early reflections of the speakers. So placing some mini stands at the desktop help. Put your computer under the desktop. Broadband abdsorbtion behind the speaker.

3. Put everything symmetrical to the stereo triangle.

4. Such small speaker lack of good bass or high spl. A subwoofer is an option but in the very near field you can localize one subwoofer.

There are plenty speaker which all have there own compromise. The question is what is important for you max spl, bass, image, envelopment...
Maybe one or two subwoofer are an option.

Best
Thomas

 

[Milan237]

I made a sketch of the amount of space I have left when I put the PC on my desk (the black rectangle on the right).

As I understand you have a new fancy PC with a transparent cover and bright interior, so you want to put it on the table?

But the sound reflected from it will also harm the sound, as an option you can try to place your monitors a little higher on the racks tilting them forward so the high-frequency tweeter is directed towards you, this is sometimes done if there is no room on the table and it works too, but what to do with the window if you say that curtains do not help is another question, you can try hanging an absorber behind the curtain, it may yield results.

 

[mSpot]

See what @mitchco was able to achieve using DSP correction with desktop speakers:
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/revi...rs-using-focus-fidelity-filter-designer-r990/

 

[direstraitsfan98]

How high above a desk should speakers be to avoid floor/desk bounce?

 

[test1223]

How high above a desk should speakers be to avoid floor/desk bounce?

If you have the tweeter at about the upper edge of your monitor is a good compromise. You can put them even higher then you got extra clarity (less early reflections) but the image is to high. For the perfect image the heights of the tweeter should be slightly below the line where typically the mouth of a person is displayed on the monitor (with stereo the image is slightly elevated compared to the height of the tweeter).

 

[Vict0r]

As I understand you have a new fancy PC with a transparent cover and bright interior, so you want to put it on the table?

But the sound reflected from it will also harm the sound, as an option you can try to place your monitors a little higher on the racks tilting them forward so the high-frequency tweeter is directed towards you, this is sometimes done if there is no room on the table and it works too, but what to do with the window if you say that curtains do not help is another question, you can try hanging an absorber behind the curtain, it may yield results.

Hahaha, you understand correctly! It's such a shame now, that the PC I just built and put so much time, money and effort into is hidden underneath the desk. I know it's silly, and that just the fact that I want it sitting on my desk is giving me speaker issues now, but you know... The heart wants what the heart wants and whatnot.

 

[Milan237]

Hahaha, you understand correctly! It's such a shame now, that the PC I just built and put so much time, money and effort into is hidden underneath the desk. I know it's silly, and that just the fact that I want it sitting on my desk is giving me speaker issues now, but you know... The heart wants what the heart wants and whatnot.

I don't see anything silly about it))
You can work and experiment with acoustics, you can't cheat the physics of sound, but you can work with it, so you'll do fine!