Speakers

A pair of loudspeakers is the one part of a system that has to argue with a room. Everything upstream can be close to perfect and the last two metres still decide what you hear, because the sound leaves the cabinet, reflects off the floor, the desk, the walls and the ceiling, and reaches your ears as the speaker plus the room. Never the speaker on its own.

That is the useful thing to know before shopping, because it reorders the questions. Placement is free and it outranks a price tier. A competent pair set up well beats a better pair set up badly, reliably enough that it is the first thing to check and the last thing people try. So the first question is where a pair can actually go in your room, and how far away from them you are going to be sitting.

Listening distance comes first, because it sets everything else. At a desk you sit sixty to eighty centimetres from the cabinets, you hear far more of the speaker and far less of the room, and a four or five inch woofer moves plenty of air. Across a room at two or three metres you need a speaker that can fill that distance, and the room becomes the dominant partner. Match the speaker to the distance rather than to the square footage, because a large cabinet at close range is harder to place, not better.

Powered or passive is the next fork. Powered speakers have the amplifier inside, matched to the drivers by the person who designed both, and they need a source and a power socket and nothing else. Passive speakers need an amplifier chosen and bought separately, which is more to go wrong and more to enjoy, and it lets you change half the system later without changing the other half. For a desk, powered is usually the simpler answer and often the better one.

Then size, which is really a question about bass. A small cabinet with a small woofer cannot move much air and will roll off early. Sometimes that is fine and sometimes it is not, and the alternative to a bigger speaker is a small one plus a subwoofer, which lets the bass sit where the room likes it rather than where your ears have to be. That is also the arrangement most often set up badly, so if you go that way, spend the time on the crossover point and the level.

Ports and wall proximity go together. A rear ported cabinet pushed against a wall gains a lump of bass and loses definition with it. Sealed and front ported designs are the easier answer when a speaker has to live close to a wall, and some makers supply foam bungs for exactly this.

Inputs and controls are mundane and they decide whether the system gets used. A pair that has to take a computer, a turntable through a phono stage and a television needs more than one input and a volume control you can reach.

Last, aim them. Tweeters at ear height, the speakers and your head forming roughly an equilateral triangle, and the cabinets tilted or raised rather than lying flat. Stands, or even a pair of foam wedges, do more than the next model up.

The first reflection is the loudest problem and it is free to fix. Sound reaches your ear directly and then again a fraction of a millisecond later off the nearest large surface, which at a desk is the desk and in a room is usually the floor or a side wall, and the two arrivals cancel each other at some frequencies. Raising a speaker, tilting it, or putting something absorbent on that surface all reduce it. Largest effect, lowest cost, in the whole category.

Symmetry matters more than gear. If one speaker stands beside a bookcase and the other beside an open doorway, the room is pulling the stereo image sideways and no upgrade will straighten it. Equal treatment either side of your head is worth more than equal money spent on either cabinet.

Bass is where the room is loudest. Corners reinforce low frequencies and the middle of a room can cancel them, which is why the same speaker sounds thin in one position and bloated a metre away. Move the speakers and move the seat before you conclude anything about the bass.

Studio monitor and hi-fi speaker describe intent rather than quality. Monitors are usually designed for a flatter response and a shorter listening distance, which is why they suit a desk. The label alone does not make one more accurate.

For passive pairs, sensitivity tells you how loud a speaker plays per watt, and it tracks how much amplifier you need far better than the power rating printed on the box. A sensitive speaker in a small room needs much less than people expect.

Two practical things that get blamed on the wrong part. Powered speakers usually have a gain control on the back, separate from the volume you use, and setting it sensibly is the difference between a usable range and audible hiss. And a hum that appears once the computer and the speakers are both plugged in is a ground loop, which is a wiring fix rather than a reason to send anything back.