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Chrispy_ wrote:

dashbarron wrote:

I bounce between Newegg and Amazon. Found these, which I heard Klipsh were always good: https://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-ProMedia ... 2883362011

The Klipsch 2.1's are a great gaming option; Loud, cheap, reasonable fidelity and great for action games. Music isn't bad out of them either but there are obvious limitations to how nice the sound can be from small satellite speakers. If you buy them you are unlikely to be disappointed.

Maybe I should qualify. It's a home office setup with a TV nearby in another room. I won't be blaring audio at high levels, so more of a quality option. I was looking at the two options you suggested, and I'm not sure I have the space for something that deep. I have a wide counter-top, just not a deep one. Not sure there's room to put it comfortably in a position unless they're spread apart by several feet.

There are also smaller M-Audio AV32 monitors with 3" drivers and the cabinet drops from 7.4" to 6.1". The key with studio monitors is to angle them directly at your ears, so having them wide apart is not an issue at all. Ideally, it's an equilateral triangle made by your head and the two speakers, but I have my speakers about 6' apart to avoid putting them right up against a back wall and it works just as well, IMO.

Mackie are the other well-known brand that actually bother to shrink the cabinet size for their smaller drivers - look at the Mackie CR3, 6.2" deep.

This site is scathingly critical, also hillarious; He takes pleasure in applying audiophile testing to entry-level consumer speakers. His reviews of the AV32 and Mackie CR3 favour the AV32 and says they sound better than the equivalent 2.1's from Logitech etc:
http://noaudiophile.com/M-Audio_AV32/
http://noaudiophile.com/Mackie_CR3/
http://noaudiophile.com/Logitech_z623/ (the 2.1 set he's referring to in comparisons, arguably inferior to the Klipsch)

Although a few Hz higher on the low-frequency response numbers doesn't sound like much, the difference between a 3" and a 4" driver is enough to notice. Some of the lower instrumental stuff dips into ranges that you really want a 5" driver for. A 4" driver is compromised slightly, and one of the reasons why I like the Presonus Eris E4.5 so much, but these 4" and 4.5" speakers are fairly chunky when you're used to compact satellites of a 2.1 setup.

The thing is, the Klipsch satellites also have 3" drivers and whilst their cabinets are too small to provide a linear frequency response, they can at least handle the 100Hz-350Hz band that many smaller 2.1 sets struggle with. They are reasonably well-made, they sound okay even by audiophile standards, they're plenty loud enough and they're good value, You could do a lot worse than pick up the Klipsches!

Is there somewhere local you can hear some 3" studio monitors? That would likely answer your questions better than any internet forum, especially since everyone's ears are different. My gut says that you'd probably appreciate a set of AV32s over the Klipsch, but at the same time if you love your bass it would be the wrong call.

Yeah, I can't really recommend 3" bookshelf speakers if the listener likes bass. That said, you can get 4" and more realisticly 5" units that do a really good job of putting out some decent low end oomph. I have a pair of bookshelf speakers on my desk (btw they're about 5.5' apart (it's a big desk)) that have a 5" main driver and they sound great for the way I listen to music. Turn them up loud and they can really shake some stuff.

I really think you ought to look at 4" or 5" drivers, and just place them 5-10' apart. It won't be ideal at the further end of that length, but it'll still be better than a lot of other situations.

If it's any help, I like my bass; Not silly amounts of bass, but I tend to weight my room correction DSP by +2dB below 200Hz so a little more bass-rich than a completely linear, flat response.

My current speakers are flat to 53Hz. I'd say that most people are going to notice reduced bass if the low frequency response is any higher than about 65Hz, and you can easily tweak it to compensate as long as the speakers aren't total garbage. Beyond 75Hz you probably want a subwoofer to fill in the missing detail.

• The AV42's run down to 75Hz, flat. Sub likely needed for bass junkies but normal people will be happy.
• The AV32's run down to 80Hz, flat. You would likely want a sub with these (interestingly, M-Audio offer a package called the AV32.1)
• The CR3's run down to 80Hz, flat. Again, you'd want a sub unless you were more of a classical music listener. Drums, metal, electronica etc are going to be lacking somewhat.
• The Eris E4.5's run down to 70Hz, flat. Pretty sure these don't need a sub unless you're after a set of speakers for a house party playing pop music.

I'm pretty low down on the pay-grade when it comes to objective audiophile knowledge, but on the plus side I'm not that old and my ears appear to be in pretty good shape with no major deficiencies at particular frequencies, based on what my ears hear as "flat" compared to what a calibrated microphone records as "flat". So, if I say something has enough bass, it probably does for your average person with non-damaged hearing.