what are some great cheaper speakers

[Arcamax]

what do you usually look for in desktop speakers.

[Stupid Beard]

I bought an old boombox on ebay and have been modifying it so that it can act as a pulse audio sink, amongst other things. It was a more entertaining option for me than just buying speakers, and it was really cheap.

[miguelvp]

Long life and good quality, so then the price doesn't matter much because you won't need replacing them

This are good for computer speakers for the price

https://www.bose.com/products/speakers/stereo_speakers/companion-2-series-iii-multimedia-speaker-system.html#v=companion2_black?srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=40-101461155-2&perfsourceid=MC113165&src=K22350

and they are on my shopping list.

Of course it all depends on your needs, if you want a top end 7.1 or whatever the latest is with subwoofer and all that for gaming or watching movies via your computer, it's different than my needs.

Edit: but if you need high end sound, you probably want to have some dedicated sound card as well, I'm not that picky so you have to first know what are you planning to use them for.

[NiHaoMike]

Get a digital amplifier/receiver and some nice big speakers (check for damage first) for cheap at places like Goodwill.

[rollatorwieltje]

what do you usually look for in desktop speakers.

If you want advice on actual sets you should ask this question to yourself, not to us. I can recommend you what I have, a pair of Alesis studio monitor speakers on a TA2020 amplifier, but if you only use it for the Windows startup sound it's not really worth spending $100+ on a system, a $10 DealExtreme USB set also works.

Long life and good quality, so then the price doesn't matter much because you won't need replacing them

This are good for computer speakers for the price

https://www.bose.com/products/speakers/stereo_speakers/companion-2-series-iii-multimedia-speaker-system.html#v=companion2_black?srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=40-101461155-2&perfsourceid=MC113165&src=K22350

Not sure what they are doing today, but putting Bose and "good quality" in the same sentence wasn't really a thing 10 years ago.

[Arcamax]

Get a digital amplifier/receiver and some nice big speakers (check for damage first) for cheap at places like Goodwill.

Yeah that is a good idea... I actually sort of already made an i guess OK Bluetooth amplified speaker (so i already have an small amplifier "2 Channels 3W Digital power PAM8403 Class D Audio Amplifier Board USB DC 5V" off ebay that i can use).
So then i would just need a few speakers if i went this way...

[SteveLy]

Depends on what you mean by cheap and great sounding and what it's for: speech, music, youtube, movies...? and your taste... Cheap speaker systems (and even many not so cheap ones) tend to over-emphasise lows and highs at the expense of good clear mids.

Logitech speakers do all right for little money: $10s. Don't buy their more expensive stuff though --- anything more than ~$100. They are not great out of the box as they all suffer from a boomy bottom end: trying to sound bigger than they are (almost all PC speaker systems do that, because consumers seem to like that crap). You can tame that with minimal hardware or software tweaks. OK for music and movies, fine for speech, especially if you EQ them right.

Bowers & Wilkins have great sounding bookshelf speakers for $100s. Second hand they can be a real bargain. Per $ they are the best I've found for all kinds of music, speech, and general crisp clear, no-nonsense unembellished sound reproduction.

What do you mean by cheap? <$100 or <$1000?

[PChi]

I want decent sound quality with a relatively flat frequency response and low distortion/colouration. Dave sounds OK through a pair of Yamaha HS80M (replaced by HS8 series). I believe they are reasonable value for money for the engineering but can't be described as cheap compared to computer speakers.

[Deathwish]

what do you usually look for in desktop speakers.

hidden gold coins

[calexanian]

Go with some cheap desktop recording monitors. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/studio-monitors#pageName=category-page&N=500060&Nao=0&recsPerPage=20&v=g&Ns=pLH&profileCountryCode=US&profileCurrencyCode=USD

You will find them much easier to listen to because of the flat response and they will last many many years.

[Richard Crowley]

what do you usually look for in desktop speakers.

Accurate frequency response and decent price.

Not sure what they are doing today, but putting Bose and "good quality" in the same sentence wasn't really a thing 10 years ago.

It isn't any more sensible today. Bose is a slick marketing company that happens to make plastic radios and gimmicky speakers.

Rule of thumb: Anything marketed as a "computer" speaker isn't worth having. Don't even look twice. It doesn't matter what brand name is on it.

I have been working in audio and video for many decades, and I am very impressed by the pair I most recently bought for my primary computer station:  JBL LSR 503  I would recommend them without reservation. JBL has a long history and reputation for making leading-edge technology, and they have put technology like the image control waveguide developed for their larger and more expensive studio monitor products.

http://www.jblpro.com/www/products/recording-broadcast/3-series/lsr305#.VjTi5fmrSM8

[rdl]

I don't see much need to spend tons of money on "computer speakers". At some point you might as well just switch to a real amp and speakers. It's up to the individual to decide where the break point is. My computer is basically my entire entertainment system. I'm using a Creek 4330R with a pair of Polk RT-55i speakers, and it sounds real good.

[SeanB]

I have a set of AR PC speakers, which are not at all bad, especially as I did not buy them. Also a Sony set of micro speakers ( had to replace output amplifiers on them as they were cooked, not surprising as the screws were a little loose and they seemed to have thought heatsink compound is perfectly good when applied as a single drop per chip) that are very bassy and act like Bose -all high no low. good enough for podcasts though.

Music is a Kenwood amplifier from the 1990's. and a set of Kenwood speakers that came with it. I can almost hear the difference between 160k and 256k MP3, so did all the conversions at 320k so I am the weakest link in the chain. 90% of my CD's are ripped into ogg, just because that is a nice format even if most portable players ( aside from a LG Yepp) support it. Strange is often Android does not do ogg, even though it is a common FOSS format.

[Deathwish]

Being serious. At my age I can't tell the difference much anymore, so whatever plugs in and I can hear the thump thump from will do.

[Arcamax]

What do you mean by cheap? <$100 or <$1000?

I know looking for quality when getting/buying speakers is important but i was thinking closer to $50/$40

[Richard Crowley]

What do yo need them for?  You may be better off spending your $40-50 on a halfway-decent pair of headphones.
Your budget range is pretty much a vast wasteland of dodgy plastic toys.

[Arcamax]

http://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/SHL3060BK_28/headphones/specifications

http://otvtech.ca/catalogue?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=23076&category_id=435

Oh is this one good.

[NiHaoMike]

What do yo need them for?  You may be better off spending your $40-50 on a halfway-decent pair of headphones.
Your budget range is pretty much a vast wasteland of dodgy plastic toys.

In that price range, it's hard to beat the Xiaomi Piston 3. Only $25 on Amazon, but will hold up pretty well against headphones near the $100 range.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/review-xiaomi-piston-3-in-ear-headphones/

[Tim F]

Depends if you like in-ears or not I guess. Otherwise the sound quality vs price of in ears is hard to beat.

Personally i'm a fan of the open-back Audio-Technica circumaural 'phones, the ATH-ADx00 series. They are the most comfortable headphones you'll ever wear, you can have them on for hours on end and forget that you are wearing them. Apparently A-T have axed the two cheapest models, the ATH-AD300 and ATH-AD400. Iirc the 300 used to be in the $50-100 range, sounded decent.

[calexanian]

when it comes to headphones its hard to beat good old Sony 7056 , or as it is called today MDR7056. they can be had for about U.S. $80 online and about $90 in stores. They still have about the best sound you can get for critical listening.

[SteveLy]

I know looking for quality when getting/buying speakers is important but i was thinking closer to $50/$40

Logitech X-230 second hand (ebay) and mod the "sub"-woofer so you can turn it down more than the control knob allows out of the box (because even at the lowest setting it's still boomy). For <$50 you won't do much better.