Small office / computer desk set-ups

[The Darker Wave]

What's everyone out-there using for their small office or computer desk listening?

I work from home and find myself sat at my office desk for most of my time. I'm currently using a set of B&W MM-1s hooked up to my iMac but feel I'm missing the 'proper' Hi-Fi experience. Any suggestions?

 

[davidf]

KEF LSX small enough? While they might lack the bass response of larger bookshelf speakers, it’ll be enough for desktop use, and the midrange and treble is very well presented, sounding nicely balanced and surprisingly detailed and natural. I took my demo pair home initially to run them in, and used them to watch movies for a week (2.0, no sub), and I was massively impressed by their capabilities.

 

[scene]

What's everyone out-there using for their small office or computer desk listening?

I work from home and find myself sat at my office desk for most of my time. I'm currently using a set of B&W MM-1s hooked up to my iMac but feel I'm missing the 'proper' Hi-Fi experience. Any suggestions?

Hi Darker,

As per my sig, my stereo system, which is in my office, is an Arcam A85, ProJect Debut II TT, Arcam DV88 as CDP, Sonos Connect and AE Compact 1 speakers. (As per my other thread, I'm looking to upgrade my speakers).

I'm lucky, my office is quite large (2.7x3.4). If it was smaller I'd look at a pair of active speakers, maybe near field, on the desk, with the Sonos as a source, to give a really small set up. The Ruark MR1 MK2 or Kef Eggs would be on my shortlist

 

[scene]

KEF LSX small enough? While they might lack the bass response of larger bookshelf speakers, it’ll be enough for desktop use, and the midrange and treble is very well presented, sounding nicely balanced and surprisingly detailed and natural. I took my demo pair home initially to run them in, and used them to watch movies for a week (2.0, no sub), and I was massively impressed by their capabilities.

If I had a grand to spare, I'd definitely have these on my list if I was looking for actives. Trouble is, once you get to that price point, there are others, like the Acoustic Energy AE1 Active

 

[davidf]

Although with the AEs you’re moving to much larger speakers. I was trying to stick with more compact speakers with it being desktop use.

 

[scene]

Although with the AEs you’re moving to much larger speakers. I was trying to stick with more compact speakers with it being desktop use.

Fair point.

I just like the AEs...

 

[abacus]

Have a look at the Adam AX series combined with a Focusrite Audio Interface. (The Scarlett range are reasonably priced)

Bill

 

[JamesOK]

A simple pair of Sonos 1 in stereo pair, perfectly fine for Absolute Radio 90s I seem to be addicted to during the day! When I want something more Hifi I use my Chord Mojo connected up to the iMac.

 

[The Darker Wave]

Cheers guys. Appreciate the suggestions.

My home office is a little smaller. Approx 2.5m x 2m.

The KEF LSXs look great, if a little out of my current budget. Though I may decide to save up for a pair if the extra cost if worth it?

I was thinking about the Ruark MR1 MK2s. I've heard they kick the KEF Egg butt and I like the smaller form factor as I'd be able to sit them on my (already quite cluttered) desk.

Would the KEF LSXs be that much better performers than the Ruark MR1 MK2s? and would the Ruarks be that much of an upgrade over my current B&W MM-1s?

 

[scene]

Cheers guys. Appreciate the suggestions.

My home office is a little smaller. Approx 2.5m x 2m.

The KEF LSXs look great, if a little out of my current budget. Though I may decide to save up for a pair if the extra cost if worth it?

I was thinking about the Ruark MR1 MK2s. I've heard they kick the KEF Egg butt and I like the smaller form factor as I'd be able to sit them on my (already quite cluttered) desk.

Would the KEF LSXs be that much better performers than the Ruark MR1 MK2s? and would the Ruarks be that much of an upgrade over my current B&W MM-1s?

The Ruarks are louder, and I think better than the B&Ws, and are an incremental step up. The LSXs are much better. You'd hope so, given the price difference...

Yes the Ruark MK2 are rated better than the Eggs, but no substitute for personal taste, so if you're thinking of them, try and audition them in person.

One last thing. Your source is an iMac - are you sending HQ and/or lossless streams? If not, I'd look at upping your source quality as well as the speakers.

 

[The Darker Wave]

The Ruarks are louder, and I think better than the B&Ws, and are an incremental step up. The LSXs are much better. You'd hope so, given the price difference...

Yes the Ruark MK2 are rated better than the Eggs, but no substitute for personal taste, so if you're thinking of them, try and audition them in person.

One last thing. Your source is an iMac - are you sending HQ and/or lossless streams? If not, I'd look at upping your source quality as well as the speakers.

Like you say... you'd hope so for that price.

At the moment I'm just playing directly from my iTunes library, which is mainly ALAC, though there are some 320 MP3s in there. Any suggestions how I can improve things?

 

[scene]

Like you say... you'd hope so for that price.

At the moment I'm just playing directly from my iTunes library, which is mainly ALAC, though there are some 320 MP3s in there. Any suggestions how I can improve things?

ALAC is lossless, so no problems there. The 320 MP3 will sound a little thinner and compressed.

Try auditioning the LSXs...

 

[gasolin]

Denon rcd-m41 compact,bluetooth,cdplayer radio, sounds good and is not to expensive

Speakers andrew jones pioneer,elac, wharfedale diamond 220/225, dali zensor 1/3

 

[The Darker Wave]

I've just make a shocking discovery.

I've just gone back though my iTunes library and it looks like at some point when I ripped all my CDs (many years ago) that some of them have imported as ALAC and others as AAC. Not sure how this happened. Looks like my import preferences got changed somewhere along the line and it's defaulted back to AAC.

I'm gutted. It took me months to import everything and some of my CDs got damaged between now and then (after storing them in a cellar that was damper than I first realised).

I've just re-imported a few CDs using ALAC and the difference is shocking.

The B&W MM-1s still don't sound very 'Hi-Fi' to my ears but there's a lot more detail in these new files and the mid and bass is much more 'full' sounding.

When I originally imported all my CDs I was listening mainly with just an Arcam Alpha 8 amp and a pair B&W 601 speakers and the files sounded okay. I've since added an Alpha 8P, Arcam irDAC and PMC DB1i speakers. I've just listen to a few re-ripped albums on this kit (ZZ Top - Tres Hombres / Fleetwood Mac - Rumours / Joni Mitchell - Mingus / David Bowie - Station to Station - SHMCD) and I was blown away.

Looks like I've got some work ahead of me going through what needs to be re-imported. Though the good news is I'll get re-acquainted with some old favourites along the way.

Though I'm still going to check out the KEF LSXs. I'm going to need to treat myself to something for all the work that's ahead of me.

 

[davidf]

The MM-1s are nice little speakers for the money, but judging by your description of the MM-1s, you should find the LSX puts things right. Plus you’ll have a certain amount of control over how they sound tonally.

 

[gasolin]

Tidal hifi and you can listen to almost any record in lossless quality for only what 1 or 2 cd's cost a month.

Why spend the time to rip 100's of cd?

 

[scene]

I sympathise with you on the ripping - I've had that happen as well. iTunes did (an I think it was a bug) reset the CD ripping quality. I had to re-rip about 30-40 CDs because of it. And yes it makes a noticeable difference,

 

[scene]

Tidal hifi and you can listen to almost any record in lossless quality for only what 1 or 2 cd's cost a month.

Why spend the time to rip 100's of cd?

I know what you're saying - but if you've got the CDs already, ripping them lossless gives you a local library you have full control of, with no extra costs. I've ripped my CDs AND have Spotify.,,

 

[davidf]

Plus, if you’ve got CDs like the original 1992 release of Roger Waters’ Amused To Death, you can quite happily listen to it from your drive, whereas with streaming services, they’ll only give you the option of listening to the remastered (and re-recorded) one.

 

[abacus]

Tidal hifi and you can listen to almost any record in lossless quality for only what 1 or 2 cd's cost a month.

Why spend the time to rip 100's of cd?

The problem is that most titles on streaming services are re-mastered versions, which in most cases means they have been compressed to sound louder because of the loudness war, and hence don't sound as good (Less dynamic) as the original.

Bill

 

[The Darker Wave]

I sympathise with you on the ripping - I've had that happen as well. iTunes did (an I think it was a bug) reset the CD ripping quality. I had to re-rip about 30-40 CDs because of it. And yes it makes a noticeable difference,

Well I'm kinda glad it wasn't user error on my part if this is a genuine bug with an earlier version of iTunes. The problem is I may have several hundred CDs to re-import. Not sure yet how bad the situation is yet. I need to go through my library and weed out the offending AAC files and then match them up with my remaining CDs.

Also, hope I haven't lost too many CDs that I can't replace. I've got, or rather used to have, some stuff I'd be surprised to find on Tidal. Plus I'm from the CD generation and I prefer to have something physical, even if it's just a file on my NAS.

Anyway, cheers for your support guys. I feel like a bit of an idiot today.

 

[gasolin]

That's why you still have your cd's so you can play them if you don't want to listen to remastered versions (or lp's).

Tidal you exploring new music in lossless (or master dvd quality) without paying for them or settle with the sound quality there is on youtube

 

[The Darker Wave]

Just a quick update.

I popped in to Richer Sounds at the weekend and managed to have a quick audition of the KEF LSX's and was quite underwhelmed. Not sure if it was a set up issue or not but the bass seemed very uncontrolled, a little boomy and totally ruined the listening experience for me. Though I'll admit at £1k my expectations were high. On the plus side they had a very wide sound stage and were quite detailed, though a little digital sounding (not sure if that was the class D amp I was hearing or not).

It's got me thinking that I could find space for a small AMP/DAC and run some smaller passive speakers and hopefully avoid the limitations of trying to cram everything into the speakers. Also the LSX's don't have a USB-in so I'd be stuck either using them over AirPlay (and limited to 16/44.1) or connecting to my Mac with an optical lead, which would limit placement.

Instead I'm currently looking at the Denon PMA-60 paired with some Monitor Audio Radius 90's. The Denon has an asynchronous USB-in which is compatible with files up to 32/384 and some other fancy electronics that reduce jitter and noise from computer sources. I've heard the Radius 90's have been well received and have a sound that defies their tiny form factor.

Hopefully I'll be able to convince Richer Sounds to demo this set-up against the KEF's in the new year.

Interested in people thoughts.

 

[gasolin]

You can adjust the sound alot with a phone app to the size of your room dampend or not and lot of other settings

Don't discard the LSX just because they didn't sound that good in the store

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0NKohWaVsU&t=

 

[The Darker Wave]

I did wonder if that was the issue. It was only a quick demo so I'll get them to play with the settings a little next time. Though I listened to them in a sound treated demo room with lots of room behind the rear firing bass ports.

I was just surprised how bad they sounded given how well recommended these speakers are.