I am working on a wireless setup - any speakers/soundbars to recommend

IrisCZ · August 8, 2020

Hi, I've been working on my wireless PC setup for some time now. I really dislike cables on my desk, because I constantly move things around, when needed and often use it completely empty for other projects. Because of that, I own a decent wireless mechanical keyboard and mouse, my displays are on monitor arms to keep everything tugged away etc. The only problem I really have is the audio. When I can, I listen to music (or game) with my headphones, but I still do quite a lot of media playback from my 10 year old Logitech X-230s, when I am moving around the room. They are still going strong and have great sound, but the cables are killing me. I need to move them bellow one my displays and they often don't fit or are in the way and the sound gets much worse when it is blocked or directed in a wrong way.

Do you guys have any ideas how to solve this problems? If there is a solution I could mount under the display (on VESA), that would be great. I have tried three soundbars I could find (Trust TYTAN 2.1 - for God's sake don't buy this piece of crap, Razer Leviathan, Creative Stage Air), but none of them really satisfied me sound wise. I am no audiophile and the speakers don't need to be too accurate - only good enough. Unfortunately it seems that even this is too big of a requirement. I find it ironic that TV speakers firing downwards and laptops with their tiny speakers can produce better sound than some of the soundbars for 100 dollars.

Thanks in advance.

chen57 · August 9, 2020

Are you really sure you want a sound bar ? Because bookshelf speakers are better 90% of the time.

I think soundbars get good at higher price and always need a sub while with some bookshelf speakers you can probably be ok without a sub.

IrisCZ · August 9, 2020

Well that's the thing - I know, the sound will probably be worse, but right now I still think it is a better solution than having bookshelf speakers. The main reason is that I cannot find speakers that could stay at one place (unless I need to move them while cleaning or using the table for something else) and not be partially blocked by one of the displays. Right now I use two 27 inch displays, which are quite close to my eyes - admittedly closer than they should be.

Any kind of speakers that I tried was blocked by the display (the top of the speakers was behind or bellow the displays, so the sound got noticeably worse and distorted). Another alternative was to move the speakers to the sides of my displays, but I found out that the triangle created this way was way too small, because the speakers were almost facing each other. Also at this point I was kinda fighting for free space at my desk.

Honestly, right now I am seriously considering to just getting used to wearing headphones all the time, because that is the only solution which doesn't heavily distort the sound.