Beefy bookshelf's for a desk setup- recommendations?

[Entropy.]

Heya, I’m looking for some new speakers to be used nearfield on a desk, as well as possibly an amp and a dac.
1: Location? US.
2: What is your budget? Roughly $1000 for a full system, or powered monitors+ possibly a preamp and maybe a dac, or passive monitors with an amp, perhaps a dac. More than okay with going used or open-box, always hunting for a good deal. My budget is fairly hard, and I might even dare ask for recommendations a little under the Budget? No preference on having either a powered monitor or passive, however I might prefer a more expensive passive speaker with a lower-end amp, so I have room down the road to upgrade my source. I'm currently thinking about an open-box or lightly used Wharfedale evo 4.2 for $750-$800, and I'd be pairing it with say, a topping mx3, or an smsl ad18. Other considerations include The tannoy gold 8's, XTZ spirit 4's, Iloud MTM's, and Amperion Novu's. Additionally I'm alright with assembling speakers- Not *building* them. I'm fine with soldering, gluing, whatever. I'm not fine with having to machine an enclosure for my speakers. Same goes for all other components- cables, amps, ect. 

3: Do you have any source gear such as amplifiers or DACs? Currently, no.
4: What other audio equipment have you had, or, more specifically, enjoyed? Enjoyed KEF q350s, bw606 and a lot of their 600/700 series speakers, and various other speakers (Do keep in mind that I don't have a ton of physical experience with speakers, out of maybe, 10 or so speakers that I've tried for only short periods at low volumes, those speakers are what I liked). Despite that, I actually prefer a warmer sound. I currently run a pair of klipsch r-41pm's nearfield, and the treble can get really sibilant nearfield, and the speaker isn't super forgiving when I don't listen to well-mixed and mastered recordings. (More in-depth description of what I like):

Spoiler

So when I listen for enjoyment, I'm definitively looking for great imaging and soundstage, just speakers that can "bring the music alive" if you will. I don't particularly care about having extremely accurate monitors, as long as the sound curve of the speakers I'm listening to aren't near the point of stupidity, and I enjoy how they sound, I could care less. I usually listen to lofi, jazz, rap, hip hop, some edm and sometimes pop (think Michael Jackson), so I don't particularly lean towards a single sound signature. However, I somewhat dislike piercing highs and I feel like most speakers that are capable of producing highs that some would call "sparkly" are general nuisances, especially when I'm listening to lofi, hip-hop (or songs that might not be mixed extremely well). So, I prefer my treble pretty neutral, but I don't care if It's a little bright or dark. As I like Bass and I listen at lower volumes most of the time, I prefer a bass boost, but since I plan to augment my speakers with subs, and I don't want the speaker to sound muddy when playing at higher volumes, I don't really care. 

5: What genres and types of music do you listen to? Lofi, hip hop, rap, edm, I listen to very diverse types of music Within the subsections of those genres.
To give you a better idea of my environment, here’s a overhead picture of my setup:

Under normal use My head is around 2.5 feet away from my speakers, but as currently my speakers sit below my ears, perhaps give it a few more inches. When I'm seriously listening, I get back to roughly 3-4 feet away from my speakers. 
As you can pretty clearly see, my speakers don't have all the room in the world to breath. You might want to take that into consideration when recommending a speaker. I don't have a ton of room to maneuver my speakers around, either. 

 

[Derkoli]

I could've sworn this is a replica of a previous post.

[Entropy.]

1 minute ago, Derkoli said:

I could've sworn this is a replica of a previous post.

Hi there, nyes. Tried to change my tone a bit when asking for recommendations and change a bit of what I was talking about- asking about possibly a higher-end passive speaker possibly, as well as a lower-end amp for them. Not exactly a clone, still looking for more opinions. I basically tried to expand on my previous post. 

[geo3]

SMSL SA300 or AD18, Micca RB42s, and Stageek desktop speaker stands. 

 

The RB42s are quite slim and can fit well in most applications. 

[H713]

If you want a pre-built solution, I've always liked how Elac voices their speakers. They can be a little on the bright side, but not in an overinflated way like some of the Klipsch speakers. The Debut DBR62 is a reasonably priced option if Elac is to your taste.

 

Revel has the Concerta 2 that measured fantastically, and is probably a great choice if you can get passed the guilt of supporting Samsung, which owns Harman, which owns Revel. After what they did to AKG (and every other company they've bought), that's a bit tough for me.

 

There's also the Genelec 8010s, but keep their size in mind- you aren't going to get a ton of bass out of something that size.

 

As for amplifiers, I've voiced my opinions on this before, but I've never been impressed by those cheap power amps from the likes of SMSL, and that Topping isn't much better. I've had my hands on a few of them and their distortion is really pretty high, their build quality is "meh", and they really don't sound that great.

 

There are lots of very good used amps on the market for around $150 if you shop around. Used Adcom, Hafler, NAD and Rotel amps are all regularly available for this price, and they're a lot less crappy. I've also had excellent results using pro amplifiers in this application. QSC, Crest, MC2, Crown, Ashly, and a whole bunch I'm probably forgetting have all made very good amplifiers. They're big, heavy and have cooling fans, but they're also really good amplifiers.

 

Just as a warning, since there's an MC1250 on eBay, that is an amplifier I probably would avoid. They sound great, but if it hasn't had the power supply can caps replaced yet (it probably hasn't), it will need them, and replacing all four is going to be very very expensive. Anything else from MC2 is fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Entropy.]

11 hours ago, H713 said:

If you want a pre-built solution, I've always liked how Elac voices their speakers. They can be a little on the bright side, but not in an overinflated way like some of the Klipsch speakers. The Debut DBR62 is a reasonably priced option if Elac is to your taste.

 

Revel has the Concerta 2 that measured fantastically, and is probably a great choice if you can get passed the guilt of supporting Samsung, which owns Harman, which owns Revel. After what they did to AKG (and every other company they've bought), that's a bit tough for me.

 

There's also the Genelec 8010s, but keep their size in mind- you aren't going to get a ton of bass out of something that size.

 

As for amplifiers, I've voiced my opinions on this before, but I've never been impressed by those cheap power amps from the likes of SMSL, and that Topping isn't much better. I've had my hands on a few of them and their distortion is really pretty high, their build quality is "meh", and they really don't sound that great.

 

There are lots of very good used amps on the market for around $150 if you shop around. Used Adcom, Hafler, NAD and Rotel amps are all regularly available for this price, and they're a lot less crappy. I've also had excellent results using pro amplifiers in this application. QSC, Crest, MC2, Crown, Ashly, and a whole bunch I'm probably forgetting have all made very good amplifiers. They're big, heavy and have cooling fans, but they're also really good amplifiers.

 

Just as a warning, since there's an MC1250 on eBay, that is an amplifier I probably would avoid. They sound great, but if it hasn't had the power supply can caps replaced yet (it probably hasn't), it will need them, and replacing all four is going to be very very expensive. Anything else from MC2 is fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, thanks for the recommendations. I'm not really sure what to look for, and where to look, however. Have any pointers? 

[Entropy.]

11 hours ago, H713 said:

If you want a pre-built solution, I've always liked how Elac voices their speakers. They can be a little on the bright side, but not in an overinflated way like some of the Klipsch speakers. The Debut DBR62 is a reasonably priced option if Elac is to your taste.

 

Revel has the Concerta 2 that measured fantastically, and is probably a great choice if you can get passed the guilt of supporting Samsung, which owns Harman, which owns Revel. After what they did to AKG (and every other company they've bought), that's a bit tough for me.

 

There's also the Genelec 8010s, but keep their size in mind- you aren't going to get a ton of bass out of something that size.

 

As for amplifiers, I've voiced my opinions on this before, but I've never been impressed by those cheap power amps from the likes of SMSL, and that Topping isn't much better. I've had my hands on a few of them and their distortion is really pretty high, their build quality is "meh", and they really don't sound that great.

 

There are lots of very good used amps on the market for around $150 if you shop around. Used Adcom, Hafler, NAD and Rotel amps are all regularly available for this price, and they're a lot less crappy. I've also had excellent results using pro amplifiers in this application. QSC, Crest, MC2, Crown, Ashly, and a whole bunch I'm probably forgetting have all made very good amplifiers. They're big, heavy and have cooling fans, but they're also really good amplifiers.

 

Just as a warning, since there's an MC1250 on eBay, that is an amplifier I probably would avoid. They sound great, but if it hasn't had the power supply can caps replaced yet (it probably hasn't), it will need them, and replacing all four is going to be very very expensive. Anything else from MC2 is fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at an a12 for $339, ra1070 for $300 including, a rb870bx is going for $220, rb1050 going for 340 including shipping, damn. Also looking into possibly building my own amp, just following the "$3000 diy amp for $300" video on yt， thoughts on that? I'm really confused right now lol

[Entropy.]

13 hours ago, H713 said:

If you want a pre-built solution, I've always liked how Elac voices their speakers. They can be a little on the bright side, but not in an overinflated way like some of the Klipsch speakers. The Debut DBR62 is a reasonably priced option if Elac is to your taste.

 

Revel has the Concerta 2 that measured fantastically, and is probably a great choice if you can get passed the guilt of supporting Samsung, which owns Harman, which owns Revel. After what they did to AKG (and every other company they've bought), that's a bit tough for me.

 

There's also the Genelec 8010s, but keep their size in mind- you aren't going to get a ton of bass out of something that size.

 

As for amplifiers, I've voiced my opinions on this before, but I've never been impressed by those cheap power amps from the likes of SMSL, and that Topping isn't much better. I've had my hands on a few of them and their distortion is really pretty high, their build quality is "meh", and they really don't sound that great.

 

There are lots of very good used amps on the market for around $150 if you shop around. Used Adcom, Hafler, NAD and Rotel amps are all regularly available for this price, and they're a lot less crappy. I've also had excellent results using pro amplifiers in this application. QSC, Crest, MC2, Crown, Ashly, and a whole bunch I'm probably forgetting have all made very good amplifiers. They're big, heavy and have cooling fans, but they're also really good amplifiers.

 

Just as a warning, since there's an MC1250 on eBay, that is an amplifier I probably would avoid. They sound great, but if it hasn't had the power supply can caps replaced yet (it probably hasn't), it will need them, and replacing all four is going to be very very expensive. Anything else from MC2 is fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I'm also taking a look at the xls 1002 for around $240, but that might sell out, next best is around 300 shipped 

[H713]

Those Icepower modules are good class D amplifiers, and it would be extremely easy to put them in a case. This is a very valid choice, and you can even buy pre-machined cases for amplifiers on eBay. 

 

I'm not big on the Crown XLS stuff. I've seen too many of them fail. 

 

Occasionally you'll find a used QSC PowerLight amplifier for under $300, and they're a hell of an amplifier for that price. They have cooling fans, but they're extremely reliable and the ones I've worked with measure exceptionally well. For your application, you could replace the stock fan with a quieter one.

 

The RMX series (RMX850, RMX1450, RMX2450) aren't quite as nice as the PowerLights, but the difference is pretty minimal. They are also exceptionally reliable.