I dabbled in surround for a few years, and though fun, I found I often enjoyed a good 2.1 setup more.
Since upgrading all my room speakers, I moved my LS50 Metas onto my desk for near field use. I run them with a Chord Annie believe it or not, and utilize a Schiit Lokius (Only Schiit Product I own anymore) to give the metas a bump in the bass regions and honestly for near field music listening when working at my desk they sound great. There are lots of great options just depends on price range. If I was looking to buy now I would probably look at a pair of HEDD, Sonus faber, or Focal but I am still happy with my KEF.
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I went from some monitors (IK MTM) to a set of KEF LS50W II to a set of Acoustic Energy AE1 to some Harbeth P3ESR.
I run these now off a HPA4 to AHB2 and pair with a SVS Micro under the desk. Given it is a desk setup, stuffed in a corner, all measured with a UMIK1 and run a ~10 filter EQ, mostly just correcting the bass regions and sub integration.
Sounds very good now. Better than the KEF or AE1, though they were nothing to sneeze at. Could be happy with either setup honestly.
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Anyone tried Genelec powered speakers, maybe in a near field setup? Thinking about something for my desk working from home. Right now I have a stereo pair of Apple HomePod Minis which I assume I can do better than.
The Genelecs are designed for nearfield.
Get the 8330A with the GLM kit if you can. Or “The Ones” if got a big budget
The DSP software and asjustment it comes with is the real drawcard.
If you just want to run a DAC/Pre into some powered speakers, plenty of cheaper options to go with or better for same money.
This hobby is of course very subjective but I’m curious as to what powered speakers you feel are better than Genelec for the same price?
Depends on budget and taste. But some serious kit from;
Barefoot
Dynaudio
PMC
PSI
Focal
HEDD
Adam
Etc. Lot of other boutique brands doing crazy good actives too.
Some of those brands make cheaper models, but if you’re spending a bit, they make some crazy good gear too. If I had the money I’d probably grab a set of the Barefoots or PSI.
To answer you actual question sorry. “It depends”. If you have a good DAC and Pre. Maybe also handy with a Umik1 and REW. You have many options that would match or “beat” the Genelec for similar price (dependant on your preferences). If you don’t, the Genelec has all that in one package ready to go. You get more clinical sound out of some, more.musical from others, more stage in some, more bass in others. All depends on what you want.
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These powered speakers are relatively new to me, but I know more “audiophiles” are adopting them. I asked about Genelec because they have a “consumer” line and the G Three was reviewed. As you point out, there are many others.
The consumer line is just the same speakers with some stripped out stuff too.
My next move will likely be Focal considering it’s a brand we are quite well known or dealing, then I’ll go from there and fine tune my tastes. Speakers are a whole new world that I’m really excited to explore more soon!
The Twin6 Be ones are highly rated if you can afford
I found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that I was not impressed by Focal until I got to their higher end lines. I was listening to bookshelf speakers and some floorstanders. They get nice at the Sopra line. The Kantos are OK, and the Arias and below just blend in with the rest. I realize that these are not generally bought as a desktop/nearfield speaker.
It’s not that there was anything actively bad with Focal, but their character and quality only seemed to stand out at price points where they could afford to do almost everything they way they wanted. Focal is not alone in this, other pricey audiophile brands like Magico also sounded unimpressive to my ears until they got into the $$$$ category. Even B&W, who make a wide range were the same. The Formation Duo start to sound better than all of their cheap (600 and 700 series) speakers, and the 805 is where they take off.
I suspect that this is a natural consequence of brand positioning. More modern, techie brands with a need to show off what they can do pack as much as possible into their popular price ranges. Brands with an audiophile following try to reach the masses by making an “entry level” model or models, but they really want to tempt you to move beyond that.
Was the upstream gear the same? Were they using typical store AKM or ESS DACs? With every tweak I become more of a start-from-the-source believer. I’m still goofing around to see what I can squeeze from my Elac impulse buy speakers. The Bifrost 2/64 bumped them up a notch by reducing the loose, boomy bass I heard with the old BF2 and my other DACs. I had been stuffing the output ports to control the bass, but I don’t need to now. The BF2/64 improved their staging, localization, and dynamics too.
Regarding Focal, the Elex, Clear, and Utopia absolutely respond to chain upgrades. While the products are stratified intentionally, one can often move lower tier gear closer to the next tier up with careful tweaks.
Yes, upstream gear was the same on the bookshelf speakers until I got to a different room with the Harbeth. At the time, I thought I’d settled on a non-bookshelf combo of Maggie 1.7 and bass panel. I don’t know what the source chain was, but the store was Overture Audio Video in Wilmington DE, and they wouldn’t use cheap stuff - it’s not the way they roll. The Kantos were worth considering, but the Sopras were clearly more resolving. Source was Qobuz, not Tidal MQA, although that and Spotify were also available.
I understand your point about chain. It’s critical once you get them home. But same chain was good enough for a store audition. The Harbeth Super HL5 Plus XD was by far my favorite that I listened to in a possible price range.
My desktop set-up for near field in my office makes me very happy:
- Paradigm Atom v.5’s ($150 used on eBay)
- Nobsound TPA 3116 (or get a Loxjie A10, which is functionally the same exact kit for $40 from Amazon)
- Schiit Gungnir (using SE outs, the balanced feeds my Mjolnir 2)
- Audioengine DS2 stands to isolate the shakers and angle them towards my ears
It’s a bit cobbled together and silly ($1k DAC feeding $30 amp and $150 speakers) but it sounds lovely. I think people including me can over-think amplification for near field. Get the transducers you want, which can often be ones you’d reject in a different setting, and then try what you have lying around / can get inexpensively for amplification. I’m not always “source-first”, but in this setting I think I am moreso. LS50’s are great but expensive. There’s a bunch of Q acoustics / Triangle / KEF speakers in the $300 range and a lot of used for 1/2 that that I think will serve just as well unless you are really really going full-bore for hearing loss. My 2 cents.
Good luck to everyone!
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That’s a very nice arrangement! Mine has been cobbled together over time too, but it ironically ended up being all Schiit. Very happy with how it’s turned out so far, the last thing I need are better stands.
Schiit BiFrost 2 Balanced > Schiit Freya S > Schiit Aegir >Starke Sound IC-H1/ SVS 3000 Micro.
Results is a very transparent, airy sound that still leans musical and engaging because of the source equipment, but not overpowering at all. The sub helps even out the leanness of the speakers and I generally keep it on no more than 30% volume since my apartment walls are quite hollow.
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Man oh man, I was just trading my living room dual Aegir’s for a Vidar and some cash to a local guy from SBAF, and I had to keep myself from auditioning one of the Aegir’s in my office because I was afraid I was going to want to keep it. I’m extremely jealous.
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Yeah, I love the Schiit house sound and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let these go.
It’s especially the case because the Aegir was my first proper speaker amp so it’ll be personal to me.
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