Best Speaker Set For An Office Desk [Workzone Beats]

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Having a decent set of speakers is crucial if you want to create the perfect desk setup. 

Whether you intend to immerse yourself in focus inducing ambient study music, epic gaming soundtracks or simply need to pick up crystal clear audio from a conference call, upgrading your speakers is a must. 

Welcoming in high quality audio really does make all the difference between simply ‘noise’ and experiencing ‘sound’.

Of course whilst the quality of sound produced by a speaker is a key factor when determining if its any good or not, it’s by no means the only one. 

Being a stickler for clutter free and minimal design, the looks of a speaker play an extremely important role in persuading me to part with my hard earned cash. 

 Therefore for the purpose of our review, desktop speaker sets were assessed on a few factors including:

• Sound Quality
• Price
• Design
• Connectivity 
• Build Quality

After a rather enjoyable couple of days combining research and personal experience, a few desktop speaker sets made it onto our ‘recommended’ list. 

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What are some of the best speakers for a desk setup?

Our Pick – Audioengine A2+

A clean, accurate and powerful sound can be expected when you plug in these iconic bookshelf speaker. 

The A2+’s have formed an ever present part in the Eden Indoor home offices over many years, and we can honestly say they are fantastic all-rounders. As adept at producing rich flowing cinematic scores as they are clear crisp speech during a remote conference call. 

Adorned with multiple fan appreciation awards the Audioengine A2+ and their 2.75″ mid-range driver and 0.75″ silk dome tweeter are the wireless solution to creating a fully immersive set-up. 

The relatively new addition of Bluetooth 5.0 compatibility means they can now be used to broadcast sound from any paired device (even older ones), and by doing so bypass the audio cards of your device to play clearer sounds. 

Aside Bluetooth the options for connectivity supported by USB and RCA, meaning they can be used to replace older HiFi components as easily as they pair with an iPad Pro.

Their compact dimensions and wireless capabilities are a dream for clean freaks and allow them to be discretely positioned in the corners of your workstation. Remaining hidden from view yet loud enough to fill a home office of almost any size.

A worthy winner.

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Wait a minute. Do I really need to buy speakers for a desktop computer?

Whilst many PC monitors come with integrated speakers, the sound quality produced by them is often found lacking.

Granted having poor speakers is better than having no speakers at all. The majority of monitors after all are completely absent of audio components. Which judging by product reviews on Amazon is something that still comes as a bit of a surprise to many customers.

It shouldn’t be a shock however as the feature of built-in speakers is not related to the quality or price point of your monitor, as is illustrated by some of the most advanced gaming and curved screen monitors on the market. 

Taken from the standpoint that you have stock monitor speakers pushing out….ok-ish sounds, is it really worth it buying a set of standalone speakers for your desktop computer? 

Having incorporated several sets of bookshelf speakers in my own personal home office, I would advocate ‘yes’ every single time. A well engineered set of speakers is one addition to a desk setup that adds too much value to be ignored.

Audiophiles will do their best to explain the feeling of being surrounded by a bubble of high quality sound but of course you have to hear it to believe it. 

As a marker if you want to test out the capabilities of your current speaker set then give the video opposite a quick play. 

I’d suggest that if you don’t reflexively smile then perhaps its time to treat yourself to an upgrade.

 (Granted the technical specifications of YouTube mean the quality of sound passing into your speakers isn’t the greatest but this video in particular contains lossless high-quality audio, the best you’ll encounter on the platform).

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Budget Pick – Edifier 1280DB

If budget is a make or break factor in your speaker selection then the Edifier 1280DB have you covered.  

In the surroundings of a home office the speakers offer a professional discrete appearance however take the grill off and the hefty 4″ drivers and large sub-woofer port give the impression that these units can shift some air and get loud!

And loud they can get with an impressive sensitivity rating of 85 decibels at 1m and 42 watt RMS. Rather than purely sheer grunt the Edifier 1280DBs can handle music and soundtracks with ease. Where they come slightly unstuck however is the level of crispness that accompanies complicated vocals.

You’ll also give up more real estate than the Audioengine A2+s (almost all desktop speakers will) but that lost space is going towards a very good purpose. 

Volume can be adjusted either directly on the speaker itself, or via the supplied remote control whilst Bluetooth connectivity, optical and coaxial inputs make integration a breeze.

Overall it’s hard to argue against the value for money that the R1280DBs offer. 

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Also Great – Kantu YU4

Versatility is the word that comes to mind when thinking about the Kanto YU4 bookshelf speakers, which tells you something when considering how beautiful these speakers look. 

Optical inputs as well as the traditional RCA & Aux compliment outputs that feature a subwoofer out, making it incredibly easy to hook up a bass source (like the Kanto SUB8) and a USB. 

Sound wise these are the loudest units of the three making good use of a 4″ kelvar driver and a 1″ silk dome tweeter. The shape of which is designed to disperse sound evenly throughout the room. 

A built in phono pre-amp that can be switched between Phono and Line inputs even allows connection to an analog turntable, be it a modern or vintage one.

The slick looking resonance buffering cabinet is available in eight finishes including 4 gloss and 4 matte variations. Our favourite is the gloss teal.

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