Alternatives to desktop speakers
For the past few years I haven't had any speakers connected to my PC due to a lack of space in my room and on my desk. For the most part I have been using a pair of headphones which are great, but they aren't the most comfortable thing when I just want to watch YouTube on my second monitor and keep my ears available for my significant other.
So now I am looking for alternatives to desktop speakers. Right now I am either thinking of:
I think the bone conduction headphones would give me a ton of options to use while I am biking and sitting at my desk. The Bose on the other hand have excellent sound quality. A small, discrete speaker bar may also fit my needs if there are any good ones that can be recommended. Any thoughts? Have I missed an audio product that may fit my needs that you could recommend?
Maybe consider some open-back headphones? The DT-880 and DT-990 models from Beyerdynamic are popular choices that are very comfortable. The benefits to an open back design is that you can still hear everything around you. They also provide a more "open" sound stage similar to what you would get with a good pair of speakers on your desk.
+1 for open back.
Closed back headphones give me a weird feeling in my ears after a couple hours. With DT-880, It's a lot less "stuffy" in my ears.
I did think of open-back headphones but I think at this point I just don't want anything that covers my ears anymore. I won't be using these for music listening as I have a pair of WH-1000XM3 that I use daily for music.
But I will keep those in my Amazon shopping list. If I ever get to try a pair, it may sway me to getting them.
Get a good Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic and you won't even feel the headphones covering your ears. I've got a second-hand HD660S and I often forget it's on since it's so lightweight.
A good over-ear open-back Beyerdynamic or Sennheiser is way more comfortable than a Sony WH-1000XM3!
If you already have a pair of WH-1000XM3's, why not just get a Bluetooth adapter for your PC that supports aptX/LDAC codecs ? Obviously there will be a bit of latency introduced, but this should be perfectly fine for casual gaming -- I can personally attest to that.
The issue is that my significant other sometimes asks me questions or the dog scratches at the front door to go to the bathroom. When I'm sitting at my desk I often have to have a headphone on one ear while the other one sits off behind my ear. If I have both ears covered, I have to give a heads up that I am going into 'headphone time' which isn't always ideal. Otherwise, my Sony's are amazing! I just can't deal with the half-on set up I have been doing for the past few years.
On the off-chance that you missed it, the WH-1000XM3's do have an ambient sound mode, but the ambient sounds are still rather muddled. Good luck with your hunt!
Bone conduction headphones are great for audiobooks, youtube videos, etc, but don't have the greatest fidelity for listening to music. Here's a good review of the ones you linked, or a similar model from the same brand.
Thanks for the review! It sounds like the pair that he tried are pretty awesome for his needs since he bought an additional pair. I think I am leaning more to the bone conduction at this point. They probably won't be good at all for any competitive gaming but fine for casual gaming where sound isn't important.
I have a pair that I use for cycling, and I love them! It's almost a surreal experience. But I would also strongly recommend against them for anything else except speech/voice. The highs and lows are both crap, to the point where I would expect that it would be a detriment to gaming, even casually. Also, certain low frequencies, which are common in games for effects, will tickle (yep, tickle) the inside of your ears somewhere in the canal. So I can see that being super annoying. I only get it once in a while on high volumes (which really aren't that high, a limitation of bone conduction) with certain deep voices.
How small is your desk exactly? There are lots of options for compact desktop speakers, you could even mount them to the edges of your desk and even your chair. There are also some really comfy open-back headphones that you should at least test out in person.
Hmm, I have read about the tickle so that doesn't sound ideal for sitting at my desk. I do ride my bike pretty much everyday so I might get some bone conduction headphones just for that purpose.
My desk is this Alex Ikea desk which is pretty big without computer monitors. If I only had one monitor, I would be set with speakers but my two monitors spread across 95% of my available space.
Maybe oversimplifying a bit, but I'd probably just get a basic small speaker and drop it under the monitor. The Anker Soundcore does a very solid job, although I've heard that the cheaper JBL Go 2 edges it out on sound quality. They might not transport you to the Royal Albert Hall and bring a tear to your eye, but I've still been continually surprised at just how good some of these basic workhorse type speakers actually are.
There's also the Sonos Beam up at the other end of the market if you want top end audio, which is a bit larger but still shouldn't be more than the footprint of a normal LCD.
Since you mentioned biking as well, I wanted to drop in an honourable mention for the Sony WS410. They have an ambient audio mode which is essentially the exact opposite of noise cancelling - the mic picks up external sound and pipes it into the earbuds along with your music. They probably aren't quite what you want for home use, but I use a pair for exercising and I'm a big fan.
If you're still open to desktop speakers, and if you're an audiophile on a budget, I would consider something like the A2+'s from AudioEngine and lay them sideways under your monitors, it would barely take up any space. They have excellent sound and also have a respectable amount of bass response (speaking from experience).
Apparently these are wireless now, might be a bonus?