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The Best Computer Speakers

By Brent Butterworth
Updated
An array of computer speakers that we tested to find the best.
Photo: Brent Butterworth

Any computer owner can benefit from a good set of powered computer speakers, whether for listening to music, watching videos, playing games, or producing audio content. The Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT computer speakers are the best we’ve heard in the $200 price range. Plus, this pair is easy to set up and control, and it should fit well on most desktops.

We also have recommendations for smaller computer-speaker systems, as well as larger professional monitors for audio production.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

This pair is good for music listening and audio production, and it features Bluetooth support and a helpful variety of inputs. But its bass is less deep than that of the larger pro monitors we like.

Budget pick

These tiny, spherical speakers are a huge upgrade from speakers built into a laptop, but don’t expect the same fullness and dynamic ability as you can get from our pricier picks.

Upgrade pick

This professional studio monitor offers a big, clean sound with useful controls to fine-tune the results, but it’s not as easy to use as our other picks.

Also great

This pair puts excellent sound and conveniently placed controls in a smaller package than our top pick, but it doesn’t handle deep bass as well.

Buying Options

Also great

This system offers a big, full sound and a compact, desktop-friendly design at a reasonable price.

Buying Options

How we picked and tested


  • Powered speakers only

    Powered speakers are more convenient to use with computers and USB audio interfaces, so we didn’t test passive (unpowered) models.

  • For fans and pros

    We included both home- and pro-oriented desktop speakers, focusing on those priced between $50 and $400.

  • Unbiased testing

    We conducted our tests with the speakers concealed and their levels precisely matched so that our expert listeners could judge them purely on sound.

  • Measurements

    We measured our top picks to confirm that they were technically free of defects and wouldn’t create problems that our ears couldn’t detect.

Read more

Our pick

This pair is good for music listening and audio production, and it features Bluetooth support and a helpful variety of inputs. But its bass is less deep than that of the larger pro monitors we like.

The Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT set is our favorite pair of computer speakers because it delivers great sound in a desktop-friendly size. Voices and acoustic instruments sounded clearer through the DM-50D-BT set than they did through other systems in this price range, no matter which of the speakers’ two sound modes we used.

The DM-50D-BT has three types of analog audio inputs (including balanced connectors) on the back, as well as a volume/power knob and a headphone jack on the front. This system has Bluetooth connectivity built in, and thanks to its signal-sensing inputs, it works like a smart speaker if you connect an Amazon Echo Dot.

Budget pick

These tiny, spherical speakers are a huge upgrade from speakers built into a laptop, but don’t expect the same fullness and dynamic ability as you can get from our pricier picks.

The Creative Pebble Pro pair is perfect for people who want to spend less than $100 and have modest needs in desktop sound. The 2.25-inch speaker drivers won’t exactly rock anyone’s home office, but they do sound fuller and clearer than the other computer speakers we’ve heard in this price range. The grapefruit-sized speakers will even fit on dorm-room desks.

The system has a 3.5 mm analog input and Bluetooth support, as well as headphone and microphone jacks. All of the controls are conveniently mounted on the front.

Upgrade pick

This professional studio monitor offers a big, clean sound with useful controls to fine-tune the results, but it’s not as easy to use as our other picks.

The JBL Professional 305P MkII monitor is ideal for those who need professional sound quality for audio production but have a modest gear budget. It sounds clearer than any of the smaller, lower-priced powered speakers we’ve tried. Bass and treble tuning switches allow you to fine-tune its sound for different types of installations.

The downsides: The 305P MkII costs more than other options, it’s a little too large for many desks, and it lacks conveniences such as front-panel controls, Bluetooth support, and a headphone jack. Plus, it has quarter-inch and XLR audio jacks instead of RCA jacks, so it’s likely to require adapters for hookup to a computer.

Also great

This pair puts excellent sound and conveniently placed controls in a smaller package than our top pick, but it doesn’t handle deep bass as well.

Buying Options

If you want computer speakers that are smaller than our top pick, the PreSonus Eris 3.5BT Gen 2 set is a great alternative. In our tests, the speakers’ sound quality approached that of the Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT set, but this pair doesn’t have quite as much bass and sounds a little distorted when cranked up to loud volumes.

This pair includes Bluetooth support, and it offers a volume control, a headphone jack, and an auxiliary input jack on the front, plus quarter-inch and RCA analog audio inputs on the back.

Also great

This system offers a big, full sound and a compact, desktop-friendly design at a reasonable price.

Buying Options

If you’re a fan of bass-heavy music or you play video games or watch movies at your desk, you’ll find the subwoofer included with the Creative Pebble X Plus to be a huge advantage. The speakers are larger versions of our budget pick, the Creative Pebble Pro set; they sound similar but can play louder without distorting. The subwoofer—a cube measuring a little over 6 inches on each side—produces shockingly strong bass for its size and takes up little space under a desk.

The Pebble X Plus includes Bluetooth support plus USB and 3.5 mm analog inputs. All controls are conveniently mounted on the front, and multicolor LED lighting is built in.

I’ve worked as an editor or writer in audio publishing for over 30 years, and I’ve previously served as a consultant on speaker tuning and measurement for some of the world’s biggest tech companies. I also do a lot of audio production, including co-editing of the Audio Unleashed podcast and mixing the album Take2, which rose as high as number three on the Roots Music Report jazz radio play chart.

In the course of producing the original version of this article and many updates, we’ve enlisted feedback from numerous listeners, including senior staff writer Lauren Dragan and Dan Gonda, a Los Angeles woodwinds player who is also a certified Avid Pro Tools user.

Powered computer speakers are a great option for anyone who enjoys using their computer to listen to music, watch movies, play video games, or produce music, podcasts, or videos. The tiny speakers built into laptops and monitors produce a thin sound with little to no bass and low volume, while a good set of computer speakers can play loud enough to fill a small room and low enough to reproduce all the notes on a standard electric bass.

Computer speakers are generally sold in pairs. The amplifiers and controls are built into one speaker, which connects to the other through a speaker cable. There’s no need to add an external amplifier or audio processor—you simply connect the speakers to your computer’s headphone jack or the output of a USB audio interface, and you’re ready to go.

With true professional studio monitors (like our upgrade pick), each speaker has its own amp and may be sold individually.

We use the following criteria to decide which computer speakers to test and how to evaluate their quality.

  • Sound quality: We seek a balanced sound that makes everything from music to conference calls pleasant to listen to. We also confirm whether the speakers can fill a typical bedroom with sound loud enough for focused listening—that is, not just background music.
  • Cost: We focus our testing on home and pro systems priced from about $50 to $400. We’ve never heard any models priced below $50 per pair worth buying.
  • Configuration: We test mostly 2.0 systems, which have a left speaker and a right speaker meant to sit on your desk. We’ve also tested a few 2.1 systems, which include a subwoofer that goes underneath your desk.
  • User-friendliness: We prefer speakers with volume controls located on the front so that you don’t have to reach around the back to turn down the music while sitting at your desk. We also prefer models with multiple connection options.
  • Wireless connectivity: Since these speakers are likely to remain connected to a computer, we don’t think built-in Bluetooth support is mandatory. But we do appreciate the inclusion of this feature.
  • Styling: Speakers intended for use with computers or in audio production tend to have a more utilitarian or modern style, while bookshelf models typically are box-shaped speakers with glossy or wood-veneer finishes. Some of the powered speakers in our bookshelf speaker guide are also suitable for use as computer speakers.
An assortment of the speakers that were tested during the updating of this guide.
Some of the speaker sets we tested for a recent update. Photo: Brent Butterworth

I conduct brand-concealed listening tests in my acoustically treated listening room, using an active switcher built specifically for comparing audio devices. I hang a sheet of thin black fabric in front of the speakers, match the speakers’ levels using the channel-balancing test noise from a Dolby Digital receiver, and jumble up the cables for each testing round so that no one (including me) will know what model they’re hearing.

In our tests, we listen mostly for the following:

  • Even response: Ideally, a speaker used for any type of audio production should have even response at all frequencies, without boosting or attenuating any frequency bands. If it’s lacking, say, lower midrange, you might boost that range in the mix to compensate, and then your recording will probably sound bloated in the low mids on most other speakers.
  • Midrange clarity: The midrange is the most important part of the audio band, as it covers voices and most of the range of instruments such as guitar, piano, and saxophone.
  • Imaging and spaciousness: Stereo speakers should produce focused sonic “images” of singers and instruments, and they should also produce an enveloping sound.
  • Bass: We play Audrey Nuna’s “damn Right” (video) at loud volumes to see how the speakers handle bass-heavy tunes.

In addition, we use the most promising of the speakers for various audio-production projects.

To ensure that we don’t pick something that strays outside engineering norms, we run frequency-response measurements on all the contenders. Research shows (PDF) that listeners consistently prefer speakers that have a “flat” frequency response—which means they produce all frequencies of sound at approximately even levels—as well as speakers that maintain a similar frequency response whether the listener is sitting directly in front of them or slightly off to the side.

Frequency response deviation (smoothness) vs. price

A point chart showing price versus audio frequency for the computer speakers we tested.
This chart compares each speaker system’s price with its deviation from the ideal “flat” frequency response, within a range from 300 hertz to 6 kilohertz—which is where most vocal sounds reside. The closer each dot comes to zero (on the right), the better. Source: Wirecutter staff

The chart above shows how the speakers’ performance in this test correlates with their prices. (For more information, see our detailed frequency-response charts for our picks.) Note that while some small, inexpensive speakers had an admirably flat frequency response within the bounds of this test, many had little or no bass, which meant that they couldn’t convey much of a song’s rhythm or the power of kick drums and low bass notes. That’s why we also did CTA-2010 bass-output measurements, applying the same process we use for our guide to the best subwoofer. You can see those results in the chart below.

Bass output vs. price

A point chart showing price versus maximum bass for the computer speakers we tested.
This chart shows how each speaker set’s price compares with its average maximum bass output from 40 to 63 hertz, at a distance of 1 meter. Source: Wirecutter staff
A pair of Pioneer DM-50D speakers, our pick for best computer speakers, in black.
Photo: Brent Butterworth

Our pick

This pair is good for music listening and audio production, and it features Bluetooth support and a helpful variety of inputs. But its bass is less deep than that of the larger pro monitors we like.

The Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT set combines sound quality approaching that of professional monitors with the convenience and low cost of a home system. It offers compact size, a variety of inputs, and many convenient features.

It sounds good enough to use for serious audio production. A switch on the left speaker’s back selects Production or DJ mode. The DJ mode boosts the bass, which we thought made the system sound better with hip-hop, heavy pop, R&B, and movies; we preferred the more natural sound of the Production mode for jazz and classical, as well as for audio production.

In fact, the Production mode put out the most neutral, accurate sound we’ve heard from a consumer-level computer speaker system, making it great for audio production and entertainment alike. In our tests, through most of the audio range, its response was nearly as smooth and natural as that of the larger, more expensive JBL Professional 305P MkII monitor.

I used the DM-50D-BT system several times for editing my podcast, as well as for mixing original bumper music for it. I found the results similar to what I achieved using the 305P MkII, so I’d be comfortable using this set for serious production—with one caveat we’ll discuss below.

It has plenty of inputs. Besides built-in Bluetooth support, the DM-50D-BT has three types of analog inputs on the back of the left speaker to accommodate a variety of sources. These inputs are always live, so you have no way to switch among them—if you have sources playing on multiple inputs, you’ll hear them all simultaneously. (This is common on computer speakers.)

The system also has a signal-sensing feature, which powers it up automatically when it receives a signal from one of your source devices. Thanks to this feature, if you connect an Amazon Echo Dot, the DM-50D-BT will work much like an Alexa speaker—except that it will cut off the first couple of seconds of Alexa’s response, which is potentially annoying if you’re asking Alexa for information, such as what time it is.

This set includes several features that are convenient for desktop use. The left speaker has a front volume knob that shuts off the power when you turn it fully counterclockwise; also present is a front headphone jack that shuts off the speaker’s output.

The DM-50D-BT set has plenty of audio inputs, including pro-style balanced inputs, RCA inputs, and a 3.5 mm stereo input jack. Photo: Brent Butterworth

The speakers measure well. In our measurements, the DM-50D-BT had an impressively flat frequency response in the midrange (where voices and most instruments reside), but the treble response was somewhat weak. However, none of our listeners complained about a lack of treble, which would, for example, make cymbals sound dull. The DJ mode boosted the bass a lot—by about 7 decibels—and added a mild treble boost of about 2 decibels.

We measured the bass output at 111.2 dB from 40 Hz to 63 Hz, more than we got from any of the other home-oriented computer speakers we tested, and even more than from a pair of JBL’s 305P MkII monitors (though the JBL monitors produced 5 decibels more sound at the lower frequency of 32 Hz).

The DM-50D-BT system is available in black or white. A non-Bluetooth version, the DM-50D, is also available.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It might not be great for mixing music with lots of acoustic instruments. If you’re recording music with a lot of trebly instruments, such as cymbals and acoustic guitars, you might not want to trust the DM-50D-BT system for production. Our measurements showed a dip above 7 kHz or so that maxed out at about -10 decibels. This effect might persuade you to crank up the acoustic guitar in a mix, only to find it too boosted when you listen through other speakers or headphones.

This isn’t an issue if you’re editing podcasts or videos, but if you’re doing serious music production, you’re better off spending more for a pro speaker with flatter response, such as the JBL Professional 305P MkII.

It lacks tone adjustments. Most pro and semi-pro monitor speakers have some sort of tone controls that let you tune the sound to your liking or to compensate for the acoustical effects of nearby walls and other objects. The DM-50D-BT doesn’t, so if you want to tune its sound, you have to do so through an app on your phone or computer.

The Creative Pebble Pro speaker set, round with a gold plated center.
Photo: Brent Butterworth

Budget pick

These tiny, spherical speakers are a huge upgrade from speakers built into a laptop, but don’t expect the same fullness and dynamic ability as you can get from our pricier picks.

If you don’t want to get into a three-figure purchase, the Creative Pebble Pro set is your best bet. These grapefruit-sized globes require very little space on a desktop, but they sound much clearer and play much louder than the speakers built into laptops. Their angled design points the sound right at your ears and provides convenient access to the front-mounted controls. This set comes with a lot of helpful connections, too.

For the price, this system sounds excellent, although it can’t play deep bass. The Pebble Pro pair was our clear favorite in the mid-two-figures price range. Voices and most instruments sounded clear, without the boominess, harshness, and distortion we heard from many other affordable models. The speakers didn’t produce as spacious a sound as our other picks did, but we still got a nice stereo effect with them flanking a laptop while we were working.

This system falls short on bass because the speaker drivers measure only about 2 inches in diameter; in our tests, this set’s average bass output from 40 Hz to 63 Hz was just 77.1 dB, similar to the faint rumble of a car passing by outside.

Still, these Creative speakers somehow managed to produce a full sound, and they didn’t distort or boom when we played bass-intensive tunes like Audrey Nuna’s “damn Right” (video).

In our frequency-response measurements, the Pebble Pro system produced a flatter response in the human vocal range than any of our other picks. However, outside of that range, its response was uneven. It sounded better with more treble-focused music, which is okay for folk music and light classical, but hip-hop and rock fans are likely to want something with more bottom-end oomph.

The Pebble Pro speaker set has a convenient front-mounted volume control, plus one button for input selection and Bluetooth pairing and another to control the LED lighting. Photo: Brent Butterworth

It has all the features most casual listeners need. In addition to Bluetooth support, the Pebble Pro system offers a variety of audio inputs to suit different sources. Plus, it has built-in multicolored LED lights, which you can turn off.

In normal use, this system gets its power from the computer’s USB connection. But the right speaker has an extra USB-C jack for use with an external power supply, which Creative says can boost the power. We tried using a 30-watt adapter and got a mild boost of about 3 decibels—for only about three seconds, after which the speakers returned to their original volume.

It’s ideal for small desktops. Each of the roughly orb-shaped speakers measures just 4.5 inches in diameter. The right speaker has a volume control, an input selector button, and a button to control the lighting, all positioned within easy reach.

Unfortunately, the Pebble Pro system is available only in a dark green color; black and white options would have been nice. Creative also offers the slightly larger Pebble X system, which we preferred for its fuller sound—but it’s typically about 33% more expensive.

The JBL Professional 305P MkII, our pick for best computer speaker for professional music and video producers, in white.
Photo: Brent Butterworth

Upgrade pick

This professional studio monitor offers a big, clean sound with useful controls to fine-tune the results, but it’s not as easy to use as our other picks.

The JBL Professional 305P MkII monitor is the best value for aspiring or professional music and video producers, or for audiophiles who demand clear, full-range sound. Its sound quality was the best overall of all the speakers we tested, but it’s too large for many desktops, and it lacks Bluetooth support and the other convenience features that many people want.

Content creators will appreciate its nearly perfect performance. The 305P MkII offers perhaps the clearest, most natural sound we’ve heard from a powered speaker under $300. The less-expensive computer speakers we tried sounded a bit sibilant in comparison. Our panelists also praised the 305P MkII’s big, spacious sound, something not easily achieved in a desktop environment.

In addition, it delivered an almost perfectly flat response in our measurements. I mixed a recent album using a pair of 305P MkII units, and the veteran engineer who mastered it made only subtle equalization changes; this suggests that my monitoring system was doing its job properly.

Some listeners are likely to want more bass. The 305P MkII can’t match the bass performance of larger, more expensive pro models such as the JBL Professional 306P MkII and the Kali Audio LP-6 v2. With average mid-bass output of 107.3 dB (measured with a pair of speakers), the 305P MkII fell 5 and 5.8 decibels short, respectively, of the output of those larger speakers, and it even fell 3.9 decibels short of our top pick, the Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT set.

If you’re producing or listening to R&B, hip-hop, or heavy rock, you’re likely to prefer a monitor with more bass—otherwise, you’d probably find yourself cranking up the bass too much in the mix to make up for this speaker’s weak bottom end.

The back side of the JBL Professional 305P MkII, where all the audio inputs and bass and treble controls are located.
The 305P MkII lacks standard 3.5 mm and RCA inputs. It has only pro-style quarter-inch and XLR balanced inputs, plus two switches that provide bass and treble adjustments for fine-tuning its sound. Photo: Brent Butterworth

It has the features pros need—but lacks features everyone else wants. This speaker includes only pro-style inputs, so you need to add some inexpensive adapters if you want to connect a source device with standard RCA cables. It has no Bluetooth support.

Pro monitors are sold individually, so you have to buy two separately and deal with two power cords and two sets of controls. The volume and power controls are on the back, which is inconvenient if you want to connect your 305P MkII straight to a computer, but content creators are likely to use a USB interface with its own volume control.

The 305P MkII has a 0/-1.5/-3 dB switch for bass adjustment and a +2/0/-2 dB switch for treble adjustment. The bass switch comes in handy if you need to place the speakers close to a wall.

At 11.75 by 7.38 by 10 inches (HWD), the 305P MkII is bigger than our other picks, though much smaller than the JBL Professional 306P MkII and the Kali LP-6 v2. If you can’t fit two of these speakers on your desk, you can always put them on stands. This speaker is available in black or white.

A pair of our also great pick computer speakers, the PreSonus Eris 3.5BT Gen 2, against a light background.
Photo: Brent Butterworth

Also great

This pair puts excellent sound and conveniently placed controls in a smaller package than our top pick, but it doesn’t handle deep bass as well.

Buying Options

If your desktop is limited on space or your wallet is limited on funds, the PreSonus Eris 3.5BT Gen 2 pair is a smaller, more affordable option than our top pick that still gets you most of the way toward pro-quality sound. All it really lacks is bass.

It’s only half the size by volume as the Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT set, but it has an even better array of features. Although its small size prevents it from playing deep bass, its midrange and treble clarity won us over.

It sounds great but has a few flaws. Our listeners said that the Eris 3.5BT Gen 2 was clearly the best-sounding small monitor speaker we tested. The best part was that the midrange and treble sounded remarkably clear for such an inexpensive speaker pair. For casual music listening at the desktop, we loved it, and it’s good enough for podcast editing and other noncritical production tasks.

With typical music recordings, the little 3.5-inch woofers produced a satisfyingly full sound. When we played Audrey Nuna’s bass-intensive “damn Right” at high volume, the speakers distorted, but they didn’t suffer from the horrific “chuffing” sounds and rattles that most similarly small speakers gave us.

In our measurements, this system boosted high frequencies quite a bit, but once we turned the treble control down by 3 decibels, it produced a reasonably flat response. Its measured average bass output was weak at just 93.7 dB—17.5 decibels less than what we got from the DM-50D-BT.

We also noticed some distortion in the midrange and treble when we turned up the volume all the way while mixing saxophone parts for a jazz recording. If you need a system that plays louder and can reproduce deeper bass notes, you have to step up to a larger and more expensive system.

In addition to quarter-inch TRS and RCA inputs, the Eris 3.5BT Gen 2 set has bass and treble controls that let you fine-tune the sound. Photo: Brent Butterworth

It’s versatile. The features will please both content creators and casual listeners. Most unusual and effective are the set’s bass and treble controls, each of which offers ±6 decibels of adjustment. You can use them to tailor the sound to your taste or to suit the acoustics of your room.

As with our top pick, this set has both balanced and unbalanced inputs, and both inputs are live all the time—so you have no way to switch between them.

At just 8.25 by 5.5 by 7 inches (HWD) for each speaker, the Eris 3.5BT Gen 2 pair should fit easily on most desktops. If you need something even smaller but with a similar design, we suggest looking at the Vigilant Audio SwitchOne set. Also, PreSonus offers the less expensive Eris 3.5 Gen 2 speaker set, which omits Bluetooth support.

The Creative Pebble X Plus, our computer speaker pick for those who want extra bass.
Photo: Brent Butterworth

Also great

This system offers a big, full sound and a compact, desktop-friendly design at a reasonable price.

Buying Options

The Creative Pebble X Plus set is ideal if you want extra bass when you’re playing games or watching movies but don’t have the desk space for large speakers. This system’s tiny subwoofer gives it a fuller sound than most small computer speaker systems can muster, and it’s just as user-friendly as our budget pick, the Creative Pebble Pro.

It’s small, but it sounds huge. This system’s big, full sound gives it an obvious advantage over Creative’s subwoofer-less systems. Every tune we played sounded better, even light acoustic music you might not expect to benefit from a subwoofer. The extra bass made the guitars and voices sound fuller, clearer, and more natural.

The subwoofer—a cube measuring slightly more than 6 inches on each side—sounds better than the flimsy plastic subwoofers included in many computer speaker systems. When we played bass-intensive tunes such as Audrey Nuna’s “damnRight,” the bass notes weren’t as well defined as they would be with a high-quality subwoofer, but the bass sounded powerful and didn’t distort, and it blended well with the sound of the main speakers.

The system offers no level control for the subwoofer, but we found that we could adjust the level by moving the sub closer to the wall for more bass or away from the wall for less.

Though the Pebble X Plus set can get its power from a computer’s USB connection, in our tests it sounded better when powered by a 30-watt adapter. Without the adapter, the sound distorted subtly at loud volumes, and the bass was weaker.

The measured frequency response was fairly flat through most of the audio range. The subwoofer’s response was deep enough to handle the lowest note on a standard electric bass, although the measured output was only a few decibels better than what we measured on our budget pick, averaging 80.4 dB from 40 Hz to 63 Hz. Still, played at the moderate volumes typical for desktop use, the Pebble X Plus had a bigger, fuller sound than its measurements suggested.

The Pebble X Plus set’s subwoofer includes an active 3.5-inch woofer and two 3.5-inch passive radiators to reinforce the low bass. An RCA jack connects it to the right-channel speaker. Photo: Brent Butterworth

The design is ideal for desktop use. The subwoofer is small enough that it can probably slip under your desk without getting in the way of your feet.

Each speaker is a little more than 5 inches in diameter, and the drivers are angled at 45 degrees so that they point at your ears.

It offers lots of connections. The Pebble X Plus system has all the connections necessary for use with a computer, plus jacks for headphones and a microphone.

The speakers are available only in a dark green color; we would’ve liked to see black and white options too. Creative also offers the Pebble X system, which lacks the subwoofer but adds passive radiators to the backs of the speakers to increase the bass output. We preferred the fuller sound of the Pebble X Pro set, though.

If you want something even smaller: At 7.25 by 4.58 by 7.38 inches (HWD) for each speaker, the Vigilant Audio SwitchOne system is only about two-thirds the size of the PreSonus Eris 3.5BT Gen 2 set, but in our tests it sounded clearer in the midrange than that model and our top pick, the Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT pair. It didn’t have enough bass for music production, though. It has RCA and quarter-inch balanced inputs plus an auxiliary input, a headphone jack, and a volume control on the front.

If you value great looks but still demand good sound: The JBL Professional 104-BT speakers have a more stylish, rounded design and are available in black or white. In our tests they delivered a clear, satisfying sound at moderate volumes, although the 4.5-inch woofers didn’t emit particularly full bass.

If you want something very simple or very inexpensive: The Cyber Acoustics CA-2890BT computer soundbar plays about 10 decibels louder than (or about twice as loud as) a typical set of speakers built into a laptop computer. A spring-loaded clip attaches it to the top of a laptop or to the top or bottom of a desktop monitor. It offers Bluetooth, a USB connection, and an integrated microphone. A non-Bluetooth version is available for about $5 less.

If you’re recording R&B, hip-hop, or heavy rock: Spending an extra $100 or so for a pair of the JBL Professional 306P MkII or Kali Audio LP-6 v2 speakers instead of the 305P MkII is a smart decision. They’re both more than 50% larger by volume, so you’ll probably have to use speaker stands, but both options offer several decibels of extra bass output—which you need when producing any kind of bass-heavy music. The 306P MkII sounded clearer in the midrange during our tests, but the LP-6 v2 seemed to have a little extra bass oomph.

We’ve reviewed more than 50 computer speaker systems for this guide. Below are capsule descriptions of some of the systems that might be of most interest to Wirecutter readers. If you don’t see a certain model you’re interested in, check out our running list of computer speakers we’ve tested.

The Adam Audio T5V is an excellent pro monitor, but in our brand-concealed tests, it didn’t really sound any better—or produce significantly more bass—than our less-expensive upgrade pick.

Although the Audioengine A2+, a previous pick, is a good-sounding pair of speakers, it isn’t really tuned to compensate for its lack of bass. The same is true of the Audioengine A1. We cover the Audioengine HD3 in our guide to the best bookshelf speakers.

The Bose Companion 2 Series III pair is small, simple, and affordable, but its bass response was too limited to deliver satisfying sound in our tests.

The Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX subwoofer-and-satellite system is a former pick. It offers considerably more bass output from its subwoofer than the Creative Pebble X Plus can, but the overall frequency response isn’t as smooth, and this system lacks Bluetooth support. We pulled it as a pick because we saw too many complaints about the reliability of its subwoofer.

We loved the portable design of the KRK GoAux 3 system, which includes two tiny speakers and a cool carrying case. Although the system sounded clean in the midrange and treble in our tests, the tiny speakers couldn’t produce enough bottom end for music with even moderately deep bass.

The Logitech Z407 system sounded good and was comparable in performance to the Creative Pebble X Plus set, but we prefer the latter’s cooler, more compact design.

The M-Audio BX3 and M-Audio BX4 tended to produce port noise on deep bass notes in our tests, and neither pair had a clear-sounding midrange.

The Monoprice MTM-100 is nicely priced for such a large, powerful desktop speaker system. It has plenty of bass, but the treble sounds very soft.

The PreSonus Eris 4.5BT Gen 2 is essentially a more bass-capable version of the Eris 3.5BT Gen 2 system. But for just a little more money, our top pick from Pioneer offers similar sound quality with more bass.

In our tests, the SteelSeries Arena 7 subwoofer-and-speaker system delivered very good sound overall, but the treble was a little bright—and this set is pricey.

The Yamaha NX-50 set produced good sound overall, but in our tests it couldn’t match the bass power and treble clarity of the similar PreSonus Eris 3.5BT Gen 2.

This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.

Meet your guide

Brent Butterworth

Brent Butterworth is a senior staff writer covering audio and musical instruments at Wirecutter. Since 1989, he has served as an editor or writer on audio-focused websites and magazines such as Home Theater, Sound & Vision, and SoundStage. He regularly gigs on double bass with various jazz groups, and his self-produced album Take2 rose as high as number three on the Roots Music Report jazz album chart.

Further reading

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