Undecided about which good quality sound bar for a M4 Mac Studio

[AlaskaMoose]

While I do Airplay my music playlists in a Mac to a Yamaha receiver and a set of powered speakers in the living room, I most often listen to my music played out of my computer to the computer monitor. This is OK, but I would like to add more punch to this music since the monitor speakers aren't very powerful. This work computer sits in my work room at a distance from the living room where the receiver is located.

What I would like to do is buy perhaps a soundbar or maybe a set of computer speakers, but have no idea if the soundbar or speakers should be Bluetooth or something else. The Mac does have a headphone port at the back, and so does the computer monitor. The monitor is a BenQ PD 27305S 5k, connected to one of the Thunderbolt 5 ports of the Mac M4. The monitor itself can be used as a powered hub for additional monitors in a daisy chain, etc., and in addition to a headphone jack. it has several USB ports for connecting USB devices to the monitor.

What would be the most practical for me to use, powered USB speaker or soundbar, or maybe Bluetooth, and do you have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CoMoMacUser]

What I would like to do is buy perhaps a soundbar or maybe a set of computer speakers, but have no idea if the soundbar or speakers should be Bluetooth or something else. The Mac does have a headphone port at the back.

I use a set of Altec Lansing speakers from a Dell PC that I bought in 1996. The sub plugs into a wall outlet and feeds power to the two desktop speakers, one of which plugs into the Studio's headphone jack to feed audio the system. It works great. It has a couple of ferrite cores to attenuate hum. You probably could find a similar system for $10 at a thrift store. Good luck!

 

[haralds]

If the speakers are close enough to the Mac to use a wired solution, it is much preferred in simplicity and sound quality over Bluetooth. You could also use HomePods with AirPlay.
I use PreSonus monitors on one desktop, and Edifiers on another. Both are set up with subwoofers. They happen to be fed from Arturia MiniFuse Audio Interfaces, so that I have a separate volume knob, but plugging them in directly would work equally well.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

If the speakers are close enough to the Mac to use a wired solution, it is much preferred in simplicity and sound quality over Bluetooth. You could also use HomePods with AirPlay.
I use PreSonus monitors on one desktop, and Edifiers on another. Both are set up with subwoofers. They happen to be fed from Arturia MiniFuse Audio Interfaces, so that I have a separate volume knob, but plugging them in directly would work equally well.

Yes, after much reading about using Bluetooth versus wired, I have come to the conclusion that I have two "wired" options to choose from. One is to connect the speakers or soundbar to the headphone jack at the back of the Mac Studio, or even better, to connect the speakers to the headphone jack of the BenQ monitor. When connected to the monitor I can control the speakers with the Mac and keyboard. Also, I am choosing powered speakers with amplifiers.

There may be other options I can explore if needed, including connecting the powered speakers via HDMI jack in the Mac, but in this case I would have to control the speakers manually, so I prefer the two options I mentioned above.

I use a set of Altec Lansing speakers from a Dell PC that I bought in 1996. The sub plugs into a wall outlet and feeds power to the two desktop speakers, one of which plugs into the Studio's headphone jack to feed audio the system. It works great. It has a couple of ferrite cores to attenuate hum. You probably could find a similar system for $10 at a thrift store. Good luck!

I have been reading the reviews about a simple but powerful-enough speakers set, the JBL 104-TB. These have an amplifiers that's connected in parallel to each speaker. There are some that cost from $500.00 to perhaps $1,200.00, but I don't need anything like that since I often Airplay my music to the receiver and powerful speakers in the living room.

 

[BrianBaughn]

How much room do you have on the desk?

 

[AlaskaMoose]

How much room do you have on the desk?

Once I mode external hard drives and SSD's out of the way I should be able to have enough room to place two speakers at each corner of the desk. I am using 27" monitor, which leaves about 116 inches at the left of the monitor, and about the same to the right end.

 

[rb2112]

Been using these, each about 1 - 1.5 feet to the sides of a 32 inch monitor, work fine, not too pricey.

Companion 2 Series III Multimedia Speaker System | Bose

Upgrade your computer audio quality with the Companion 2 Series III Multimedia Speaker System for best-in-class computer speakers or PC speakers.

www.bose.com

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Been using these, each about 1 - 1.5 feet to the sides of a 32 inch monitor, work fine, not too pricey.

Companion 2 Series III Multimedia Speaker System | Bose

Upgrade your computer audio quality with the Companion 2 Series III Multimedia Speaker System for best-in-class computer speakers or PC speakers.

www.bose.com

These speakers look quite nice, but Bose does not have the "specs" in their webpage. Edifier M60 Multimedia speakers seem to be another good choice, too. Regardless of whichever I buy, it has to be connected to either the Mac or the monitor with an audio cord. More than likely I will connect a powered speaker set to the monitor's headphone/speakers jack following what is recommended by BenQ relating to connecting speakers to BenQ monitors.

 

[rb2112]

These speakers look quite nice, but Bose does not have the "specs" in their webpage. Edifier M60 Multimedia speakers seem to be another good choice, too. Regardless of whichever I buy, it has to be connected to either the Mac or the monitor with an audio cord. More than likely I will connect a powered speaker set to the monitor's headphone/speakers jack following what is recommended by BenQ relating to connecting speakers to BenQ monitors.

Well, they are not monitors so frequency diagrams are not posted, but I also don't like with the *manufacturer* omits certain info. More "specs" here:

Bose Companion 2 Series III review

The Bose Companion 2 Series III is a decade old, but its sound and simplicity can still hang with the best desktop speakers around.

www.soundguys.com

btw I use a similar BenQ monitor, the PD3200U. Like you if I am doing serious listening, it's from somewhere else in the house, but these are plenty for a PC desk. Good luck shopping!

 

[BrianBaughn]

What's your budget? I was going to recommend the new version of the Kali LP-6 which, to me (I do music production), are a LOT more accurate than the Yamaha and KRK nearfield monitors I owned previously.

However, it seems the Kali went from $150 each to $250 each at some point.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Well, they are not monitors so frequency diagrams are not posted, but I also don't like with the *manufacturer* omits certain info. More "specs" here:

Bose Companion 2 Series III review

The Bose Companion 2 Series III is a decade old, but its sound and simplicity can still hang with the best desktop speakers around.

www.soundguys.com

btw I use a similar BenQ monitor, the PD3200U. Like you if I am doing serious listening, it's from somewhere else in the house, but these are plenty for a PC desk. Good luck shopping!

Thank you for the link. I am considering all the speakers all of you in this thread have recommended before buying the set I think will be Ok for my needs. About the BenQ monitor I purchased, I am very pleased with it, not only because of the amazing color accuracy, but the powered hub it incorporates, software available for it, and so on.

What's your budget? I was going to recommend the new version of the Kali LP-6 which, to me (I do music production), are a LOT more accurate than the Yamaha and KRK nearfield monitors I owned previously.

However, it seems the Kali went from $150 each to $250 each at some point.

Thanks! I will look into it.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

This is just an update relating to all the questions I asked in this thread: I would like to thank all of you who participated in the discussion, made suggestions, and so on. Your help has been greatly appreciated by me.

I could have purchased an expensive set of active speakers, or even a soundbar, but after reading several reviews, I decided to purchase a set to JBL 104-BT speakers, and so far I am very pleased with their craftsmanship and sound's quality. Bluetooth works well with these speakers, but instead of a wireless connection like this I purchased a 3.5mm (?) auxiliary cable and connected the main speaker to the sound-out port (headphone port) of the BenQ computer monitor. This port is located at the bottom of the monitor.

Since the BenQ monitor can be lowered to approximately 4-5 inches from the desktop, I also purchased a couple of angled 90-degree cable terminals to install one at each end of the cable. I can still use the cable without the angled terminals, however. But what I should have tone from the beginning was to purchase one of the auxiliary cables that already has at least one angled terminals to connect this end of the cable to the AUX IN jack at the front of the speaker (yes, I already ordered it from Amazon) 😁

If any of you is thinking about a set of speakers and connect them to the headset of your computer or monitor, the AUX IN port on numerous speakers like these above is located at the front of the main or powered speaker, and while you can use the usual auxiliary stereo cable, one that has angled terminals does not protrude very much from the speaker, nor from the bottom of the computer monitor. If your computer monitor headphones jack is in the back, then a straight cable works well.

 

[rb2112]

I decided to purchase a set to JBL 104-BT speakers, and so far I am very pleased with their craftsmanship and sound's quality. Bluetooth works well with these speakers, but instead of a wireless connection like this I purchased a 3.5mm (?) auxiliary cable and connected the main speaker to the sound-out port (headphone port) of the BenQ computer monitor. This port is located at the bottom of the monitor.

Thank you for all the details on this speaker, they seem very capable. Great variety of inputs, as well!

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Thank you for all the details on this speaker, they seem very capable. Great variety of inputs, as well!

Yes, these JBL speakers are quite good, and not very expensive. They default to a stand-by mode when not being used, just like the BenQ monitor they are connected to, unless one turns them off. Also default to the stand-by mode when I put the screen to "sleep." The sort of oval shape isn't my favorite, although this shape probably offers more room for the internal speakers/tweeters, but I can live with that since the sound is quite clear.

 

[rb2112]

The sort of oval shape isn't my favorite, although this shape probably offers more room for the internal speakers/tweeters, but I can live with that since the sound is quite clear.

They did look a bit rotund compared to the Bose. Like you said, good trade-off for the clear sound!

Thanks for pointing out the power off characteristics....I'll have to see what my Bose do (if anything).

 

[genexx]

I can recommend the JBL Flip 6 as a speaker for your PC monitor. It’s small and portable, uses very little power, and it can stay permanently charged via USB-C. The audio connection is via Bluetooth. You can also pair it with your phone. It sounds excellent for web meetings, for watching TV shows on the PC, and it’s surprisingly good for music as well. I’ve been very happy with it for a long time, and in my opinion it’s the most balanced-sounding model in the JBL series. I’m using it with a Mac mini M4, and before that with a MacBook Air M2.

If you’re looking for real studio monitors, I’d go for the Adam TV7. They have ribbon tweeters and an auto-standby/auto-off function as well.