Our pick
Q Acoustics 3020i
The 3020i speakers deliver great detail and a spacious sound, and their design and build quality are better than what you get from most speakers in their price range.
The Q Acoustics 3020i speakers sound and look fantastic, and they play music of all genres with great detail and clarity. In vocal reproduction, this pair ranked among the most natural-sounding of all the speakers we tested, and each 3020i speaker produces a solid amount of bass for its size—though fans of bass-heavy music may want more. The 3020i is also beautifully designed, with high-quality speaker-cable binding posts, nicely rounded corners that resist chipping, a magnetically attached grille, and four finish options.
Budget pick
Dayton Audio B652
The B652 set isn’t handsome, but it’s surprisingly good for the price, making it perfect for workrooms, kids rooms, and other places where expensive speakers don’t make sense.
In the decade since its introduction, the Dayton Audio B652 has become synonymous with “good super-cheap speaker.” Despite its cost-slashed construction and parts, the B652 set manages to sound better than most under-$100-per-pair speakers, with surprisingly clear sonics on male voices (though female singers can sound a bit harsh). Pair this set with an inexpensive amplifier, and it will give you better sound than most top-of-the-line wireless speakers produce, for a much lower price.
Upgrade pick
Triangle Borea BR03
The Borea BR03 is one of the best bookshelf speaker sets we’ve heard, with extraordinary clarity and spaciousness plus plenty of bass.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $319.
The Triangle Borea BR03 pair is a great buy for serious music lovers who want the enveloping, captivating sound of real audiophile-grade speakers but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars or sacrifice a lot of floor space on tower speakers. The looks are refined (four finish options are available), and the engineering is outstanding. The Borea BR03 largely eliminates the unnatural sonic colorations—such as boomy, thin, or harsh sound—that come from almost all less-expensive speakers, and it produces a fuller, more satisfying sound than most bookshelf speakers do.
Our pick
Edifier S1000MKII
The S1000MKII powered-speaker pair delivers best-in-class sound, looks nice, and comes with useful features such as built-in Bluetooth, bass and treble controls, and a remote.
The Edifier S1000MKII is the best affordable powered speaker system we’ve heard—as was its predecessor, the S1000DB, the former top pick in our now-retired guide to the best wireless powered bookshelf speakers. Among all the powered speakers we tested, the S1000MKII pair produced the most enveloping sound; its vocal reproduction was realistic, too, and its bass was impressively full. It also looks nicer than most powered speakers do, although its styling is decidedly old-school. It includes bass and treble controls for you to fine-tune the sound to your liking, as well as a remote, a variety of input options, and built-in Bluetooth.
Also great
Klipsch R-51PM
These versatile, good-sounding speakers offer the widest variety of connection options, including a phono input for a record player.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $330.
The Klipsch R-51PM set is a great choice for vinyl-record enthusiasts because it includes a phono input, so you can easily connect most record players without having to buy a separate phono preamp. (What’s a phono preamp? Learn more about it in our blog post.) The addition of USB and optical digital audio inputs, a subwoofer output to connect a powered subwoofer, and a nice remote control give the system excellent versatility. The R-51PM’s audio performance isn’t quite as good as that of the Edifier S1000MKII, but the 5.25-inch woofer in this speaker does allow the system to produce a reasonable amount of bass.
