[Ides]

I want a smallish single speaker for my home office computer that can sit on my desk underneath my displays and basically just sound a whole lot better than my tinny monitor internal speakers. Audio for my computer generally means frequent videos, daily videoconferencing, and occasional not-very-critical music listening. A number of the more popular portable bluetooth speakers fit the bill in terms of looks/size. Do they fit the use-case? The Fugoo Style-S appeals to me because it fits in fine appearance-wise in a home office, has a 3.5mm audio in, and does not have 360° sound (just me sitting at a computer desk). I know there are a lot of features that are completely unnecessary for this use-case like bluetooth, water-resistance and battery, but is there anything it will fail to do well for my needs?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I want a smallish single speaker for my home office computer that can sit on my desk underneath my displays and basically just sound a whole lot better than my tinny monitor internal speakers. Audio for my computer generally means frequent videos, daily videoconferencing, and occasional not-very-critical music listening. A number of the more popular portable bluetooth speakers fit the bill in terms of looks/size. Do they fit the use-case? The Fugoo Style-S appeals to me because it fits in fine appearance-wise in a home office, has a 3.5mm audio in, and does not have 360° sound (just me sitting at a computer desk). I know there are a lot of features that are completely unnecessary for this use-case like bluetooth, water-resistance and battery, but is there anything it will fail to do well for my needs?

You might not necessarily need omnidirectional 360deg sound but you might appreciate stereo sound more even for not so critical music listening and some videos. At the same time if you don't need BT or portable use (ie a battery that will eventually wear out), then you might as well get some relatively inexpensive but greeat for the money mini desktop stereo speakers.

I use the SonicGear Quatro 2 in my home office desk with a laptop. I got them for around $10 in a local store (I think they're on Gearbest and Amazon also). USB powered but no built in DAC, so you still have to hook up the 3.5mm audio cable. They're angled upward towards your head a fair bit more (which is why I got them over this other pair that had larger cabinets but the FR drivers aren't any larger). They're positioned roughly six inches away to each side of my laptop and about 3in behind, and the shelf sort of acts like a bass trap to boost it a bit. You'll have to angle them with a fair bit of toe in though - on-axis or with a lot of toe-out from on-axis and they're too bright.

 

[Ides]

Thanks for the reply. I've already got a pretty awesome 2.1 audio system in my home office, and my computer is wired into it, but I feed that stereo music mainly from a separate media player (a squeezebox 3) and turntable. There are lots of times when I am playing music from my SB3 but also need to hear my computer, and other times when I simply don't need my stereo on, so what I want is a much better dedicated computer speaker that looks smart/discreet and doesn't take up much room on my desk.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Thanks for the reply. I've already got a pretty awesome 2.1 audio system in my home office, and my computer is wired into it, but I feed that stereo music mainly from a separate media player (a squeezebox 3) and turntable. There are lots of times when I am playing music from my SB3 but also need to hear my computer, and other times when I simply don't need my stereo on, so what I want is a much better dedicated computer speaker that looks smart/discreet and doesn't take up much room on my desk.

Given all those inputs there are a few from HiVi that have SPDIF optical input (for the Squeezebox) and USB (for the computer), however they're not going to be small enough to fit under your monitor, or not take up much space on either side.

 

[Ides]

I do not need this to be anything other than a computer speaker, so one input is plenty. All I want is a single smallish, good looking amplified speaker that I can send my computer's audio into when not using my full fledged stereo system.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I do not need this to be anything other than a computer speaker, so one input is plenty. All I want is a single smallish, good looking amplified speaker that I can send my computer's audio into when not using my full fledged stereo system.

If the computer is the only thing hooked up to it then yeah something as tiny as the Quatro 2 might work for you.

 

[Ides]

As I said above, I was looking for a single speaker solution, not a pair of stereo speakers.

Also, just ordered a JBL Charge 3. A little bigger than I originally intended, but fits fine underneath my displays (on arms) and will probably go with me other places from time to time so nice to have those features.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

As I said above, I was looking for a single speaker solution, not a pair of stereo speakers.

And like I said above, I'm just handing out a suggestion for something that will have actual stereo output for listening to stereo audio, and costs less than the single speaker, much less one with BT and has batteries that will wear out at some point.

If you really want a single speaker then might as well try the Fugoo. There's really not a lot of variance between decent single speaker housing products until you start spending a lot more (which even then is a lot of money for something that can't image left and right far enough apart).

If anything maybe try something at a lower price point since part of what goes into the Fugoo Style S' price is the waterproofing, although if you want to lug it around then nothing beats the Fugoo's accessories.

Or maybe something older like the Cambridge Oontz (on sale on Amazon now) which has angled driver mounting, so they'll at least be aimed a little bit more towards your head just like (and probably a little bit more than) the Style S. It's also waterproof. And I got to listen to it vs a Bose Soundlink - the latter seems to have cleaner and slightly louder bass with smoother top end, but even at the MSRP of the Oontz I'd take the Cambridge over the Bose - even at that price the Bose isn't 2.5x better than the Cambridge.