Cambridge Audio might not be the first brand that comes to mind for desktop speakers, not least when the space has been dominated in the past by the likes of KEF, Ruark and FiiO in recent years.

However, the brand's L/R S were shown off to me at an event in December at its London HQ, and I've been itching to get my hands on them since. After months of waiting, I've finally been able to get my hands on them to judge how they sound and how easy they are to live with as a set of $549/£399 desktop speakers.

I'm a particularly big fan of the way that the L/R S looks, with a stylish and minimalistic finish to it. My sample came in a modern white colourway, although it's possible to get them in black, dark green, dark blue, bright orange, or, for an extra fee, a walnut veneer. My pick based on the models I've seen would be the white or orange, I must admit.

These are on the larger side for desktop speakers, I'd wager, being taller and deeper than competing options from Ruark and FiiO, although they aren't so big that I found them unwieldy on my desk or sideboard. I like the 'floating stand' these speakers come on too, as the chassis tapers off towards the base to give the illusion they're floating—neat.

The front of the L/R S confidently boasts the two drivers, with no option for grilles, be it magnetic or from the factory. Personally, I've always been a big fan of the exposed driver look for added style and intrigue, although I can see why you might prefer a grille.

As is typical with a lot of other active speakers, Cambridge has opted for the 'slave and master' combo, with one speaker handling all of the ports and smarts, with the other connected to it by a pleasant, locking braided cable.

On the one with all the ports and such, you get a pleasant array of inputs with standard RCA line-in, an optical out and a USB-C. The optical out and USB-C inputs support resolutions of up to 24-bit/96 KHz PCM, which is why my SACD rip of Genesis' Abacab wouldn't play… There's even room for a subwoofer via a dedicated port for when you need more thump. You also get two toggle switches so you can 'tell' the speaker where it is, be it near or further away from a wall, or whether it's on a desk or not.

Wireless connectivity is limited to aptX HD Bluetooth, which is switchable with the dedicated 'source' button on the rear, and pairing to my Honor Magic V3 worked decently well. You don't get any streaming smarts, unlike some slightly dearer active speakers, if you wanted some Wifi powers for Tidal, Spotify or otherwise—for that, you'll need to look further up the range.

That's not to say the L/R S isn't happy to take inputs from a streamer for added flexibility. If you chuck a WiiM Mini or a FiiO SR11 with these, you've got a very competent desktop hifi system with streaming smarts and minimal fuss for under £500/$750. For my testing, I not only used these speakers with my main Windows gaming PC and a MacBook over optical and USB-C, respectively, but also with my WiiM Ultra desktop streamer for a more 'typical' use case.

As these cans are bereft of a companion app or similar means of phone-based control, Cambridge provides a small Bluetooth remote to use with these speakers. It provides an easier way of choosing inputs than dealing with the guesswork of using the input switch on the speakers' rear and the associated LED under the right-hand unit.

There are also some basic EQ presets for voice and movie use, with the former upping the prominence of the mid-range and the movie mode bringing a little more bass, not that I found the L/R S needed much more bass.

And now the important bit—how these speakers sound. Well, if the headline is the fact that I was very sad to have to box these up and send them back to Cambridge, that should tell you enough.

For a set of desktop speakers, I was pleasantly surprised by the strength and power of the L/R S's sound signature. These certainly sound bigger than the more modest size of their cabinets, and had no trouble at more reasonable volume levels, filling either my dining room on the sideboard or in my office on my desk. There's 100 W of Class D amplification to play, with each driver getting 25 W—we've got a 21 mm hard-dome tweeter behind a waveguide and phase cap above a 76 mm mid/bass driver in each speaker.

A lot of that is due to the power of these speakers' low end, as they've got some tight bass with lovely extension. Granted, the L/R S isn't designed as the last word in reference speakers, but more as a fun and engaging listen, which they certainly are.

For instance, spinning up Rush's Digital Man demonstrated the presence and depth of Geddy Lee's bass and the gritty guitar riff from Alex Lifeson. The same was true in using an SACD rip of Big Time from Peter Gabriel, which perfectly demonstrated the power and punch of these units, although I found the lower frequencies could encroach a little in the song's busier elements.

The prominent low-end helps the L/R S's gaming chops. It helps provide an immersive touch for explosions and heavy gunfire when I use them in Counter-Strike 2, while they help to prove Los Santos can be a real hellscape of PvP battles when I boot up GTA Online.

I was also impressed with the directionality and precision afforded by these Cambridge speakers for use in music and games. Loading up the new 2026 remix of Marillion's Go!, I got a lovely sense of width and expanse for the track's elements, such as everything from Steve Rothery's guitar riff and solo to the quieter acoustic in the background, and the rounded texture of Pete Trewavas's bassline. The L/R S can also extract a lovely amount of detail.

Likewise, a live cut of George Benson's Affirmation provided further evidence of that lovely sense of space and a wide, precise soundstage. This went for elements such as clapping hands from the audience as the song's intro began, plus the percussion that was further back in the mix against the melodic guitar lines.

A really tricky test for any audio kit that I like to use is a track from seventies jazz fusion band Brand X called Dance of the Illegal Aliens. A good set of speakers or headphones will be precise in its organisation and provide enough room for the track's individual elements, be it the persistent drum hits, percussion or the pounding bassline. Listen to it on a less precise system, and it can turn into a muddy mess. On the L/R S, that certainly wasn't the case, with it acting as a real demonstration of these speakers' width and precision.

Likewise, the more immersive note to the L/R's sound quality helps Forza Horizon 5 with precision of where other cars may be when I'm sat in cockpit view, and I want a little more awareness of where the next punt into the wall from another player may be coming from.

I could go on about the L/R S all day, admittedly, but it'd just be more of the same of me waxing lyrical about them. These are a big brute of a desktop speaker that makes for a real entertaining listen with deep bass, crisp mids and a smooth treble that makes for an ideal companion for games and music alike. Connectivity is good, and they've got some real style, too.

Granted, they are bigger than the likes of the Ruark MR1 MK3s and FiiO SP3 BT, and slightly more expensive, but I have no hesitation in recommending these for an entertaining and stylish set of desktop speakers that I have been very sad to have to send back. I might just have to go out and spend some real money on them.

There's a good chance that, if you're a certain age, you hold a soft spot in your heart for slightly yellow-tinged retro speakers. Well, that soft spot may melt when you see them towering over you, blasting Creed and Blink-182. Or at least that's the vision put forward by artist Gwak, who built a huge version of the speaker that was likely hooked up to your family PC.

As shown off on their TikTok and YouTube channels, the life-sized speaker comes with purposely off-white sides, a working volume knob, and even a Goodwill sticker that is slightly peeled off. We just need a second one and a 100-inch CRT to finish the look.

What's being emulated is one half of a set of Harman Kardon HK 19.5 2.0 speakers. The base of the speaker is made of wood, with a large set of working speakers inserted in the middle. Then the outer walls are coated in paint, and a fabric sits over the top of the front, completing the look. Not only does the right knob work to turn on the speaker and crank the volume, but it also comes with a very familiar click when doing so.

Though we aren't given the official measurements, Gwak does show off an original set of Harman Kardon speakers next to the prototype in an earlier video. It appears to be roughly one-tenth or eleventh of the size. Given the Harman Kardon set sits at 6.7 inches tall, that would put my estimation at around 67-73 inches (or 5.6 to 6 feet).

In a TikTok video of the prototype Gwak posted last month, they said, "I’m making the world's dumbest—I mean largest—computer speaker". They continue, "Now, is this a really stupid project? Yes."

Gwak's speaker seems to have taken a few weeks to build, and Gwak has demonstrated cellphone interference when they get closer, but this interference is missing from later videos. It's unclear as of right now if that interference was turned off in some form, removed, or edited in. Surely that's crucial for recreating the 1990's and 2000's vibe.

If you want to check out and listen to the speaker yourself, it will be showing at ABV Gallery's nostalgic show on the 21st of February in Atlanta, Georgia. One can only hope they will be taking song requests.

Modern life can be pretty stressful at times, and it's not helped by the fact that there is so much noise around us, all the time. From packed office spaces, roads clogged with vehicles, and public areas overflowing with people, finding silence to think and refresh isn't easy. Researchers in Japan believe they have cracked the problem, though, by developing a GPU-powered active noise cancellation system that's powerful enough to calm an entire room.

That's according to NTT Laboratories, as reported by PC Watch. It claims to have developed the "world's first spatial active noise control (spatial ANC) technology." Active noise cancellation (ANC) certainly isn't new, and many readers will probably own a gaming headset that sports the feature.

What makes NTT's tech different is a combination of the speed of the sound processing and how it can be applied. Headphones with ANC use microphones to pick up nearby sounds, which are then sent to a small signal processor. This calculates the appropriate 'anti-phase' sounds to generate, which are then emitted via the speakers.

The original noise and new sounds overlap and partly cancel each other out, greatly reducing the impact of the noise. What limits the effectiveness of the system is that most ANC mechanisms are relatively slow, due to the capabilities of the processor.

NTT's researchers implemented the use of a GPGPU (general-purpose GPU) to speed things up, and by no small degree. Instead of taking a millisecond or so to work through everything, this new tech can apparently do it in roughly two microseconds. That's so quick, it allows the ANC system to target sound reflections or highly variable noises.

That makes it ideal for dealing with noises within a room or a vehicle, where walls and other surfaces generate lots of complex reflections. "It can help reduce vehicle cabin and aircraft noise, urban traffic noise, and create quiet environments in conference rooms and hotels, thereby improving quality of life and reducing the impact of noise on hearing," says NTT.

Of course, like all forms of ANC, this new tech won't be able to turn a busy cafe space into a hub of calming silence, but anything that takes the edge off the sheer cacophony that is modern life has got to be a good thing. NTT reckons its tech will be commercially implemented within a year, so if you find yourself waiting for a flight and wonder why it's a bit more peaceful than normal, you'll know exactly why.

Best gaming headset 2025

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BEST OVERALL

1. HyperX Cloud Alpha

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BEST BUDGET

2. Corsair HS55 Stereo

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BEST WIRELESS

3. HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless

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BEST MID-RANGE WIRELESS

4. Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3

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BEST AUDIOPHILE

5. Beyerdynamic MMX 330 Pro

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BEST WIRELESS AUDIOPHILE

6. Audeze Maxwell

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BEST FOR STREAMING

7. Audio-Technica ATH-M50xSTS StreamSet

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BEST NOISE-CANCELLING

8. AceZone A-Spire

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BEST EARBUDS

9. Steelseries Arctis GameBuds

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We have reviewed quite a few gaming speakers over the last few months, so our best gaming speakers guide needed a little clearout as we're approaching the holidays. Once I was done, I was shocked to see Creative hog up half of the spots we've designated for different price points and use cases. It turns out that, despite competition from Blueant, Razer, OXS, and Majority, Creative is on a bit of a hot streak of late.

Starting from the top, the Creative Pebble Pro is now our choice for the best budget PC speakers. For $70, this is a super capable set of speakers that have solid sound reproduction and come in a tiny little shell.

If you have limited space, the Pro is a great choice, though the bass is a little lacking, and the Bluetooth is a pretty basic as it only supports the SBC codec. No lossless for you (at least wirelessly).

If you aren't in the market for a budget set of speakers, the Creative Stage Pro has been named the best gaming soundbar, and for good reason. This soundbar plus subwoofer package absolutely thumps, with sound that might just wake your neighbors if you aren't careful.

It's not just loud, though; it sounds great, has excellent connectivity and still comes in at a reasonable price point despite all it offers. It is, however, not a particularly sleek setup, given it pairs a 16-inch soundbar and a 3.4 kg subwoofer. You will need a little space to put it all down.

Finally, we have also added the Creative Sound Blaster GS3 as the best budget soundbar. Coming in at $65, it's pretty neat to think you can get a fully fledged soundbar to shove under your TV for less than the cost of a full-priced game. There are ways that price shows, though.

This soundbar doesn't offer super high-quality sound and features. It's, instead, a strong all-rounder that could make for a solid upgrade from your monitor or laptop's built-in speakers. Like the Pebble Pro, the SBC Bluetooth codec is a little bit basic, but it also works with a 3.5 mm jack or USB Type-C and offers a decently deep and varied sound

Despite Creative's recent hot streak, it has not managed to knock Mackie off the best overall speaker throne because its CR3.5BT and CR8SBT combo is absolutely killer, with an excellent sound and neat design.

You can check out our full picks for the best PC speakers below.

The quick list

The best gaming speakers

I kinda like 'ugly' hardware. The first time I saw the Edifier G2000 Pro, that was exactly what I thought. It's an angular set of speakers, with see through panels on the side to blast RGB light into your eyeballs. It feels very 2000s to me, in a way I haven't experienced with any of the speakers I've tested over the last few years.

With a depth of connectivity options and that look, it already stood out, but $200 is a decent chunk of cash to spend, and we buy tech for more than just the look. And the answer to 'does it sound good?' ends up far more nuanced than I thought it would after my testing.

The G2000 Pro's pretty iconic look is both a big positive and a negative. It's true that among your audiophile friends (assuming you have some), this will be one of the most 'out there' set of speakers. They have a radical angular design, plus a ring in the centre of the see-through plastic that is covered in RGB-lit lines.

Powering the G2000 Pro on feels like an event in itself, bathing bright colourful lights into the room. It is truly striking. However, it can also be kind of annoying, as that colour is very bright and pulsing. Holding down the G button on the right-hand side turns off that RGB lighting, but it still blasts you every time you swap connectivity or turn it on.

And the setup process for the G2000 Pro is easy and straightforward. On the back of the right speaker sits a port to get power, plus a USB Type-C port, aux in, headphones, and a wire to the left speaker.

The wire between the two speakers cannot be unattached, but it is just shy of 1.4 metres, so you shouldn't have problems getting the G2000 Pro working on even long tables.

This wealth of ports means the G2000 Pro has pretty phenomenal connectivity. It has two physical connectivity modes plus Bluetooth. The USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable even comes with a Type-C adapter in the box, which is a neat touch.

The speakers disconnected over Type-C a few times in testing. Though this wasn't reproducible and stopped after a little while.

Ultimately, great connectivity and a striking look mean little if the sound isn't up to par, and sound through these speakers is rather strange. At loud volumes, the bass absolutely thumps, and the rest of the mix has clarity and depth to balance it. However, this is all let down by mediocre performance at low to middle volume, plus a muddying in dynamic sounds.

The pulsing chorus of Elysium comes through well in Disco Elysium, and the sparse trumpet is as evocative as you might think. In these solemn, poignant moments, the speakers have a clarity and depth that works well.

The blindingly fast and varied dynamics of Japanese math rock band Jyocho fare worse in my time with the speakers. When there's a cluttered soundstage, things come through more muddled than I would like. That cluttered sound persisted over all connectivity modes.

This muddiness isn't just true of music. Playing on timeloop FMV horror game Dead Reset, nothing feels unclear, but in the most rushed moments, things do blur a little. In the right context, this can add to the hectic scene of horror, but I doubt it's intentional.

In slower, more methodical games, even ones that have textured, cloying sounds like horror visual novel Higurashi: When They Cry, the bass comes through lovely, and drones feel especially evocative. The cacophony of cicadas screams bursts through the little town of Hinamizawa.

The snowstorm at the start of Borderlands 2 really does shake, as the wind howls and Claptrap's voice echoes through your skull. Once the firefights start, though, problems persist at low volumes. If you only crank your speakers up to the max, you may notice this problem less, but I spend most of my time with my speakers firmly at medium or low volume, and $250 is a decent chunk of cash to spend on a set of speakers with such a drawback.

This isn't helped by the fact that the software for the G2000 Pro is pretty dreadful. You can turn off lighting, but the EQ adjustment settings are entirely greyed out. I honestly find the idea of having EQ settings and greying them out worse than just not having them—like a glass case right in front of my eyes holding the potential for balanced audio just out of reach.

The heartbeat RGB mode (assuming it's not making assumptions about my health) flashes arbitrarily and aggressively, and is seemingly only available in the software. You also can't adjust the intensity of the RGB lighting either, so you pick a mode that pulses, keep it blasting, or turn it off entirely. I'm hoping this gets better with time, but that's not always a given with software, unfortunately.

Though the G2000 Pro is easy to set up, the instruction manual isn't great. It's loaded with text and poorly explained. For instance, under sound effect, it tells you that you can swap between gaming mode, music mode, and movie mode by hitting the G button on top of the right speaker, but there's no sign of what exactly that's doing to the EQ.

And, ultimately, our choice for the best mid-range speakers, the Logitech Z407, is half the price of the G2000 Pro, and comes with solid sound and some of its own unique quirks. The bass isn't as large, but, day to day, I'd prefer the cheaper set (plus that extra cash in my pocket wouldn't go amiss).

There are moments using the G2000 Pro where I really get what it is trying to sell. Cranked up high, with the blaring of trumpets or gushing of blood in a particularly violent shooter, the bass rumbles the desk, and they're loud enough to lightly annoy my neighbours. However, it's those quieter moments where the G2000 Pro fails to shine as bright as its translucent body.

Those little speakers built into your monitor have a problem: they're just too small. The laws of physics have a tight grip on audio reproduction, and the sad fact is that large, expensive speakers will always be better than smaller ones, as well as looking cooler and making you more attractive to the kind of people you want to be found attractive by. These are facts.

Another fact is that, luckily, it's quite easy to upgrade from monitor speakers, which are only getting smaller and therefore worse as displays (and indeed laptops, which suffer from the same audio blight) get thinner to actual PC speakers. This soundbar from Creative, the Sound Blaster GS3, isn't exactly huge either, and doesn't cost a lot of money. It's an entry-level audio solution for desktop PC gaming, and while it's always going to be better than using the speakers built into your screen—or indeed having no speakers at all—let me be clear, you shouldn't expect miracles.

That said, there's a lot to like here. It's a stubby little bar perfectly sized to sit on the flat part of your monitor stand's foot, with two little rubber feet to stop it sliding around. Connectivity comes via USB-C, which also powers the bar, and a 3.5 mm aux socket. There's Bluetooth as well, though as it only supports the SBC codec—that's the default, lossy, fallback codec that other speakers use when one of the more complex alternatives such as AptX isn't available.

This means that while technically this is a wireless speaker, and you can power it from a battery pack if you really need to make it portable, you're much better off connecting it via one of the wired options and just leaving it on your desk.

All you have to do is plug the included USB cable into a spare port on your PC, and it will be picked up as an audio device. There's a large multipurpose dial on the right-hand end which can be clicked in to turn the unit on and off and feels great to use. In a horseshoe around it are three buttons that do not feel great to use, but are necessary to switch inputs and put the bar into Bluetooth pairing mode, as well as cycling through its lighting modes.

The third is marked SUPER WIDE, but instead of physically extending the bar so that it takes up more space on your desk and increasing stereo separation it instead attempts to bring extra width to the soundstage with results that don't seem to make a lot of difference (it's definitely not activating extra speakers in the ends of the bar) and make you wonder why it would be necessary to ever turn this mode off.

The buttons' position means you'll need to pick the bar up to tell which one you're pressing unless you take the time to memorise their positions, and as they're at the same end as the cable connection you'll probably pull the 1.5m wire out from behind your desk too, necessitating a few minutes putting it all back once you're finished. There's an RGB lighting strip under the front of the bar that will spread a rainbow or a moving, colour-changing light across your desktop. If you're sensible you'll turn it off, it's pointless and adds nothing to the experience.

The important thing about a soundbar isn't the way it looks but the way it sounds, and for a speaker that costs so little the GS3 is surprisingly good. It doesn't come with an external subwoofer like that on the Creative Stage 2.1 system (which costs almost twice as much) but it does have a bass duct that exits at the back of the casing and brings a little more presence to low-frequency sounds.

Unload a few rounds from a super shotgun and you'll certainly hear its boom, but it can get lost in the whirling cloud of guitars and demonic screams going on while you do it. The GS3 has a wider frequency response than Creative's Pebble Pro speakers, with an extended low end, and this is noticeable if you place them side-by-side.

Higher up the frequency range the pair of front-facing racetrack speakers prove to be a good choice for the slim bar. They're not particularly far apart, so the sound from your game or movie is always being fired directly at you, even with SUPER WIDE mode on, but there's a decent amount of volume and clarity on offer and voices in particular cut through. This seems to be something of a Creative speciality, making the GS3 ideal for games and streaming but less ideal for music—if it's a room-filling sound you're after, look out for a fully wireless Bluetooth speaker you can place somewhere other than under your monitor.

As a step up over the dinky little speakers in your monitor, or those crammed alongside a laptop keyboard, the Creative Sound Blaster GS3 works well. It's never going to hit the heights of the best PC speakers, but you're paying so little for it that barely matters. What this offers is an improvement over the bare minimum, and in that context it does its job admirably.

Anyone old enough to remember when PCs would try to use their buzzer speaker—the one meant to give audio feedback on motherboard errors—for in-game audio will know the value of a basic pair of desktop computer speakers. Even though we no longer need to plug soundcards into our gaming machines, the ability to output music that doesn't sound like a horde of angry wasps learning to play the kazoo in a sex toy factory is important in a world where games have actual composers working on them rather than expressing themselves through a series of bleeps the programmer made up. No disrespect to Jeff Minter there.

Even having a basic pair of desktop speakers can elevate your gaming over hooking up to some earbuds via Bluetooth (or, heaven forbid, using the speakers built into your monitor). And the Creative Pebble Pro is most certainly a basic set of desktop speakers.

You can get cheaper ones, sure, and you can definitely get more expensive ones. You can get ones with more bass and more inputs, but these cheap speakers from computer audio specialist Creative have got you covered for most game music and sound effects, and look pretty alongside your monitor too.

If you were ever lucky enough to use one of Apple's short-lived G4 Cube computers (or the iMac with the angle poise neck), you'll have seen spherical speakers like this before. While the Cube's were transparent, these come in dark green, white, or black, and have lights in them.

It's actually a pretty nifty piece of design, as the 2.25-inch drivers are angled up in the certain knowledge that your ears aren't down on the desktop itself, and there's a captive cable well over five foot long to connect the pair, so you can put them either side of your screen even if you're using one of those monstrous 49-inch ultrawides.

So, while you can connect these speakers to your PC using Bluetooth, you're better off not doing that, as they only support the SBC codec. That's the default setting, the fallback position, and there are many better codecs out there, such as AAC or AptX. Bluetooth connectivity works, but for the best sound from the Creative Pebble Pro speakers you're going to want to use a wire.

For this, you have a choice. There's a USB-C input, and a 3.5 mm aux port (you get cables for both of these) at the back of the right-hand speaker, and 3.5 mm sockets for headphones and a mic on the side. You'll want to use the USB input, as it also provides power to the speakers, though a quirk of its design means that, if you do this, you're limited to 20W of sound power. Use the other USB-C port to connect a power supply of 30W or greater, and you'll unlock the Pebble Pros' more powerful 30W mode. This adapter isn't included in the box, so you'll need to repurpose an old tablet charger or other USB PD block.

You can cycle through the inputs using the button on the front of the right speaker marked, confusingly, ‘Bluetooth', and there's also a volume control knob and a button to dim the lighting too.

The lights are all around the base of the speakers, and spills out around the sides like a coffee stain. It's not really clear what the intention is behind light-up speakers—I'd rather Creative had left the lighting out and put in more Bluetooth codecs.

Do you need to know where they are? If so, a light on the volume control might be of more practical use. It doesn't help you find the inputs on the back if you want to plug a new one in, but it does look quite nice when you've got them either side of a laptop and the room lights turned down. You can't customise the lighting with an app, it's all done using the buttons on the front, but you can have them pulsate or stay on steadily, and change the colour by rotating the volume knob.

As a 2.0 speaker set built into compact frames, we shouldn't be expecting too much in the way of bass from the Pebble Pros (you'll want to look at the Pebble Plus if you like the shape but want a subwoofer), but they do a surprisingly decent job. Gunfire and engine noises get some thickness in the lower frequencies, but if you're using them to listen to music through then there's a lack of detail. Mid-range and treble fare much better, and the speakers are excellent for dialogue—something Creative's audio processing is designed to enhance.

The frequency response runs from 80 - 20,000 Hz, and despite being small they hold up well at higher volumes, though there's some vibration from the casing. They don't really start to distort until you're operating at sound levels more appropriate for a party than PC gaming. The angle of the speakers also comes into its own in situations where you can position them so you sit in the sweet spot, such as at a desk, rather than wandering around the room.

Compared to other speakers they can lose out, however. Creative's own T30 Wireless from over 10 years ago, which have a wider frequency response thanks to bass ports on the top of their casings, outperform the Pebble Pros when it comes to the lower frequencies, but aren't as good for voices.

They also have the same basic Bluetooth functionality as the Pebble Pros, which is something you'd hope Creative would have worked on in the intervening years. Meanwhile, a JBL Bluetooth speaker in about the same price bracket produces a better result for music, its cylindrical shape filling the space more effectively than the more directed audio of the Pebble Pros.

So, if you're looking for something to amplify the beeps and boops Windows 11 makes from time to time, or give your gaming audio a surprisingly loud stereo makeover, then Creative's Pebble Pro speakers could make a good budget choice.

You have to see them in the context of what they're not, however, and they're not some of the best Bluetooth speakers, they're not particularly room-filling, and they're not going to give you the kind of bass that makes you fall off your chair. They're an upgrade over having no speakers, however, and perhaps that's what's most important.

I think gaming PCs look pretty cool. I mean, I would. I write about them for a living, I've filled mine full of all sorts of RGB goodies, and I'm nearly 38 years old—which means I lost a sense of what was actually cool over a decade ago. For me, however, its the function combined with the form that makes them visually intriguing, so I'm not entirely sure Edifier's new desktop PC-like speaker design makes much sense.

It's called the Huazai New Cyber, and it made me do a double take when I saw it in my newsfeed this morning (via TechSpot). What looks to be a slim and sleek SFF chassis housing a CPU cooler, AIO radiator, and some unrecognisable graphics card is actually a desktop Bluetooth speaker. Because... well, I'm still not sure.

Are we now living in an era where the gaming PC aesthetic is somehow aspirational? I suppose that might account for it. After all, a modern gaming desktop can be a very expensive thing, and a quick look at the Battlestations subreddit reveals a huge number of users anxious to show off their pricey, RGB-lit setups to the world.

So, aspirational = luxury, luxury = home decor. It's also a good opportunity to do an Xzibit and put a gaming PC on your gaming PC, I suppose, or at least near it. Look everyone! I've got two gaming rigs. One of them is purely for my Spotify playlist, but still.

I don't know. I feel like a 1950's businessman shaking his head at Elvis' swinging hips. Still, there appears to have been some clever attempts here to make the "components" inside this rig both reminiscent of our beloved desktops, and functional, too.

According to machine translation, what looks like water cooling tubes are actually speaker cables, while the GPU is actually a power supply. It's also got a 2.8-inch colour screen that's reminiscent of some of the displays we've seen mounted onto water blocks over the past few years. For what it's worth I'm not really a fan of those either, but as we've already established, I am tragically unhip.

As for the substantial lower half? Yep, you guessed it, that's for the speaker units themselves. There's a 4-inch subwoofer for bass duties, alongside two 52 mm drivers for the mids and treble. It's probably quite a nice-sounding setup, actually, as Edifier is known for creating a good speaker set or two.

That being said, it reminds me of the ill-advised gifts well-meaning relatives will get children with specific interests for the holiday season. You're into cars are you, little Timmy? Well here's a car-themed bedspread, lampshade, and cutlery set. An actual car? No, of course not. Whaddaya think we are, made of money?

Speaking of money, it's priced at 1,4999 yuan, which is roughly $210, and doesn't appear to be available for purchase in western markets. Yet, at least. Still, it's a darn sight cheaper than even the most budget of rigs on our gaming PC deals page, but, y'know, without any of the functionality.

Whether you want one will be a personal taste thing, I would imagine, but I can't think of a time I looked at a regular set of speakers and wish they looked like something else. Yes, even if they resembled a gaming PC. Just call me an old fuddy duddy, I guess. I'm overdue for my afternoon nap, and the dog has run off with my left slipper. My goodness, is that the time?

Gaming is an expensive hobby. I mean, don't get me started on how much you're expected to shell out for even middling rig upgrades these days, or how full-price game releases are now asking for $70 of your hard-earned cash. In such a landscape, with console prices going up instead of down over time, is it any wonder that PlayStation steward Sony is perhaps looking to diversify its gaming hardware portfolio? Enter some fresh gaming speakers.

Announced during last night's State of Play stream, the Pulse Elevate wireless speakers clearly feature the PS symbol—but the PlayStation blog pitches these sleek bad boys for "desktop gaming" specifically. With PlayStation bringing more of its platform-exclusive games to PC over time, it's maybe not actually that surprising.

The Pulse Elevate wireless speakers are a swish bit of kit available in black or white colourways. These speakers also enjoy planar magnetic drivers, built-in woofers, and support for 3D audio. They've even got a neat-looking, adjustable lean-back orientation when placed in the included charging docks. As such, I've no doubt that when these launch in 2026, Sony will be asking for an equally swish price for them, but no MSRP has yet been officially announced.

Obviously, if you're a two-timing console gamer like me, then you will also be able to use these speakers with your PS5, or PlayStation portal, as well as your desktop. Speaking of the console kingdom, though, the Pulse Elevate speakers also have another feature tucked away here that brings to mind the Switch 2 and its GameChat feature more than the PlayStation 5: a built-in microphone with "AI-enhanced noise rejection".

Basically, rather than donning a bulky headset that may require you to get intimate with your microphone arm, these speakers will transmit your trash talk all on their own.

Alongside the typical Bluetooth connection you'd expect from a wireless bit of kit like this, the Pulse Elevate speakers also feature PlayStation Link wireless connectivity. A PlayStation Link USB-C dongle will be included in the box for this "ultra-low latency and lossless connectivity."

Plus, you can either seamlessly switch between multiple connected devices or "listen simultaneously via a PlayStation Link-connected device for in-game audio and a separate Bluetooth-enabled device for music, voice chat, and more."

Now, you know me—I'm currently enjoying my best cat-eared life with the Razer Kraken Kitty V3 Pro. But before that, I was a recent sound bar convert thanks to the Creative Stage Pro, so I'm definitely already wondering whether the Pulse Elevate speakers will give our best PC speakers a run for their money.

However, I'm also pondering more practical concerns, too. For one thing, I'd love to know what the battery life looks like for these wireless speakers beyond the vague assurance in the announcement trailer that it does amount to "hours." Furthermore, the vertical design of the Pulse Elevate is tasteful for sure, though I doubt I could tuck them neatly under my monitor. What I'm trying to say is, there's perhaps room in my life for two separate desktop speakers—but maybe not room on my tiny desk.

Apparently someone thought it was a good idea to give the Eartha Kitt disco-era defender a soundbar and subwoofer to review. Not only that, they gave it to the person who's never known the delight of having such a snazzy sound setup before. Will she go drunk with power? Will she stop referring to herself in the third-person? Is this what happens when you listen to I Don't Care at full volume one too many times? Well friend, if that's simply not your cup of tea, I'm afraid the playlist is only going to get much, much worse from here.

Once I'd got my grubby little mitts around the Creative Stage Pro sizeable box, and subsequently torn into its cardboard prison with a scavenger's frenzy, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the setup process was. Yes, this is a beefy sound device that requires a lot of wires plus its own power plug, but you're only setting up one soundbar alongside one subwoofer, and it all comes with straightforward, easy to understand instructions in the box.

Also inside the box is a remote, though this runs off of 2x AAA batteries that are very much not included. The soundbar features a few rubberised control buttons too, so it's not the end of the world if picking up batteries isn't top of your to-do list. The heftiest thing coming out of the box is the subwoofer, but that's easily tucked away under even my tiny Micke Ikea desk. The soundbar itself is a fairly chunky thing too, though still sits comfortably enough under my monitor—it even offers a little extra surface area for my smaller Vocaloid figurines to perch.

Visually, it's similar to other soundbars within the Creative Stage range, but features a more rounded design plus some snazzy gold bits at both ends of the device. Beyond that bit of flair, it's a fairly understated black soundbar without even a whisper of RGB lighting. However, the bulky footprint of the Stage Pro might prove something of a spatial conundrum for anyone working with even less desk space than me.

The Creative Stage Pro offers a wealth of connection options, from plugging into the back of your PC via a USB-C to USB-A cable, or being an absolute menace by connecting your phone over Bluetooth. You don't strictly need a 3.5 mm aux cable to inflict your eclectic musical tastes on those around you, but the Creative Stage Pro does offer that option too. Also interesting to note is that the Bluetooth connection is limited to about 10 metres—but the Creative Stage Pro's room-filling sound ensures there's no escape from your playlist.

Testing this soundbar has been a real treat but, for my neighbours' sake, I don't dare listen to it for extended periods above about 15% volume. The Creative Stage Pro can get roof-raisingly loud, though unlike its distant forbear, the Creative Stage 2.1 PC speakers, it is possible to keep a lid on all of that sound.

Unsurprisingly, DOOM: The Dark Ages proves an absolute belter with the soundbar and subwoofer. However, between shotgun blasts and shield bashes I found myself frequently eyeing the volume knob on my keyboard. To enjoy all of the audio's little viscera-squelching details, you really will want to crank the volume slightly higher than perhaps is comfortable should you have roommates or share a somewhat thin wall with your neighbours. If you do happen to live in a cabin in the woods, then I envy the audio experience you'll have with the post-2016 DOOM trilogy.

The fact the Pro manages to retain an impressive amount of audio detail at louder volumes means that the temptation to turn it up even just a smidge is always there. Combined with the bassy kick from the subwoofer on the floor, I'm immensely enjoying rediscovering some old favourites with the Creative Stage Pro.

Speaking of, I unearthed my teenage playlist to really put the Creative Stage Pro through its paces. Diving ear-first into Unlaced and Organ Grinder by Emilie Autumn, I did feel the demanding higher frequencies of these electric violin-focused tracks were well-rendered—though I will no doubt be begging for my neighbours' forgiveness. Being able to adjust the bass and treble separately via remote control is a power I'm glad my teenaged-self never had access to.

Setting aside my 'Ugh, you don't even know what a harpsichord is?' phase, the Creative Stage Pro offers a number of EQ presets, geared towards either movie-watching, music-listening, listening to more voice-led audio such as podcasts, or gaming specifically. These are most easily cycled through via 'MODE' on the remote, but there's also another button just above this dedicated to something called 'SuperWide.' You can swap between 'near' and 'far' field profiles, or turn this off entirely—though I feel a lot of oomph is lost without the SuperWide profiles in play.

At my desk, I tend to stick to the 'near' profile as I found that room-filling enough, but if you're hosting a function and want to make sure your captive audience really appreciates all the nuances of Lemon Demon's Two Trucks, you may instead prefer the 'far' profile. I definitely found this profile compelling, especially as Une vie à t'aimer off the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack becomes an even more sweeping, tortured ballad when given an appropriately expansive sound stage to dominate. As much as I got a kick out of that, the 'far' SuperWide profile was definitely slightly overpowering for sitting at my desk—to say nothing of the noise complaint I'm sure belting out Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club has earned me by now.

Anyway, enough about my eclectic tastes and related music crimes. Allow me to expound a little more on how well this bit of kit lends itself to gaming specifically. The gentle soundscape of Against the Storm becomes its best, 'rainy forest ASMR to fall asleep to'-self over the Creative Stage Pro, but as much as I love this dark fantasy city builder, I know it's hardly putting the sound bar through its paces.

Rather than annoy my neighbours with yet more doomslayer shenanigans, I hopped over to the slightly less aggressive soundscape of Hi-Fi Rush. Staring down an oversized quality control bot, Nine Inch Nails' accompanying soundtrack is flattened at around 10% volume. Thankfully, you don't need to crank it up too much to enjoy this rhythm-combat game's finer details, like the on-the-beat crack of your improvised axe and the jangle of your robotic cat companion's collar.

In-game, the Creative Stage Pro offers immersive, detailed sound without the horse-blinder effect of a traditional gamer headset. So as impressed as I was by the sound quality—not to mention the appealing lilac colourway—of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3X, it may finally be time for me to hang up the headset and live the soundbar life.

Personally, I don't mind feeling the bass through the subwoofer on the floor, but if you want a more localised rumble, you may be interested to read up about the BlueAnt Soundblade with its built-in subwoofer. The Soundblade is currently our top pick for the best wireless gaming soundbar in our best PC speakers guide, owing to its low-profile design and sound quality. While the Creative Stage Pro's various cables mean it's hardly going to steal BluAnt's wireless crown, it does have the sleek wonder beat on price, as it costs about $30/£70 less at $170/£130.

The Stage Pro may well best its predecessor, the Creative Sound Blaster Katana V2 Soundbar, on at least a few fronts too. For a start, the Stage Pro is far cheaper than the Sound Blaster Katana V2's $350 MSRP while still boasting the same great suite of connectivity options and banging sound. The Stage Pro isn't quite as pretty as the Katana V2, but it's also not as long; despite being the bulkier of the two, the Stage Pro measures just shy of 22 inches long compared to the Katana V2's 24 inches. That shorter length coupled with the lighter price tag may well mean the Stage Pro slots into a wider variety of set ups—and it may well squeeze out our current top pick for the best gaming soundbar.

I found myself in need of new speakers for my PC a while back, and on the advice of PC Gamer I went out and picked up a set of Logitech Z407s. And they're good! Except for one minor thing that occasionally makes me want to smash them into small pieces with a hammer.

See, the goddamn things will not stop going to sleep. It's not a defect or a user error, they're purposely designed that way: After not receiving any audio input for a set amount of time—10 minutes, 30 minutes, I don't really know but it's not very long—they go into a power-saving mode, and won't kick back on until the signal starts flowing again.

That sounds like not a big deal, but the issue is that it takes three or four seconds to kick back on after the signal input starts up again, which means short audio cues—incoming email notifications, DM alarms, a "new comment on Steam" popup, that sort of thing—will go unheard, because they're over before the speakers are able to come back to life. Even for longer audio clips, the first few seconds are inevitably cut off because the speakers take those few seconds to fire up after the music starts playing. It's jarring, and irritating.

Some redditors and audio forum users say the Europeans are to blame for this ridiculous state of affairs: That the mandatory standby mode is the result of EU regulations on power management, which makes sense because there's no way the Americans would ever do something like this. They're still out there building Canyoneros for suburban moms and wondering why they won't buy them in Japan.

Anyway, Reddit luckily also has some ideas for how to get around it. The one that eventually worked, after more dicking around than should have been necessary, is a little program called Soundkeeper, which keeps the speakers alive by constantly playing an inaudible audio signal—kind of like a dog whistle, except it's hopefully not bothering my dogs. (They don't seem to mind, anyway.)

My gripe stands despite a solution being at hand for the simple reason that I shouldn't have had to pour so much time and effort into figuring out why my speakers were jerking me around and how to stop it, nor should I need to have something constantly running in the background just to have functional audio cues. Look, I'm all for greening the world, but having my PC audio turned into an endless headache by regulators in Brussels while ultra-rich dickheads ride private jets halfway around the world for brunch just doesn't sit right. If I want my speakers off, I'll turn them off myself!

It's not often I'm thoroughly baffled by a bit of review kit. The Razer Clio is a near-field speaker designed to perch on the headrest of your gaming chair, with the sell being that it will deliver an immersive audio experience without disturbing anyone within earshot of your rig. To be fair to Razer, the Clio does tick most of those promised boxes. But it all comes with some deeply confusing caveats, with the $230 price tag being only the first hurdle.

Allow me to first answer a most pressing question, namely 'how do you attach it then?' Well, I'm afraid to say 'with great difficulty'.

The Razer Clio comes with two adjustable webbing straps on the back that can be clicked together in either parallel or criss-cross formations. As the speaker itself is actually pretty hefty, adjusting the straps to achieve a snug fit that's unlikely to shift around behind your head is fiddly. So much so that this became a two-person job for me, with one patient colleague holding the speaker aloft while I tried to corral the straps.

Even before that point, there's the whole matter of 'chair compatibility.' Razer itself says the Clio's adjustable straps should "fit most high-back gaming and office chairs," though my experience was less straightforward than this would suggest.

So there I was, excited to unbox the Razer Clio for the first time and get to grips with it. Unfortunately, it turns out I cleared my chair-drobe for nothing as my home office chair, the Ikea Markus, has a fairly wide headrest that immediately ruled it out for testing.

Next, I commandeered my partner's Secretlab Titan Evo, only to discover I could get just one of the speaker's fully extended straps to properly click around the headrest. Though a precarious perch, haunted by the thought that at any moment the single strap might go PING and drop the entire weight of the speaker on the base of my neck, this proved a surprisingly comfortable setup for a day of playing Two Point Museum.

Furthermore, my partner was not at all bothered by the on-air silliness of this management game as he played the equally but distinctly ridiculous Death Stranding 2 thanks to the Clio's integrated near-field dual speakers. That said, Two Point Museum hardly has the most abrasive sound design, so we'll put a pin in gaming with it for now.

Back to headrest mounting woes: I had no joy in attempting to attach the Clio to either my AndaSeat X-Air Pro, or even the Razer Fujin Pro we have at PCG towers. To date, the only headrest I've been able to properly attach the Clio to via both straps is the Backforce One Plus. As per the Clio's FAQ, anyone with a Razer Enki Pro, Razer Iskur V2, or a Razer Iskur V2 X will have a much easier time, though I did not have one of these available to test.

Anyway, once you've got the headrest in place, it's a surprisingly comfortable bit of kit. Even when a bit low slung due to improperly adjusted straps, I felt comfortable leaning back into the Clio. An unexpected benefit of the integrated near-field speakers too was the helpful reminder that I should be sitting leaning into the back rest, and not curled up like a prawn over my keyboard.

The speaker itself also feels well made—even the webbing of the straps, the feature I like the least about this speaker, feels robust. Overall, the construction feels sturdy enough that I don't feel too pessimistic about the Clio's chances against a drop onto the carpeted floor of PCG towers.

The Clio offers three EQ modes for movies, games, and music, plus a bonus custom profile, all of which can be fiddled with via Razer's Synapse software. Most device adjustment will take place either through this software or your OS's sound panel, but there is also an array of improbably placed buttons lining the speaker's top edge. These turn the volume up or down, in addition to handling Bluetooth pairing, sifting through EQ profiles and audio sources. I presume the assumption is that you'll never forget to fiddle with these before you sit down, and the times you'll need to contort yourself to get at them will be vanishingly few—however, my spine knows the score.

The Clio is also THX spatial audio-enabled, which comes with yet another caveat in that you'll need to spend an additional $20 on the THX spatial audio app to get the most out of this (though a 15-day trial version is also available). In theory, this app should offer a software-level boost to all of your audio devices, whether they're specifically labelled as compatible or not, so this may be a more enticing expense than dropping more than $200 on the Clio.

To test this, I submerged myself in Doom Eternal, one of a number of games supported by its own THX audio profile. I first took to this follow up's scorched Earth with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3X. Playing between the spatial audio and environmental mode sound profiles yielded a surprisingly crunchy, compressed sound via headphones—and before you ask, yes, I did remember to toggle on Windows Sonic for Headphones in the sound output submenu.

I don't suspect this is a fault of the hardware, as I'd not encountered such a crunchy sound profile from the Arctis Nova 3X in or out of game elsewhere. Though you can fiddle with the EQ settings and the placement of the 'virtual speakers' that act as reference points for the spatial audio via the app, I wasn't completely sure what was causing such an audio downgrade on this specific device.

I then donned the Razer Clio like they were the Doom Slayer's pointiest pauldrons. I was immediately much more impressed by the sound quality coming from the Clio's 43 mm drivers, with the near-field speakers offering an immersive experience sans the horse blinder quality of traditional headphones.

Upon launching Doom Eternal, the THX app offers three different sound profiles from a dropdown menu: stereo, THX spatial audio, and THX environmental mode, the lattermost being Doom eternal's game-specific profile. The spatial audio profile offers the clearest sound quality, while Mick Gordon's incredible soundtrack enjoys a bassier boost via the environmental mode. Though Doom Eternal is far from a dialogue heavy experience, I did find voice lines came through crisply via the spatial audio profile. They're still clear in environmental mode, but the bass boost does absorb some finer audio detail.

Doom Eternal is an enjoyable show piece for the Clio. But even though spatial sound is a selling-point of this speaker, I can't say I was necessarily any better at stopping any of hell's ne'er-do-wells from getting the jump on me. The simple matter of my own lacking skill aside, there's just not the greatest amount of depth to the sound. The near-field speakers are immersive and novel, but I wouldn't say the Clio offers a best in class experience for spatial audio.

So, taking the Clio into the office, does the Clio's near-field dual speakers mean I'm ready to ditch my beloved lilac over-ear headphones? Uhm, not really, no.

The Clio dramatically softens what is already a fairly sedate soundscape in the likes of Two Point Museum or Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, making it easy for those in earshot to tune out. However, the Clio is definitely still a speaker, regardless of how it claims to offer "headset-like immersion." At full volume, everyone knows I'm playing Doom Eternal, for instance, but in the 50-70% volume range, the sound leak is much more comparable to what you'd get from someone listening to their headphones just a wee bit too loud.

Listening to music via the near-field effect speakers is interesting. For instance, when I attempted to introduce the team to Eartha Kitt's disco era, they could scarcely hear my tunes until I whacked the volume as high as it would go—at which point it became an uncomfortable listening experience even for me (though I maintain Where is my Man is a banger). To be clear, that doesn't mean I was wrapped up in my own happy little Eurodance bubble at 70% and lower volume settings; those nearby could potentially still discern the line "If you are feeling quite randy / I know some things that are dandy / Sugar Daddy, Sugar Daddy / Let's keep your stockbroker handy," should they happen to strain their ears.

Our Kara then suggested I blare some Miku Hatsune via the Clio, promptly dooming us all to a teal-twin-tail-themed listening session. Mercifully the ambient noise of PCG towers is enough to distract from most of my eclectic musical tastes, though the higher vocal frequencies tended to carry more. Otherwise, I think it's probably a win for everyone if I keep my tunes under my headphones.

But say for the sake or argument, you don't want to attach the Clio to a headrest—how is it as a more traditional bluetooth speaker? Well, I wouldn't recommend it in that edge case either. The near-field dual speakers can get fairly loud but the audio quality from afar is muddy at full volume—the Clio offers a sound profile you're very much meant to lean into.

Ultimately, the Razer Clio feels like an odd duck with expensive taste. Beyond those who simply cannot abide having anything on or in their ear cartilage, I'm left to wonder who this is really for. The Clio tries to do something different in a device category that was hardly desperate for reinvention. At the Clio's price point you're better off doling your hard-earned crusts to either one of the best PC speakers or best gaming headsets instead.

Just for a start, the HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headset hovers around a similar price point, boasting crisp audio and a beefy battery that breezes past the Clio's otherwise respectable 14-hour battery life. If you're in the market for a solid bluetooth audio device specifically, we rate the similarly priced BlueAnt Soundblade soundbar though it's got quite a large footprint (credit where credit is due, I definitely appreciate how much the Clio being a chair accessory frees up my desk space). So, for one more option, the Logitech Z407 speakers take up much less space than the BlueAnt Soundblade while also costing half as much and still offering plenty of oomph.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that gaming headset audio has reached something of a standstill. After all, tear apart most models and you'll find a pair of traditional do-it-all drivers, which are essentially two small speakers pointed directly at your lugholes. Expensive planar magnetic units (like those used in the magnificent Audeze Maxwell) are the hot thing, but other than that it's mostly been variations on that one particular theme.

However, I've been testing a prototype gaming headset that makes use of tiny solid-state speakers in conjunction with regular drivers, with the aim of providing more responsive audio than traditional sets for a significantly lower cost—and it's been something of a revelation for multiplayer gaming.

The prototype set has been put together by xMEMS Labs, in collaboration with Ampacs, a consumer electronics manufacturer. The former has been developing a patented two-way module architecture for gaming headsets that makes use of the xMEMS Cowell, which it describes as "the world's smallest full-range, all-silicon MEMS speaker."

Unlike conventional, magnet-driven drivers, solid-state MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) speakers use an integrated thin-film piezoelectric actuator to vibrate a silicon surface, resulting in higher frequency response than traditional drivers and what many perceive to be a "cleaner", more linear sonic response.

Cramming miniature ones into a gaming headset alongside a regular driver is a novel use of the tech—essentially using the Cowell MEMS micro speaker as a miniature tweeter for high and mid-range audio, while the conventional, Ampacs-provided unit handles the low-end.

The micro-speaker itself is printed on a single piece of silicon, which xMEMS Labs says keeps costs down for headset manufacturers in comparison to the exotic materials often used in conventional headset drivers, like graphene, carbon fiber, or titanium. They're also said to be easier for manufacturers to tune, reducing time to market by speeding up the development process.

For us gamers, though, xMEMS says that because the silicon micro-speaker focuses on upper-to-mid-range frequencies only, you get cleaner spatial imaging, faster response times, and more detail from the higher end of the frequency spectrum compared to a regular gaming headset.

All very good on paper, but I wanted to test them for myself. The headset that xMEMS provided me is very much a work in progress, as evidenced by the two cables sticking out of the bottom of the left earcup and a "this'll do for now" plastic control box attached halfway down the signal chain.

However, jumping into a session of my current multiplayer obsession, Gray Zone Warfare, reveals a headset that sounds like it's nearly ready for primetime.

In a tactical shooter like GZW, footstep-listening is key. Recent updates have improved the game's audio system, resulting in better spatial positioning, wider soundstages, and some seriously tense, seriously atmospheric sonic moments.

Buzzing insects, gunshots echoing in the distance, a grubby sneaker splashing in a nearby puddle—all of this matters when you're trying to survive in the dense jungles and cobbled-together shanty towns of Lamang.

The xMEMS headset navigates this sonic soup with aplomb. I was initially concerned there would be an obvious gap between the lower frequencies provided by the conventional driver, and the mid-range to treble provided by the separate miniature MEMS units. However, in my gaming testing I've found the two to sing together quite happily.

Not only that, but the micro-speaker/driver combo feels slightly faster to respond than a conventional headset, which has me jumping at incidental noises and peeking around corners far more often than I'm used to.

The sheer clarity of the treble is also something of a revelation for pinpointing gunshots and identifying chatter over the maelstrom of battle—although it's still my reaction times letting the side down, not the responsiveness of the speakers themselves.

I had the opportunity to chat to Pierce Hening, xMEM's lead acoustic engineer, about the project and he confirmed that response time is a key benefit of the speaker-combo tech:

"Our drivers are incredibly fast. Our impulse response is basically up and down, so when you put a signal through it, there's no attack time, there's no release."

"With pretty much every dynamic driver that's in any gaming or regular headset, there's some form of delay, as well as an attack time and a release time, whereas we're just up and down with the signal. And it allows us to be very fast and reproduce audio incredibly accurately."

While the design is still in the prototype phase, Pierce and his team have been conducting small sample size testing that seems to have yielded promising results, especially when compared to some of the bigger headset manufacturers on the market:

"We performed [a test] on these versus a plethora of other headsets, and we found that what we see objectively does correlate to the subjective realm. People did feel like the sources were tighter around them, and they felt like they were able to pinpoint where their sources were on a sphere around them outside of a field of view.

"[We found] our headphones perform better than $100, $200, $300 sets of headphones, and were comparable to a $500 pair of planar magnetics and a $1,600 set of Sennheiser HD800s."

While that might be the case for gaming, when it comes to other media I'd say the xMEMS set does a good job, rather than outstanding. I've had the pleasure of testing several planar magnetic headsets (and the odd high-end set from Sennheiser) and while the xMEMS are perfectly serviceable for day-to-day use, I'd say that for music listening and movie-watching, I'd still take a set of planar magnetics over these.

To me, they can sometimes sound slightly harsh when reproducing certain mid-range frequencies, which lends a perceptibly thin quality to some mid-range-focussed mixes. Still, it's far from what I'd describe as bad audio—and something I reckon is easy enough to justify given the positional benefits for gaming.

However, that's the issue all audio equipment manufacturers must face—sound is a very subjective thing, and my read on it may not be the same as others.

And given that one of the key benefits of the tech is said to be keeping costs low at the production line, I could absolutely see the tech being adopted for speedy, well-priced, esports-focussed gaming headsets.

I'm aware of many Escape From Tarkov players, for example, that use the crunchiest of EQ settings to gain an advantage over the competition. Response times, positional audio, and clarity matter more than anything else at the top end of competitive gaming, and I reckon they'd be very happy with a set of these.

And all for a reasonable price? That's very intriguing. High-end gaming headsets can be painfully expensive, so if gamers could pick up a set of these for budget-to-mid-range money, I reckon xMEMS really might be on to something.

I asked if the company had any major partners in the works, and was told with steely-eyed confidence that most major brands were now aware of xMEMS tech, and some are already working towards products for the mass-market.

So, perhaps it won't be long until we see xMEMS micro-speakers appearing in modestly-priced, yet audibly-excellent gaming sets. And while I'm happy to see progress in this arena, I can't help shake the feeling it'll simply be another boon for the skill-blessed gamer, and another reason to feel ashamed of my embarrassingly low kill-death ratio.

There's no substitute for talent combined with vast amounts of practice, I guess. Still, for my next GZW session (and while I'm one of the very few to get their hands on a pair), I'll be strapping the xMEMS headset back on my oversized bonce. Let's face it—when it comes to gaining an advantage, I'll take all the help I can get.

I've been lucky enough to test out tonnes of speakers over the last few years, and BlueAnt's Soundblade still found a spot in my regular setup for some time. Now that it's just $100 right now at Amazon, I'd easily recommend it to anyone looking for an all-rounder soundbar to slip under a TV or monitor.

No matter if you want to use it for games, music, movies, or just ambience, the BlueAnt Soundblade is a versatile little soundbar thanks to deep sound and robust connectivity. You can hook it to a phone via Bluetooth, or a PC with a USB Type-C cable, and still have room to use that 3.5 mm jack at the same time.

We at PC Gamer think it's the best wireless sound bar, and that goes to show how strong the combination of connectivity and sound is. It's a sleek old affair too, especially in all black. However, if you aren't as much a fan of the all-black look as I am, it's also available at the same price in white, green, and pink.

It is a tad big so won't fit under low monitors and TV but I had no problem fitting it under any of mine. It also has touch controls on the soundbar itself, as well as a remote control, so you don't need to mess with it too much once set up and ready to go.

The BlueAnt Soundblade's sound is full and loud. It won't beat out more expensive dedicated speakers but an included subwoofer and two drivers give a fullness to the setup that works surprisingly well.

It's at its best in a very specific environment though. Where some sets of speakers combine with a soundbar for a deeper surround sound experience, this soundbar is a cheaper alternative to the whole set. You can chain it to another speaker via its 3.5 mm jack but it's more so intended to be an entire audio setup.

If you are running a tad low on space and want an all-in-one solution for audio, this is a cheap and pretty way of solving your problem.

I've long been of the opinion that you don't necessarily need a set of gaming-specific speakers for great gaming audio. That probably sounds rather counterintuitive, I know, but unless you're prepared to run the cabling nightmare that is a 5.1 system around your gamer cave, a good set of regular speakers has long been my go-to advice for gamers looking for audio-out-loud.

Of course, if it's studio monitoring you're after, then reference speakers are what you'll be needing. And for music listening alone? Perhaps a set of bookshelf units, with maybe a subwoofer if you find yourself in need of extra bass.

Mackie, however, thinks it can fulfil all your audio needs in one bite of the cherry. Its CR3.5BT speakers are designed to be $130 noise-makers for all seasons, from gaming wonders to reference monitor scalpels, music-listening marvels, and more. That's primarily down to a tone control knob on the front of the right speaker, which allows you to adjust the EQ balance on the fly between work and play.

Or, to put it more accurately, from a reference-like response to an easy-listening, fun and bouncy style EQ, which Mackie says makes them perfect for gaming, casual listening; and movie-watching, alongside more traditional reference monitor duties.

Ordinarily I'd view this sort of jack-of-all-trades marketing with a healthy dose of skepticism, but Mackie has been making professional audio gear since 1988, and its mixers, consoles, and reference monitors have graced the desk of many a high-end studio. It's a manufacturer I'm fairly familiar with, coming from the rock 'n' roll audio game, so I was anxious to try a pair out for myself. I also asked Mackie to send me one of its optional $200 CR8SBT subwoofers, so I could make some comparisons with more traditional 2.1 gaming setup offerings from the likes of Logitech and Klipsch.

The Mackie CR3.5BT speakers feature 3.5-inch drivers paired with 1.5-inch silk dome tweeters in an attractive, textured enclosure, with the familiar Mackie green ring around the main drivers. Each speaker has a subtle, understated design that should fit into any desk setup or home studio layout without looking too gamer-chic, although RGB fans will just have to make do with the neon-ringed Mackie logo for their gamer flair.

Included in the package is a pre-prepared wire to connect the two speakers, and an RCA to 3.5mm aux cable to easily hook up to your PC's audio output ports.

On the rear of the right speaker are two RCA inputs, two TRS ¼-inch inputs, and a 3.5 mm stereo input. Below that are several switches, and it's here that you start to get an idea of the flexibility on offer.

The location switch alternates between desktop and bookshelf modes, essentially adjusting the audio responses to create near field and far field-tuned sound. I'll be honest here—I switched between the two settings quite regularly and listened from various distances and at various speaker positions, and in the confines of my small front room, I couldn't really tell the difference.

Still, if you're planning on mounting them at quite a distance from each other, it may well have more of an effect. Underneath the location switch is a small toggle to adjust the position of the powered speaker, meaning you could have it on your left hand side if it suits your setup (or your hand dominance).

On the front are two dials, one for volume, and one mysterious counterpart on the opposite side of the driver. This is the tone control knob, and it comes with an easily-removable sticker indicating it can adjust between work and play.

What this means in reality is that, at its far left setting, the Mackie CR3.5BTs deliver a flattened response, as you would expect from a set of reference speakers for studio work. Crank it to the right, however, and the EQ adjusts to fatten up the bass and lower-mids, while the treble takes on a warmer, shinier quality that's more suited to everyday listening.

The effect is surprisingly pronounced. While I would describe the Mackies as great-sounding at both settings, the ability to shift the EQ on the fly between something highly-detailed but flat, to something warm, boosted, and pleasant really adds something to the experience. I'm used to jumping into audio plugins and sculpting my own EQ, but reducing that extra hassle down to a single, easy-to-use dial really does feel like an innovation that all reference speakers would do well to copy.

However, should you wish for a bit more lower-end punch, they also respond beautifully to a bit of extra EQ in your audio drivers. A simple scooped curve allows them to hit even harder, beyond the EQ boost available from the dial.

While these little units are technically only 50 W, they're remarkably powerful, and the custom-tuned rear ports deliver a decent thunk of bass response that belies their small size.

Beyond the power, however, lies a sweetness that comes through with the tone dial pegged to the right, and it really makes music shine. There's a sense here that these speakers find a conventional, boosted EQ somewhat easy, because they're designed for more demanding things, and as a result they respond beautifully to a well-mixed song.

The bass here is of the defined variety rather than gut-rumbling, delivering a decent weighty chunk of kick drum and rounded bass guitar tones, while the mids remain punchy without verging into the harsh. The treble floats at the top of the mix exactly where it should, never quite verging into piercing while remaining shiny, pleasant, and smooth.

Really, at the far right setting these speakers sound exactly like I hoped they would—reference speakers with the harsh edges rounded off, and with the warmer, punchier qualities gently boosted in the mix to create a very pleasing listening experience.

Cranking the dial over to the left, and you're back in flat (or at least, near-flat) response territory. I wouldn't say they ever reach the accuracy of a pair of Yamaha HS5s, but given you'd pay more than double for a set of those studio-monitor-standards, I don't think anyone will be too disappointed by what you receive for the cash here.

And yes, they prove my point once more—good speakers are good speakers, and that means gaming, too. The CR3.5BT speaker's tendency towards accuracy in combination with that tone dial means you can flatten the EQ response for multiplayer footstep-listening, or swing it over to the right for punchy explosions, soothing soundscapes, and hissing, whizzing bullets.

Not only that, but a Bluetooth connection is a mere button press away. The Mackie dancing man logo on the right speaker doubles as a connection button, and a long press puts it in pairing mode. I tested it with both Android and Apple phones, and can confirm the connection is rock solid for both.

So then, what about the optional $200 CR8SBT subwoofer? Well, in a word, it's massive. Not just physically, either, although if you're anything like me you'll laugh when you pull it from the box. It's a Godzilla of a bass unit, deep enough that you'll probably want to stick it sideways under your desk to minimise its mega-footprint.

Sound-wise, it's truly gigantic. The 8-inch driver is immensely powerful when pushed by that built-in 100 W amplifier, and is more than capable of shaking any reasonably sized room to the point that pictures begin to loosen themselves from the wall.

At the rear are two TRS inputs, two RCA, and two for each set of outputs. That means you can hook up the CR 3.5BT set to the sub, run the audio output from your PC into the back of the subwoofer itself, and end up with a honking-great 2.1 system to put the fear of Cthulhu in your neighbours.

Actually, I'll make an admission—I think the subwoofer is perhaps too powerful for its own good, or at least, capable of delivering far more low-end horsepower than the CR 3.5 BT units can keep up with.

Luckily, the rear of the sub features a bass volume control, along with separate bass controls on the included control puck, so you can dial it down to a reasonable response that doesn't completely overwhelm the rest of the setup.

There's also an input dial for adjusting line-level signal, and a crossover knob, which allows you to minutely adjust the crossover frequency between 40 to 180 Hz for optimal balance between the monitors and the mega-subwoofer beneath them. It's actually pretty easy to find a balance between the two that sounds great, but you'd do well to live in fear of that volume dial—at least if you want your house to pass its next structural inspection.

What isn't so great, however, is that CRDV control unit. It's essentially a wired puck with multiple dials that hooks into the back of the sub so you can control the volume of the speaker units and the subwoofer separately. A good idea for sure, but it doesn't feel quite as high-quality as the rest of the package, and the concentric dial design is a little fiddly to use and overly light to the touch.

Still, when combined with the rear sub controls, there are a huge number of options here to find the right bass balance for you.

So, if you're considering the Mackie CR 3.5BTs for your next set of computer speakers (and I really think you should), do you need the CR8SBT sub? If you're a bass-head, then I'd recommend it.

It really is an astonishing room-rumbler, and it's got enough granular control options to mean you can tweak it down to your exact demands with a little fiddling. That control puck might not be perfect, but the sub itself is such a giggle-inducing, overpowered beast that I can't ignore the fun-factor it adds to the experience.

For many people it's probably a bit too much, and it does complicate the experience with all those tweaking options. And that's fine, because if you want a simpler, more plug and play experience—and bass isn't your highest priority—you can instead spend a mere $130 on two accurate, warm, and sonically defined speakers, hook 'em into the back of your rig, and enjoy excellent audio for a very reasonable price.

The Logitech G560, our current pick for the best PC speakers, are starting to become hard to find. While they're very good for what they are (and RGB lit, if that matters to you), they're essentially two small satellite units in combination with an excellent subwoofer, and in terms of balance and quality of sound, I think the Mackies stomp all over them.

Really it's a bit of an unfair fight, as I'm pitting gaming-focused speakers against multi-talented marvels that, as a 2.1 package, costs $100 more, but again I return to my original point—good speakers should just be good speakers, faux gaming credentials be damned.

And for a grand total of $330, for the speakers and sub, I'd pit the overall Mackie 2.1 setup available here against just about anything else for the money. It really is phenomenal when it all comes together.

The Mackie CR 3.5BT set aims to do it all, and manages to mostly achieve it. And if you're missing the sort of ultra-low-end that calls the constabulary to your door, the CR8SBT subwoofer looms in the distance. Gaming-specific speakers are starting to feel a little outdated these days, and when semi-pro units like these are available on the market for consumer-grade prices, it's not difficult to see why.

Settling on the score is always the hardest part of writing a review, for me. In my NZXT Relay review earlier this year, (spoiler alert) I gave the speaker set a 75, as you pretty much have to buy all the extra accessories for the thing to work properly. However, with the whole set, this has become my daily audio driver and I don't see that changing any time soon.

With the NZXT Relay, you are effectively buying into an audio ecosystem. If you are big into mobile phones, there's a good chance this phrase has set off alarm bells but it's not as restrictive as that may lead you to believe.

Starting out with the Relay speakers, they are a compact set of 80-watt desktop speakers that can easily fit onto a table. Their relatively small stature belies a strong mid and high sound, though it lacks in bass.

Having tested out a much more competent set in my Kanto Ora reference speakers review, the Relay feels comparatively lacking in the low end. By themselves, they are a passable way to listen to games and music, though nothing special.

It's when you start adding accessories that this audio beast truly comes to life. The NZXT SwitchMix is a dedicated headset stand with a sound mixer. You pop any set on there (though the Relay headset suits the aesthetic) and you can change the mix between game sound and game chat with just a quick flick of the mixer.

Next to that is a wheel that can be turned up and down to change volume, or pressed down to mute the whole thing. However, it's the pressure plate at the very top that makes this thing sing.

When you pop a pair of headphones on top of the SwitchMix, the sound automatically goes to the set of speakers. Take it off and they are in the headphones now. This means you can swap from listening to music on the speakers to talking to your friends on the headset in about as quick as it takes you to grab the thing.

The swap is nearly instantaneous and the only thing you will ever find yourself waiting for is the speakers to wake up if they haven't been active in a while.

The Relay headset is cheap and cheerful, but fits the look and comes with standard physical controls on the aux cable to easily customize your sound while playing games. It's nothing special but, luckily, if your current gaming headset has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, you can plug that into the stand instead and it will work just fine.

Finally, finishing off the full NZXT set is the subwoofer. This is almost as necessary of an accessory as the SwitchMix, due to the lack of bass from the central speakers. It adds that much-needed low-end to everything that makes the sound much fuller.

It's not a hugely bassy subwoofer, though, and won't rumble the floor like the subwoofer found in the Razer Nommo V2 Pro. However, it's just the right amount to add some depth to a battlefield as your soldier's legs carry you across or the rumble of a car engine flying above you in Rocket League.

I did notice a little bit of fiddliness at one point with this set, where I had to unplug it and plug it back in again to work as intended, but that's only popped up one time in nine months and could be down to user error in some form.

I've tested better speakers this year in a technical sense but what made me settle on the NZXT, other than the convenience of leaving them on my desk, is that everything about it just works so well. Setting up with a coffee in the morning and playing some songs has never quite been as easy as this, and being able to quickly swap to the headphones for a Discord call or a check-in from my partner is just the cherry on top. There are better dedicated gaming speakers but these are an everyday set in the truest sense, offering a decently dynamic set of cans and speakers for games, and a laid-back ecosystem for very casual use.

The SwitchMix felt like a gimmick on first use but that's because of how easy it all is and how much it wows people when I show them. However, with time, my view has shifted from thinking it's a gimmick to an out-and-out selling point. Just pick it all up in a set to get the most out of it.

If you bought a cheap Anker speaker on Amazon last year, you might want to check its serial code, as almost 70,000 are being recalled in America and almost 10,000 in Canada. As originally reported by The Verge, Anker is recalling several models of Soundcore and Powerconf speakers, due to their lithium-ion batteries being faulty.

In the full report, it says "The firm has received 33 reports of incidents involving the lithium-ion batteries in the speakers overheating, some of those involving incidents of smoking and small fires, including one minor burn injury in connection with an overheating unit."

Under a fast-track recall, 69,000 units are being returned in the US and 9,674 have been recalled in Canada. If you want to know if your speaker is at risk of catching fire, the following models are being recalled: A3102016, A3302011, and A3302031.

To check your speaker, as per the Anker page, locate the serial number at the bottom of your device and plug it into the recall form to find out if it's been affected. If your speaker is defective, switch it off immediately and contact Anker customer service.

Anker says you will be given a full refund and informed on how to dispose of your device safely and effectively.

Interestingly, the Anker models affected by this recall were sold exclusively on Amazon in 2023 and, according to The Verge, "cost between $28 and $130."

This is not the first time Anker has had to recall a product. In fact, it's not even the first time in the last few months, with the electronic brand having to recall over 2000 Anker power banks, due to fire and burn hazards from lithium-ion batteries earlier this year. The recall came after 28 reports of batteries overheating or exploding, with two injuries reported.

What makes this particular recall interesting is the sheer size of it, and how big a brand Anker is. Almost 80,000 total units are quite a lot to recall in one sitting, though being sold exclusively on Amazon presumably makes it quite easy to track.

Hopefully, Amazon's huge database of orders can stop any more injuries from these speakers.

A quick flick through the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission's recent recalls shows quite a few products being recalled due to battery issues and slowly degrading batteries are one of the most prominent issues with old devices. From phones to GameBoys, if something has gone wrong with an old electronic device, there's a good chance the battery may be at fault.

Ten years ago, my gaming setup didn't look massively different to what I have now, with one noticeable difference—while I always use a headset now, back then I had a massive 5.1 speaker system. Such setups are no longer very popular but one audio company reckons it has just thing to bring them back to the fore: Cerebro. Wait, sorry—the Colo GCS by Cololight.

What Cololight has done is take 11 speakers to create a 7.1.2 audio landscape (seven primary channels, one low-frequency channel, and two 'overhead' channels), but rather than have them dotted around your gaming room, it's placed them in a large U-shaped ring that straps onto your gaming chair's headrest.

To be honest, mere words aren't enough to describe how astonishing the thing looks, and I can't quite decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Let's start by considering the aspects of it that make it seem good.

Cololight lists a variety of reasons why its design is better than headsets and soundbars, such as comfort, space requirements, and the fact that such setups only simulate surround sound. They're all valid complaints but the right gaming headset will be comfortable for hours of use and soundbars, even those with sub-woofers, aren't especially massive.

The point about simulating surround sound has become far less relevant these days, as most gamers will be more than happy with what a stereo headset can generate. A true surround sound system does...err…sound epic, though.

It'd be quite unfair to judge something negatively without trying it first, but a couple of things do stand out for me. The first, and most obvious, is that the whole system is pretty close to your head so it makes me wonder how frequently one is likely to bounce one's bonce off it, just from getting up from the chair.

This leads to my second concern: how stable and strong the attachment system is. Basically, the whole thing straps to a chair's headrest, and the Colo GCS has been specifically designed to work on e-sports/gaming chairs, so there's a chance it might not fit your chair particularly well.

Even if it does, I have questions about how much the system will move about. Are those arms very rigid or will they flex about in gaming?

Lastly, having a wire dangling down the back of one's gaming chair means there's always a risk of running over it, as you move the chair about. With a wireless gaming headset, that's never going to happen and unlikely even with a wired one.

I have no doubt that some gamers will be looking at this and thinking that this is an awesome idea. However, at the moment, Cololight's Cerebro isn't available—as its webpage just refers to an Indiegogo campaign—but in a document sent to us, Cololight's asking $599 for the Colo GCS.

That's cheaper than a full surround system but a heck of a lot more than a decent gaming headset. I suppose that even if it doesn't live up to all the claims, you can't deny that it'll give your gaming den a full-on Professor X vibe.

What happened to 5.1 surround systems? Once all the rage for top-end gaming setups, these days you're much more likely to see a 2.1 system or set of regular old speakers attached to most gaming PCs. You could be forgiven for thinking 5.1 systems are purely for home cinema purposes, and for gaming they've simply become old hat.

SteelSeries, however, begs to differ. The SteelSeries Arena 9 is a fully-fledged 5.1 surround sound speaker system, complete with OLED-equipped hockey puck style control unit and some nifty, gamer-friendly RGB lighting. Yours for $550/£550.

Yep, I wouldn't blame you if you did a double take. I did. Over half a grand for a set of speakers might not be much in audiophile terms, but when it comes to gaming audio? That's pushing it. Especially when our current favorite set of gaming speakers, the Logitech G560, can be found for around $150–$200.

Still, you do get a lot for your money, at least out of the box. There's a substantial-looking central speaker, two sizable front left/front right units with LED light-up base rings and half-circle rear lighting, plus two slightly smaller rear satellite speakers. All of this connects into the back of a chunky subwoofer, with a slit-style front port and a serious-looking 6.5 inch downwards facing driver. Oh, and the hockey puck, along with a lot of cables and adapters to put it all together.

One great drawback of every 5.1 system is the sheer fiddly nature of the setup. The two satellites connect wirelessly for audio, but still require a cable linking the two together, along with a separate power adapter. The layout of my particular home rig (what with my desk pushed up against the wall and the whole rest of my front room behind me) isn't really designed for rear or side speaker setups.

Still, I set up one behind me on my bookcase to my right, and another on a fold out tray table to my left in roughly the right positions. They're mercifully light, at least, and feel good in the hands out of their packaging.

Once all the speakers are positioned and plugged into the rear of that substantial subwoofer, what you're left with is an impressive looking array of noise-makers. SteelSeries' Engine software allows a heavy amount of initial tweaking, and they also tie into other aspects of the suite like Prism for endless RGB adjustment and Sonar for parametric EQ fiddling. More on that later.

The two front speakers have RGB lighting around the edge of their respective bases, along with substantial rear lighting that's more than capable of acting as a screen backlight if your monitor hovers above them, as mine does. At full brightness they create quite the atmosphere, and definitely add a wow factor to proceedings.

Sound-wise, for gaming alone they're pretty great. That subwoofer is hugely powerful, so much so that I used the rear-mounted dial to take a touch off of the volume (a rarity, for a bass-head like me). Explosions punch the chest, soundtracks sweep, and bullets whizzing past in COD Warzone are enough to make you wince. If you're a multiplayer shooter fan, 5.1 audio like this makes a lot of sense in games that support it.

The level of detail on offer definitely ups the immersion in any game with serious positional audio atmospherics. Horror aficionados will really feel the benefit too, as there's nothing quite like jumping at a creeping zombie that you heard scratching the floorboards behind you.

There's a lot to be said for good 5.1 audio implementation, and these units do a great job of delivering accurate positioning. For gaming audio? They're a lot of fun, and look good doing it, too.

Where these speakers fall down, however, is music listening. There's a 5.1 upmix setting to convert conventional stereo-mixed audio to the central and rear speakers, but I found the effect lacking.

Part of the problem is that tremendous subwoofer. So tremendous, in fact, that if you pull it out of the mix, the central speaker and satellite units reveal that they're really not doing much mid to lower-midrange work at all. Some, no doubt, but they're very treble-focussed, letting the subwoofer handle just about everything else.

A go-to test for me with any set of speakers is Tool's The Pot, as it really does run the gamut of range, dynamics, and overall mix. While the drums pound, the bassline shakes and the vocals are crystal clear, the second the heavy guitars get going, the Arena 9's sound confused. A huge bassline and crunchy guitars? What goes where?

Well, there's some bassy weight present in those guitar riffs, so it must be the sub. But there's lots of mids too, so wind up the middle speaker. 

The result? The bassline shudders as the subwoofer's driver tries to do multiple things at once, the central unit and surround speakers deliver a thin impression of a weighty rock riff, and the result sounds cluttered and oddly shaky.

It's like the subwoofer is looking at the other speakers with a quizzical expression. "Come on you lot, pull your weight. I can't do everything, you know."

No matter how I tweak Sonar's parametric EQ, I can never quite find a spot where the central speaker delivers some mid-range weight, instead relegating itself to the higher ranges. For 5.1 gaming, there's plenty of balance. For music? That upmix setting leaves a lot to be desired, and it makes for a frustrating listening experience.

Also, the rear satellites have an odd background noise issue. Sometimes they're dead silent, other times they make a chittering sound between each other, back and forth. The wireless connection seems prone to interference at certain volumes when placed near other equipment. Not a huge issue, but I had to reconfigure some of my other gear to lessen the effect. Bit of a shame that, for the money.

Yep, there's that price again. While the RGB lighting is fun and the positional audio is great, I struggle with the idea of anyone needing to spend this much cash to achieve an effect that many headsets can deliver for a lot less. 

More than that, a $500+ set of speakers should really be great at everything. And while I've had a good time gaming on the Arena 9's, that mis-match between the power of the subwoofer and the light touch of the other units in upmix mode means I've been avoiding them as my go-to speakers overall.

So, what have I been using instead? Well, here's an admission: I broke out the Majority D80s, a two-speaker set that costs a mere £80 (US shipping is still a struggle at time of writing, unfortunately). Of course, you don't get all the positional audio theatrics out of two speakers, but they still do a great job of accurate audio, and are capable of kicking your chest pretty hard in the music department to boot.

Those stateside looking for a pair of speakers that can deliver the goods would do well to check out the Kanto Ora. Pricey they may be, but they really can deliver on all fronts, and you can hook in an optional subwoofer, too.

If you're dead set on the ultimate surround sound experience for gaming then the Arena 9's are worth a look, but for this sort of money, when it comes to music I was hoping they'd deliver something more balanced, more refined. More, well, expensive-sounding.

For gaming alone, these are powerful, accurate, and good-looking speakers. But light must come with shade, and while the 5.1 positioning is pin-point accurate and the room-shaking bass is immense, the roundness of the package, the be-all-and-end-all factor, is simply lacking. And for this price?

It really shouldn't be.

Soundbars offer a different experience to your more traditional speaker setup. Because you can't loop together tweeters with cables to stretch around a setup, you have to place it directly in front of you and this can have unintended consequences on the sound. Gaming-specific speakers tend to have this very over-the-top marketing style, with the ad's target gamer being entirely blown away by the noise and immersed in the footsteps of battle or the lumbering sounds of a dragon above. With the OXS Thunder Pro, this is the closest I've ever been to a marketing level experience… and I'm not too sure how much I like it. 

Starting out with the look, this thing is loaded with RGB lighting, with two up-firing, front-firing, and side-firing speakers complete with that familiar burst of colour as you turn it on. Those bright lights do serve a purpose with them being used to choreograph which of the listening modes are currently being engaged. We'll get more into that later but, for now, know that the RGB lighting isn’t entirely meaningless, and it looks quite pretty in the dark.

One of the main benefits of a soundbar like this is you simply need to plug it into the mains and it works. You don’t need to work around terminal cables or find space on equidistant sections of a desk for the optimal sound. Plop it down, plug it in, and get listening. 

It also comes with two different controllers; a remote that you can change settings from afar with, and a small wheel that you can spin and tap down to change volume and turn it on with. That dial tends to feel a little unnecessary with the remote but it's a nice bit of tech that feels surprisingly intuitive in use.

It is helped by its great connectivity, working with USB-A, USB-C, Aux, Bluetooth, and HDMI, though it doesn't come with the necessary cables so you will have to find your own. This connectivity is great, and the ability to change between them with the remote means you can keep multiple devices plugged in at the same time. You can also plug in a mic and headset if you want the ability to chat with your mates while you play. The only place it loses out in regards to its connectivity is room for a sub-output but, with its built-in subwoofers, you likely won't need one. 

It's an obviously very nice bit of kit that is sturdy and powerful—loud enough to really thump a desk. This impressive façade, however, hides an audio quality that is lacking if you manage to catch it in the wrong audio space. Hrvrd's On With Disease, a song filled with intricate guitar work, pounding drums, and high-pitched vocals, is thunderous thanks to the speaker’s high levels of bass. On the other hand, TTNG's Baboon, a mathy miasma of mids and highs doesn't quite fair as well. The OXS Thunder Pro feels almost perfect for Loathe's Aggressive Evolution, on the other hand, thanks to its Djenty guitar work, blasting drums, and Deftones-style vocals. 

Fittingly, off the back of the announcement of Doom: The Dark Ages, if you go back to Doom 2016, you will hear every demonic rip and tear, thanks to Mick Gordon's super thick and distorted tone. 

Destiny 2, which has managed to capture my partner's life since the launch of The Final Shape, is great in those fast-paced gunfights and almost becomes too much. See, the OXS Thunder Pro is appropriately named as the thing booms on a desk and can be almost overwhelmingly atmospheric. 

Though it has tons of ways to shift the volume up and down, there's a noticeable point where it goes from a slightly underwhelming speaker to a monstrous one. For this reason, it can almost be hard to recommend it as purely an under-monitor speaker. Its volume, size, and the remote controller actually make it a much better TV audio source. If you want to crank the OXS Thunder Pro, don't sit in front of it as it gets so loud you get lost in the wall of sound. The smattering of drivers allows for 3D audio, meaning you can make out directional sound from where you’re sat. When it works just right, this is honestly a magical experience, even if it does start to lose its charm after a little while. 

Mass Effect, a game that is ever so slightly more subdued than Destiny 2, thanks to its focus on character dialogue, is fine on here, but not quite as clear as I'd hope given the quality of bass and connectivity. Mids get muddy which you really start to notice in TV shows and movies, too. It is capable of working with Dolby Atmos, which allows for true surround sound play but, at a certain point, this feels more like form over function. Just how immersive that sound is can be great but I'd take a really high-quality set of reference speakers over this the majority of the time. 

That's all before mentioning the rather prohibitive cost of $600 for its cheapest model. For now, you can get almost any of the best PC Gaming speakers, and have cash left over for a brand-new game too. The Thunder Pro valiantly attempts to cover for the more muddled mids with three gaming modes; FPS, RAC, and MOBA, which focus on different sections of the sound. For the most part, this is a good idea and being able to move from hearing footsteps with greater clarity to listening to team call-outs makes the listening experience more engaging. 

The Thunder Pro has great connectivity, a good look, and snazzy controls, yet lacks somewhat in its overall delivery. OXS has put out a product I really want to like more than I have, in the end delivering a still solid if uninspiring experience. Which is not what you want from such a premium-priced product.

If you haven’t heard of them, FiiO is a Chinese audio brand best known for making some stonking hi-fi equipment. Their new SP3 BT speakers are small, powerful and reasonably priced, while offering sublime audio and connectivity to make them a fantastic pairing for PCs. Moreover, all for an attractive price point.

As much as you might term the SP3 BT as a set of ‘gaming speakers’, they’ve got a lot more personality and purpose than the traditional canon of desktop speakers with flashy lights and noticeably middling audio. Instead, because these have been approached from the angle of a company known for great audio developing speakers that can be used for general listening and gaming, it makes a difference to the end result.

And that end result is a set of speakers that sound sublime. They’re crisp and clear with plenty of body and punch for a smaller set of desktop speakers in comparison to monsters from other hi-fi giants such as KEF. Yes’ Roundabout, Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing, and Gloria Estefan’s Get On Your Feet demonstrated the speaker’s notable power and excellent soundstage, even if they were only separated by a 27-inch monitor on my 120cm desk. 

Roundabout also allowed the SP3 BT to flex its muscles with its low end, thanks to Chris Squire’s iconic, prominent bassline, which came through wonderfully with a fair bit of power, while the slow-building intro for Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing offered up a lot of punch with the song’s drums and Mark Knopfler’s meaty riff.

As much as the low end isn’t as prominent as with other units, the SP3 BT still served up plenty of immersion with gun fights in Counter Strike 2, or the cinematic goodness of Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V. To be truthful, turning the game’s radio off and letting the hilarity of Los Santos waft past me while sitting in traffic in GTA Online is one of my favourite things to do, and the SP3 BT captured it wonderfully, especially with its brilliant separation. 

Of course, that was only in the moments when I wasn’t engaged in stupid gunfights against other players, at which point FiiO’s speakers managed to demonstrate its immersion with bullets flying in my general direction.

It’s on the front of the mids and the top-end where FiiO’s small desktop speakers really shine, though. Softer and simpler tracks such as Jimmy Buffett’s Migration or September Grass from James Taylor demonstrated how well it handles vocals, as well as the tonality of the acoustic guitar present in both tracks. It’s an energetic listen, as if the SP3 BT aims to please. The little cymbal inflections on Donald Fagen’s marvellous I.G.Y were presented with precision, while the brass section, synth and Fagen’s vocals were rich and smooth.

Moving away from audio, the SP3 BT offer some excellent connectivity with a wide range of choices including USB-C, 3.5 mm, Optical, Coaxial and RCA line-in. With this being the Bluetooth model, FiiO’s desktop marvel also supports Bluetooth 5.0 while managing to support a large flavour of wireless audio codecs with SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX LL, aptX Adaptive and LDAC all within the SP3 BT’s remit. 

They worked flawlessly over wired means to my desktop gaming PC or over wireless means with my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, 16-inch MacBook Pro and also with hi-res DAPs such as the Shanling M0 Pro and FiiO’s own M11S. There is also app control available with the FiiO Control app which allows you to control EQ settings and install firmware updates for instance, although you can’t control the SP3 BT’s volume level. Volume control is handled with a small dial on the back of the right speaker, while there is also a bass dial if you’d like some more low-end.

These are also seriously well-built with an entirely metal frame which puts comparable choices from more mainstream brands in the shade. The SP3 BT is made from die-cast aluminium, with the units weighing in at 1.95 kg and 1.66 kg respectively. Combined, that’s a 3.61 kg mass, which for a set of speakers that only have a 2.5 L volume makes them rather dense.

Their ribbed front and side panels are tasteful, echoing cabinets with a much higher price tag, while the rubber bases help to reduce vibration and keep the SP3 BT safe and sound on your desk. The small RGB lighting at their base is tasteful, too. It switches between different combinations of colours by default, although it also helps to denote when the SP3 BT is in pairing mode, or which wireless audio codec is being used when using the speakers wirelessly.

Then, of course, there’s the price. The SP3 BT’s $349/£319/€379 asking price makes them more expensive than comparable choices such as the SteelSeries Arena 7, while choosing to go without a sub-woofer compared to SteelSeries’ choice. However, I’d argue that FiiO’s sound better with a more precise and clear sound, while its controls are a lot more accessible, being on the unit itself as opposed to hidden away on a sub-woofer. They’re also smaller overall too, and fit well on desks big and small.

FiiO’s SP3 BT may not be a set of speakers you’d have initially considered for use as PC speakers with both games and music, but they’re marvellous performers for a reasonable price, all things considered. They look fab while offering precise and enjoyable audio and are versatile too, with the welcome addition of Bluetooth connectivity compared to their siblings. 

If you’re after a set of marvellous, small desktop speakers for an equally excellent price, the SP3 BT is just wonderful.

Buying speakers can sometimes feel like a bit of a lottery, especially if you're trawling the listings looking for something that might suit your needs for less. There are plenty of options in the sub $100/£100 range, but many from brands you've likely never heard of, and that can cause a sceptical eyebrow to raise.

I know this because I had a good look through the speaker listings myself recently. While our best PC speakers guide has plenty of great options for a PC sound setup, I was curious as to whether any of the budget-friendly and perhaps lesser known options on the market might be able to compete.

A particular set caught my eye, mainly due to the number of positive reviews. The Majority D80 Active Bluetooth speakers have been around for a few months now, and on occasion I've looked at them quizzically. Majority is a UK brand that was founded in 2012, and has since released an array of soundbars, home cinema setups and all sorts of other audio equipment for surprisingly reasonable prices.

These units are on sale at Amazon for £100 in the UK, and currently aren't available in the US, which means our stateside friends would have to ship internationally via Amazon's UK site to buy a pair. A quick bit of conversion works that out to around $150 including shipping at the current exchange rate. Regardless, that figure still puts them towards the cheaper end of the market for active powered bookshelf speakers, especially as they're rated at 80W RMS, which is much more powerful than most.

Which begs the question: Can they really deliver high-quality and high-powered audio, Bluetooth connectivity and more for that kind of money?

Pulling them from their protective foam, there's certainly not much to tell you that they're relatively cheap. These are sizeable and substantial units, especially if you're planning on using them as desktop speakers, and for some are likely too large. 

Still, I found I could squeeze them into my somewhat cramped setup with a bit of rearranging, and was pleased to find that they actually look a little better than they do in the product photos. There's a reassuring weight to each speaker, and the matte finish feels pleasing to the touch.

Connections and controls are found on the rear of the right speaker unit, including RCA connectors, an optical input, a USB Type-A port and an HDMI connector for HDMI ARC connectivity. A traditional RCA to 3.5 mm jack cable is provided for hooking up to your PC sound outputs or a TV output connection, along with a 3.5 mm jack to jack cable for linking the two speakers together and a wall plug power adaptor. While a USB port is provided, it's for listening to audio files through a flash drive rather than for PC connectivity.

One thing to note is the length of the provided cables. While they're a reasonable size for a PC desktop setup, the power cable in particular is quite short, limiting where you could potentially place them if you wanted to wall mount the units or space them far apart for a home cinema setup.

Also on the back are three dials, for volume, bass and treble adjustments. Alongside them are three buttons for power, connectivity and EQ switching. While the sound adjustment dials are set and forget options, you won't have to reach behind the speakers for much else, as a handy remote is also included.

It's a slim and well-built model that shouldn't look out of place next to your other remote controls, and allows you to adjust playback, connectivity, volume and preset EQ settings from a distance, although I did find it a bit directional. It's got a fairly long range, but you'll want to be aiming it at the right speaker unit itself for best pickup.

So, to sound then. Cranking up the dials and connecting the units to my PC by the RCA to 3.5 mm connection, I went to a mainstay in my sound testing arsenal, Tool's "The Pot", a chunky, crunchy recording with plenty of range and some seriously good production. This is a song that can give some lesser speakers issues, and allow better models to shine, so I pushed the volume and braced myself.

Immediately I was impressed. The sound was punchy and rounded, with a good amount of detail thanks to some silk dome tweeters that kept the shimmering high cymbals and Maynard James Keenan's soaring vocals present in the mix, while the 4-inch main drivers delivered weighty slabs of thundering bass and chunky guitar riffs that sounded pleasingly guttural and head-bangingly powerful in equal measure.

However, this was on the "Movie" EQ setting. There are three to choose from here, Movie, Music and Dialog, and to my ears the first was the best by far. 

The music setting tended to overly limit the bass response in favour of more upper-mids and treble, which while pleasant did feel a little underwhelming compared to what these speakers are capable of, whereas the dialog setting is much more for TV usage, although it does work well for picking out vocals over a bombastic soundtrack.

They're all useable, and none sounds bad per se, but "Movie" provided such a powerful, pleasingly "scooped" EQ that I tended to keep it in that mode for most uses. I would suggest that the Music setting could do with some tweaks, or perhaps to add some options in between, but it was Movie mode that really allowed those rumbly drivers to shine.

And rumble, these speakers really can. My desk is on the far side of my relatively long front room, while my kitchen is on the other side of the house. However, with a little bit of volume I could still feel the weighty punch when making a cup of coffee, and my partner became concerned about what we might be inflicting upon the house next door.

What's really impressive is that the bass and lower mid-response isn't flabby either, as some cheaper speakers can lose control over the low end. These are responsive, chest-thumping and tight in a way that reminds me of much more expensive units, without needing to be cranked to the guns to get the best out of them.

And that's just as well, given the volume they're capable of. Annoying your neighbours is one thing, but if you really push the D80 hard I think you're more likely to receive a visit from your local constabulary. Turn them down to lower volume levels though, and that chunky quality backs off nicely for a bit of casual YouTube watching.

Let's be real for a moment: If you're a total bass-head, you're still going to want a 2.1 setup or similar like the Logitech G560 to really shake the room, as there's only so much two speakers can do when it comes to sub-bass hijinks compared to the delights of a good subwoofer. Still, the Majority's do a damn good impression of it, and are definitely well-equipped to rattle your furniture and provide you with a Cheshire cat-style grin once given the go-ahead.

That's not to say they're not capable of subtle, though. The beautifully glassy violins on First Aid Kit's "My Silver Lining" shine through brightly on the D80 without becoming piercing, while the folky bass and layered vocals all sit nicely together in the mix without losing detail or sounding over-boosted. For gaming, Red Dead Redemption 2's wide open vistas provided an immersive experience, and I actually found I preferred listening to the excellent ambient audio through the Majority set compared to some of my better headphone units.

Surround sound this isn't, but the soundstage is capable of going wide and encompassing when it needs to, and sets the scene admirably. While these might not technically be gaming-focussed speakers, with this kind of range any well-mixed audio gets a chance to shine, with plenty of power for substantial weapon sounds and soaring soundtracks.

As for party tricks, well, Bluetooth is a damned good one. I had no issues pairing my phone to the D80, and found that the audio quality was about as good as you could expect from a Bluetooth connection, along with a range that actually managed to penetrate my kitchen door, something that no Bluetooth signal I've tested thus far has managed to achieve.

Again, let's get down to brass tacks: The Majority D80 are not the be-all and end-all of desktop speakers, but for what you pay, they're extremely good. And it has to be said that if you're just looking for pure gaming audio or a ridiculous amount of bass then a good 2.1 or 5.1 system might be better suited to your needs. Still, given the price here and the sheer flexibility and power on offer from this jack-of-all-trades set, I came away remarkably impressed.

These are hefty, high-quality and powerful speakers for a variety of uses, all for a very reasonable price, and ones that I'm slightly loathed to give back. They might be all-rounders, but they kick like the proverbial mule.

There's a certain mystique to running a speaker cable into a terminal and producing a sound in another speaker—a mixture of audio wizardry and almost pure magic. You plug it in and get that nostalgic hit of real sound. The floor under you shakes and…suddenly, you are hit with the sound of Mike Myers "hitting the griddy" in a battle royale with 99 other people. Isn't technology wonderful? 

Though I'm being hyperbolic here, our relationship has changed with speakers culturally over the last few decades. No longer your only way to get sound from a device, they have fit into a more "audiophile" niche — from a last resort to a first choice. The NZXT Relay embodies that audio wizardry in just how wonderful the full setup is, but new ideas almost always come with growing pains and there's a lot of those here. 

Let's talk about that wizardry first, as it's the most unique thing about these speakers. Though you can buy the speakers by themselves, the NZXT Relay set works at its best when you purchase the subwoofer, headphones, and Switch Mix stand. 

Essentially, that stand has a button at the top that flicks from speaker to headphones, depending on the weight. This means you can hang up your headphones on the stand and it will automatically switch to speaker mode. Take them off and you've got sound in your headphones. 

This works near instantaneously and, no matter how fast I tried, I could never get the headphones on my head before it started playing my sounds. This is, admittedly, a dumb test, but also a good sign of how consistent that switch is. 

The speakers themselves are small and look very tidy on a desk. Mids and highs sound great and feel very well balanced, so Darwin Deez' geeky breakup anthem 'DNA' sounds as it should, thanks to those jangly guitars. However, Lucy Dacus' equally clever, yet heart wrenching breakup tune 'Nightshift' loses a lot of its raw power due to a lack of bass. When the song all comes together and Lucy's vocals roar at you, the speaker doesn't.

NZXT's speaker gets the tone of a bass but none of the feel. There isn't a rumble—no shake to be found.

The same can be said of in-game audio performance. The depths of the Nightingale character creation screen don't quite hit as expected but that high orchestra is still quite impactful. Balatro, the video game manifestation of an earworm, has managed to get the most time out of this speaker, and its chill synth-driven theme mostly fares well. 

If you're looking to play a shooter and get the real feel of bass as your boots stomp on the ground and helicopters fly above, you will want something that has more of a boom to it. However, this fared better in more dialogue-intensive moments than the likes of the rather over-the-top Razer Nommo V2 Pro.

What the speakers do well is how balanced the rest of the sound feels. If you can get a dedicated bass source, like the aforementioned subwoofer, the mids, and highs sound great tonally and manage to stay similarly at the forefront of the sound. I never felt like the high-pitched sound of a flashbang fully drowned everything out, instead momentarily taking the spotlight as it should.

Though there's no Bluetooth option, the speakers can be plugged in via RCA or 3.5mm aux, which is a reasonably diverse grouping of connection options. This means it can be plugged into a PS5 via the Dualsense 3.5mm port and, though it is a little limited thanks to the wire, performs great.

The speakers do turn off after a while without using them, which can be a bit annoying, and it doesn't seem to have the ability to pick up when sound is coming from the PlayStation. This means, after a while, it will shut off and come back alive randomly on console—a minor annoyance.

The NZXT Relay headset is mostly a decent companion to the rest of the Relay. It can be connected with a simple 3.5mm aux jack, is super comfy, and has a very good microphone for the price range.

Unfortunately, the headset takes after the speakers in the fact they have decently clear mids but very poor bass. It almost feels like listening through a pair of earphones — they have no rumble but are very convenient.

The Switch Mix is the linchpin in the NZXT Relay set and it shows in that whopping $130 price tag. As well as being a headphone stand, with that really cool ability to swap between speaker and headphones, it comes with a slider for fading between in-game sound and voice chat, as well as a volume mixer for adjusting and shutting off the sound altogether.

The only non-essential part of this setup is the headphones, as any other pair with a 3.5mm jack can fit in the switch mix and are able to activate the button on top. Everything works very well, but one small issue I came across involves the swap between volumes. 

If you have your set of speakers quite low and your headset sound very high, it will blast with less than a second of sound into your speakers as you swap over. Finding a good balance of volumes fixes this but it can be a problem if you want to blast your headphones but only play quietly from the speakers.

If you pick up NZXT's subwoofer to make up for the noticeable lack of bass, it will serve you well but lacks the huge volume of the speakers. NZXT's speakers constantly sit at just under half the max volume and this works perfectly for my room, yet I have to crank the subwoofer to the max to really match the two sounds. This is a strange oversight that means raising the volume of everything will leave the highs and mids standing out above everything else.

Buying into the NZXT speakers without picking up its accessories is like buying a 4K capable 4090 behemoth, and using your mum's old monitor. It’s still going to be a good experience but you’ve spent all this money now - you might as well commit to that extra upgrade.

The speakers themselves are surprisingly compact, look great, and connect relatively easily. You just need some bass to really get things going. 

The subwoofer does provide some bass but the volume is low enough to need something extra. The headset is decent for the price but only really makes sense if you get the smart headphone stand. When everything comes together, it's a real joy to go from listening out loud to talking to friends, yet one missing piece and it all falls apart.

Razer isn't exactly a company known for its subtlety. One peek at the ad for its Razer Nommo V2 Pro range shows off explosive visual effects, RGB, and animated dragons—doesn't this feel a little excessive to sell a speaker? Undoubtedly, but Razer has owned this description so hard that it's almost a cliché to bring it up. Yet it feels necessary when talking about what is, rather annoyingly, one of my favourite speakers I've used in some time. 

The Razer Nommo V2 Pro is not like other speakers—it's a little quirky but also quite innovative. You have your traditional speakers that go either side of your monitor and plug in with a USB cable, but then you have a few more components in the box. The subwoofer is entirely wireless and, somehow, also seamless. I was worried initially that it might struggle wirelessly as even a few milliseconds of difference between the speakers and sub would feel like an eternity in the wrong environment. Thankfully, it never faltered. 

I'm not entirely sure the wireless component of the subwoofer feels all that necessary as you still have to plug it into the mains, making it not entirely wireless. You could opt to distance it from your PC setup but this would be a waste of the hardware as subwoofers work at their best on the floor between two speakers. It does help to avoid wires specifically behind my PC but I can't say this ever felt like much of a problem. 

The subwoofer is downward facing, which allows for a real rumble on the floor as it plays. Unfortunately, while the bass is super heavy and great for impact, this can result in bass tones feeling a tad muddy. Even when you turn down that bass, you get less of the sound of low notes and more of the feeling of them. If you like your bass to really hit you, these speakers are great for that but they're a little less good for picking up a subtle bass line in a chorus. 

The speakers themselves are pretty great across the board, however. The clean vocals at the start of Foxing's 'Bloodhound' ring through true, organically hitting at the raw element of singer Conor Murphy's voice. Inversely, the Razer Nommo V2 Pro brings a certain rumbly depth to The Postal Service's ethereal synth-pop hit 'Such Great Heights' that feels not quite intended. I didn't always get the song I imagined with headphones wrapped around my ears but the product I received never quite felt worse—just different. 

The Razer Nommo V2 Pro is, by Razer's own admission, a gaming speaker and that rumbly bass makes a bit more sense in the action-packed maps of a Call of Duty or Battlefield. It feels downright immersive when the floor shudders under your feet as you fire RPGs at the oncoming hordes of enemies. 

Fallout: New Vegas, a game with not only a focus on shooting bad dudes but plenty of dialogue, and some great tunes, manages to fare very well on the Nommo V2 Pro. The high ping of guns never clash with the rumble of enemy feet and the mids of the tunes manage to provide a good backdrop for it all. As is the case with pretty much everything I played, turning the bass down a tad helps the mids and highs find their feet.  

What makes the Razer Nommo V2 Pro even better is how easy it is to connect via Bluetooth. Though being limited to just a USB cable or Bluetooth is a bit unfortunate, both connectivity options are implemented so well that it becomes less of a worry. As well as coming with speakers and a subwoofer in the box, there's a small puck that can be connected to the speakers to adjust volume quickly or switch quickly from PC to phone. Initially, it feels a little gimmicky, especially as it requires two AAA batteries to get going. However, it functions just like a media slider and can swap from Bluetooth to wired in just a single click.  You will have to replace those batteries after a while but the extra effort is worth it. 

The speakers themselves look like spotlights as they're low down yet have a distinctive circular shape to either end. This not only allows it to project audio but gives room at the back for all that RGB. If you're looking to actually control said RGB, you need the best and worst part of owning the Razer Nommo V2 Pro–Razer Synapse. 

Razer Synapse is Razer's proprietary software. With the Nommo V2 Pro, it allows you to customize the EQ, change the lighting setup, initiate some special audio modes, and change the level of the bass. Given I had to change how heavy that bass was immediately, Synapse became necessary very quickly. However, perhaps most annoyingly, Synapse is needed to get firmware updates. Without that first firmware update, it is impossible to change the level of the bass. 

This then downloads an .exe file which is used to update the subwoofer, speakers, and puck. Unfortunately, getting the firmware update needs a Bluetooth connection for some reason. My own Frankenstein's Monster of a PC is missing a Bluetooth connector in its motherboard so this meant downloading Synapse onto a secondary device, getting it updated, and plugging it back in again. If you want to pick up the Razer Nommo V2 Pro for a console, it does work fine but will need some fine tuning on a PC first. 

Razer Synapse is generally quite a good program, if a bit bloaty, that can connect to plenty of other Razer devices for RGB customization and custom macros. However, Synapse doesn't feel like an option here, it positions itself as a near necessary bit of software and if you are someone who likes a clean desktop, maybe this isn't for you.

That said, I don't think your desk space would feel super clean with all that RGB anyway. If you are a fan of colourful lighting in your tech, the Razer Nommo V2 Pro looks pretty great. All the lights come out the back of the speakers which gave a nice backdrop behind my monitor. You can customize how RGB functions in Synapse, from a different colour palette to reactive lighting. This works well for slower paced games, where sharply moving from one noise to another is a little less common, but can be too hectic for me otherwise. 

Downloading Synapse gives you access to one rather fantastic setting—spatial audio. The goal of spatial audio is to make that soundstage deeper and more immersive. From the thundering footsteps of Counter Strike 2 to the anthemic orchestras of Slay the Spire's soundtrack, this works incredibly well. I've found myself preferring the standard speaker mode for videos and music, yet spatial audio wins for games. Synapse has a handy little function that allows you to save specific EQ settings for certain games—meaning I rarely felt the need to mess around with the software once it got going. 

With the puck, Razer Synapse, and the subwoofer's bass being a tad loud at the start, there's a lot to get used to with the Razer Nommo V2 Pro but, once you invest the time, it really pays off. 

The Kanto Ora desktop speakers first underwhelmed me with their look, only to overwhelm me with their sound. When it comes to visuals, I don't know if I could pick the Ora out of a hypothetical speaker lineup (or what kind of crime they may have committed to get put there) but once I start cranking the bass and blasting tunes, it starts to matter less and less. 

There's a certain confidence in the aesthetic of the Kanto Ora speakers. They don't need to be crammed with RGB, or have angular architecture to catch the eye—all the Kanto Ora needs to do is catch the ear, and it does this very well. 

Out of the box, the Oras just need to be hooked up to a power socket, plugged into each other, then connected to an audio source. Unfortunately, the box only comes with the power lead and cable to link the two speakers up so you have to source your own USB-C or RCA cables to get it online. 

If you lack any of these, it does have a rather great Bluetooth mode, but this can be somewhat limiting as Bluetooth doesn't support lossless FLAC Audio. No aux jack means getting very high-quality audio from your phone is a challenge but this is admittedly, a bit of a niche use case. 

Being someone who throws my spare cables into a miscellaneous bag like a sitcom character trying to clean their apartment before a date arrives, this meant a few minutes of fishing around for wires before I could get everything set up right. However, once you get your cables together, everything functions perfectly. And, with the ability to flit between Bluetooth and wired mode by just clicking the front of the right speaker, I often found myself passively swapping audio sources in seconds.

This is a real privilege that hits at what makes the Kanto Ora speakers work so well—they feel designed to fit unobtrusively into a space. They aren't a centerpiece but a supporting actor. They are the bassline holding the groove down while my RGB-laden PC shreds all over it. 

You do pay quite a lot for that supporting act, especially when you consider you can get many of the best PC speakers for less. However, this shows in not only a strong build quality and connectivity options but also a great sound. Without any extra add-ons, the Ora can get very bassy, especially when you boost it and let the speakers boom. 

Fortnite’s eclectic mix of emote sounds, Fortnite Jam songs, and the hail of gunfire all come through clearly and drive home the annoyingly fun overstimulation at the core of its gameplay. Dead By Daylight, with a litany of scratch effects and vaguely horrible squelches also feel full and real —the only time I’ve been pleasantly surprised that a wet slap noise feels lifelike. 

Due to the Ora's almost comedically small size, my partner thought it would be funny to test out the Kanto Ora on Rebecca Black's terribly catchy Friday hyper-pop remix. As the bass connected and fully rocked her little PC stand, we both felt the horrifying silence of worrying the next day would be accompanied by a noise complaint. Luckily, the neighbours didn't seem to mind the small earthquake we had summoned. 

Some bassy setups can fall into the trap of neglecting the rest of the soundscape so my next test was The Hotelier's wonderfully dynamic and sorrowful "Home, Like Noplace is There". It passed with flying colours, placing the sharp jangle of an overdriven guitar and warmth of harmony effortlessly. By the time I got to "Housebroken" in the middle of the album, I was enthralled with the sound, and that's only partially because of how great the song is. When at lower volumes, the mids can feel a tad hollow in comparison to everything else, but not so much that I felt I was hugely missing out. 

Being over six inches tall, four inches wide, and mine being all black, the Kanto Ora looks understated on a desk, and this is only made better with Kanto's speaker stands. Though $60 for what are essentially metal brackets feels quite expensive for a job that a few books can do almost as well, it's hard to deny the quality on offer here. The brackets come in a few different sizes and this can affect the presentation of sound from the speakers, given their size and placement in the room. 

This brings me to the most expensive, yet greatest, add-on available—the Kanto SUB8 subwoofer. Priced at $80 less than the speakers themselves, this subwoofer can be connected by the sub-out output on the back of the speakers and plugged into the mains separately. 

Like the speakers, the SUB8 has a clean, effective design language without much flash. It offers textured and clear bass, providing a grander soundscape in online shooters for a real rumble as you hit the trigger. For most people, the SUB8 is probably too much for their sound setup but it's still an excellent addition for anyone with both the desire and spare cash. 

The Kanto Ora is missing some of the features one might wish for in gaming speakers, such as spatial audio compatibility or a dedicated app for messing around with EQ settings on the go, but this can still be done through third-party apps and software. Out of the box, the speakers sound great, even if you may want to tone down that bass sometimes. 

Though calling something a 'reference speaker' can sometimes be a bit of a marketing gimmick, the phrase seems apt when referring to the Kanto Ora. Traditionally, this is used to denote speakers that give an accurate playback to a studio speaker, with neutral EQ. If you're looking to produce music, it's a near must, so you don't create a song specifically for your speakers, only to find it incredibly bass-boosted in a natural set of speakers. 

This can be more unforgiving on poorly produced sound but also gives the 'purest' version of a song when tuned accurately. As someone who uses my PC to game, produce music, listen to movies, edit videos, and so much more, I've loved my time with these speakers and it's not just because they fit onto the desk easily—though they do. 

CES 2024 is nearly upon us and the raft of long awaited products are starting to be teased at a considerable rate. Amongst the expected laptop refreshes and big screen bonanzas, however, there are always some more, shall we say, unusual products that steal the show for many. LG may have set the bar pretty high rather early this year with some reveals from its LG Labs, chief amongst them being a rather stunning looking audio device it's calling the "DukeBox".

LG describes it as an "innovative audio product" that aims to combine vacuum tube audio chops with an adjustable transparency OLED panel that can be used both as a control method and as display, or even to create the illusion of a fireplace glowing away over the top of those rather prominent tubes. 

Audio output is handled by front-facing speakers at the bottom and a 360-degree speaker on the top, which in combination with those valves should create something of a unique audio and visual experience.

LG says that the DukeBox is designed to be versatile and even suggests that it could be used to enjoy a movie, although how far the transparency on that gorgeous glass fronted OLED display can be adjusted may well be a deciding factor as to whether you could watch something on it without being distracted by those glowy valves. I can't imagine myself watching a film on what amounts to a glass-fronted tube-amp, but hey, I guess you could?

That being said, as an object of desire it's certainly something. Evoking something of a nostalgic air combined with cutting edge OLED technology strikes me as a smart move for a product designed for the high-end market, although given the premium vibes here I'd expect it to be fist-bitingly expensive. I also have some concerns about how fingerprint resistant that frontage proves to be, as nothing ruins the look of a gorgeous panel more than sticky smears and fingerprints all over it

Not one for those of you with children or pets, I reckon. But as an objet d'art it certainly looks like an absolute stunner, and one that's had us cooing and cawing over in the PC Gamer hardware team group chat.

It's not the only unusual product set to be unveiled at the Las Vegas show, as LG will also show off an upgraded version of what they call the "Bon Voyage by LG Labs", a "customised living space", or what we in the UK would call a rather fancy caravan/trailer tent. 

This car-towed small space is designed to be furnished with various appliances, including, according to LG, a "Styler and shoe care products". Certainly sounds like a much fancier version of the caravan holidays I went on as a kid, which involved fry-ups on a gas camping stove and a chemical toilet that was far too small for purpose.

Regardless, visitors to CES 2024 starting on January 9 can check out these products for themselves at the company's booth, and we'll be out at the show looking for the latest PC gaming developments, so stay tuned for that. Still, I reckon the DukeBox is the one to look for. I've seen enough caravans to last a lifetime. 

I've always been a sucker for PC gaming hardware with a look. Drop, a company recently acquired by Corsair, has consistently served as the place for purchasing niche enthusiast PC gaming peripherals. And it especially caters to PC gamers who prioritize aesthetics based on vibes.

The Drop BMR1 Nearfield monitors differ from your typical desktop speakers because it uses Balanced Mode Radiators, or BMR.  The BMR1 speakers use compact drivers inside a 2-inch disc instead of the cone-shaped diaphragms you see in everyday speakers. Situated beneath the BMRs is a dual force-canceling passive radiator. So, what does all this sexy speaker talk mean? Essentially, a more immersive sound experience from a more condensed speaker setup.

You need not direct the speakers squarely towards your face, as the sound disperses across a broader range. Consequently, the auditory experience remains consistently impressive regardless of your position within the room, or whether you opt to orient the speakers horizontally or vertically.

If your preferred work soundtrack comprises primarily pop music, the BMR1 is a good choice. Personally, I've recently experienced a wave of nostalgia for Interpol and found myself engrossed in their 2002 album, "Turn On The Bright Lights." The album's distorted vocal tracks are faithfully reproduced through the BMR1.

Much like everyone else on the planet, I've immersed myself deeply in Baldur's Gate 3. When I'm not reveling in the satisfying sounds of goblins ablaze or Astarion's seductive line delivery, the game's remaining audio envelops me in richness, volume, and intricate detail.

The speakers stumble, however, in the bass realm. Anything with a strong bass presence lacks the desired punch, although not to the extent that tracks become unbearable. To enhance the music-listening experience, adding a subwoofer with an AUX port is the best way to solve this issue. 

An additional advantage is the speakers' modest spatial footprint. Standing tall at dimensions of 3.5-inch x 1.5-inch x 11.5-inch, they comfortably inhabit even the most cluttered desks, unlike my prior experience with the Razer Nommo Chroma speakers. Despite being excellent, the latter dominated my desk with its oddly cylindrical shape.

As previously mentioned, these Bluetooth speakers connect through 3.5mm aux and headphone ports (switchable through the front LED button), offering the flexibility to toggle between 2.0 and 2.1 stereo sound on the fly. However, this exhausts the extent of the available connectivity options. Personally, I favored Bluetooth over the 3.5mm connection to reduce cable clutter.

It's disappointing that the BMR1 ships without magnetic grilles, given the appealing color options (Skiiboard Orange looks awesome), though $25 for a pair seems steep. Drop included a pair of Black grilles with my review sample, but I opted for the exposed radiator appearance. Unfortunately, this extra layer of choice drives the BMR1's pricing beyond the realm of competitive affordability for those aiming to infuse their speakers with personal style. 

While I appreciate these speakers, certain design issues have irked me during regular use. Firstly, the absence of physical volume controls stands out. While it might not concern some users, having on-device volume control is essential, especially when connected via Bluetooth to a phone or when gaming and you want to adjust the volume on the fly. It's simply an odd omission.

Speaking of the lack of buttons, the BMR1 is also missing a power button. To turn it off, you must disconnect the rear power cord—the ability to power down the speakers when not in use would be convenient. I've encountered instances where my phone inadvertently played through the speakers while I was using it in another room and was still connected to the speakers.

The proprietary cables that link the speakers and auxiliary cables are excessively short. The auxiliary cord extends roughly three feet, which presents a challenge when using a standing desk, especially with a PC positioned on the floor as the desk ascends. Fortunately, longer auxiliary cables are readily available. Still, the same can't be said for the other cable connecting the speakers, which limits how you can set the speakers on the desk.

For a similar price, the Logitech Z407 for $114 offers a Bluetooth speaker package with a wireless dial and subwoofer that I found enjoyable and used for about a year. Admittedly, the BMR1 far surpasses Logitech's audio quality.

Setting aside minor criticisms, the Drop BMR1 Nearfield Monitors effectively fulfill their role as visually and acoustically appealing Bluetooth desktop speakers. For those seeking more feature-rich options, particularly for gaming, a plethora of choices exist within the same price range, some even including subwoofers. However, it's unlikely that these alternatives will match the BMR1's aesthetic charm.

The upcoming Drop BMR1 Nearfield Monitors batch is scheduled to ship on August 21 for $129. Drop employs a limited-quantity release strategy, meaning that if you miss out, there might be a significant wait before you can purchase them again.

When you cover PC gaming hardware and peripherals for a living, it's quite easy to amass an unhealthy amount of weird tech. It becomes easy to forget what you've stashed away in your closet at any moment, so you can imagine my surprise when I unearthed something pretty wild during a recent spring cleaning. The Panasonic SoundSlayer Wearable Immersive Gaming Speaker System, or SoundSlayer WIGSS for short. 

This wearable speaker, which looks like one of those power-dampening doodads the bad guys put on the X-men to take away their powers, was released in late 2021. I didn't get my hands on a review sample until later the following year while I was on paternity leave. So, of course, I never got around to covering it and putting it away for safekeeping in my messy closet the way a squirrel hides away acorns for the winter.

The SoundSlayer is a wild fusion of a PC speaker and a gaming headset, but instead of it sitting on your desk or your head, it lives around your neck. As you'll see, it's an interesting but somewhat flawed experiment of sound and design. 

SoundSlayer WIGSS uses the 'Majestic Augement Gaming Environment Sound System' (or MAGESS) to deliver surround sound. Ridiculous acronym aside, it's a system comprised of four 4-channel speakers that wrap around your neck. This means you are technically getting surround sound because the speakers surround your head as opposed to it being some fancy spatial audio tech like DTS or Windows Sonic.

I'll admit, once I got over how silly I looked, and got past the first few hours of having sound blasted at my head from below my neck, there was something oddly satisfying about wearing the SoundSlayer throughout the course of the day. However, after just a few hours, I plopped the SoundSlayer down on the desk because I got tired of wearing sound all day and used it as a desktop speaker. Which kinda defeats the purpose. 

When I did wear it, I played a lot of Resident Evil 4 Remake, and it made the game plenty scary with all the ambient moans and groans. They really do feel like they are coming from behind, like something is whispering horrible sweet-nothings into my ears. Horror and adventure games are a better use case of the SoundSlayer's surround sound, really hammering in the immersion.

I did find that the SoundSlayer tends to lack some oomph when the action gets when compared to a set of good desk-mounted PC speakers or premium headsets. That's mostly because the volume on the SoundSlayer doesn't get that high, which becomes noticeable on a video call or watching YouTube videos. I'm assuming this is most likely a safety feature since having the sounds of explosions going that close to your head at full volume can not be good for you. If you're looking for that thumping bass, it ain't here. Dialogue in movies and games is too tinny and distant for my liking. It sounds like the characters are shouting from the bottom of a well and often get buried once the action picks up. 

Much like the SoundSlayer soundbar, you have a couple of presets you can cycle through, like RPG, First-person shooter, music, and chat. It's got a serviceable built-in microphone you can use for team chat, too. I even used the Slayer on our daily call, and my colleagues said they could hear me pretty clearly. Though I really couldn't make them out because they were relentlessly teasing me over how ridiculous I looked with it on. 

Another disappointing thing about the Sound Slayer is that it isn't wireless. For $200, I expect to become an obnoxious human speaker and wear this thing during a workout or even be able to pace around my house while on a Discord call. Instead, you have a 3.5ft USB cable that keeps you tethered to your PC. It's not like Bluetooth sound collars don't exist either: Monster makes one for $100 that's slightly smaller than the SoundSlayer and looks just as silly.

Who's this thing actually for? Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out. From an ergonomic standpoint, I see the argument that this is way comfier to wear than a tight headset throughout the course of the day, especially if you are working from home. And from an accessibility standpoint, there's a lot of potential to be had. But otherwise, this feels like a very niche solution to a problem that doesn't exist. 

I get the point that Panasonic is trying to make; the only problem is that the Sound Slayer overlooks something crucial, which is pretty much why most people prefer a headset over speakers: Noise. You're not in a private sound bubble like you are when wearing a headset. You might share a space with roommates, coworkers, or a partner who might not appreciate the sound of gunfire, death gargles, and aggressive voice comms from a Call of Duty match blasting out of your neck.  

The Panasonic SoundSlayer will cost you $200. There's also a Final Fantasy 14-themed SoundSlayer with the game's logo and exclusive sound mode for $250. Both models are often on sale at a hefty discount, which is still too expensive to recommend over the best gaming headsets which are both really comfy and sound awesome.

That said, I am glad this is an ergonomic alternative to wearing headphones all day. The only problem is that an alternative already exists. Speakers. 

Panasonic’s SoundSlayer isn’t your dad’s gaming headset. Worn around your neck, its speakers literally surround you to provide true 3D game audio - or the most immersive Discord chat you’ve had in your life. Up to you.

The key idea here is that the orientation of the speakers right around you from the back to the sides means you can be fully immersed in the audio. There are actually four speakers placed front left and right, and rear left and right. So when someone in-game speaks to you from behind you and to the right, that’s where you hear their voice coming from. No need for digital surround trickery, the sound cue’s coming from the correct position IRL.

The SoundSlayer lets you fine-tune that experience, too. Its three modes are designed for different gaming scenarios, and you can probably guess those scenarios by the mode names: RPG, FPS and Voice.

See the Panasonic Soundslayer at Amazon.

RPG mode is designed to sink you deep into the rich worlds of the likes of Skyrim, Mass Effect, God of War, or look, it’ll even do its best with Realms Of Arkania: Blade Of Destiny Revised if that’s your thing. It doesn’t judge. The characteristics of this mode are about bringing out the little details in natural soundscapes, so when you go for those moody evening walks in Skyrim you hear your footsteps crunch into the snow with crisp fidelity, wolves howling in the distance somewhere behind you, and the soothing tones of "Should never have come here" carried along the twilight breeze from some soon-to-be-ragdolled bandit.

FPS mode is where immersion meets performance. Shooters require you to pick up sound cues and use them to pinpoint enemies in an instant, so in this mode the SoundSlayer amplifies those sound cues and uses its natural advantage in 3D audio to give you a helping hand mid-fight. But even outside of a competitive setting, FPS mode’s designed to wow you and amp up the bombast of a gunfight. Ammo pinging off surfaces all around you, gruff voices bellowing action movie-calibre dialogue, buildings crumbling to the ground just to keep you entertained… FPS mode captures all of it in sharp detail and ramps up the sonic drama of it all.

Finally, Voice mode’s about cutting out all the background noise and game audio to let you and your mates communicate clearly and easily, using the noise and echo-cancelling tech that’s hardwired into the mic. Gone are the days of trying to playcall over a Discord chat that sounds like a taxi driver’s radio - this is more like a podcast that your channel buddies can enjoy live.

Those settings were created in collaboration with Final Fantasy XIV’s sound team, using their considerable expertise in what a PC gamer needs in different sound scenarios to sculpt distinct presets. And they’re cycled easily enough using a button that’s built into the SoundSlayer’s side, easily accessible while you’re playing. So if you’re quitting out of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and feel like having your ego destroyed with a few rounds of PUBG, the perfect audio setting’s just a tap away.

If you've ever grumbled about a terrible user interface, now's the time to take a step back and be thankful this lot aren't left to their own devices to design the UI for your favourite apps. 

We're admittedly late to the party, but we've just come across an old trend on the ProgrammerHumor subreddit from about six years ago that's had us laughing our collective butts off in the office—yeah, I know it's old but it's still news to us (via UXDesign). Sometimes falling under the BadUI tag, there's an entire sea of programmers up in here, designing the worst volume controls imaginable.

From morse code tappers, to latitude-based volume restrictions, and even microtransactions so you can purchase your desired volume for a short period of time, these have had us in stitches this morning. 

The latter design, I'm sure we're not far off in today's frankly dystopian approach to media, but let's not think about that. Here are the best designs we spotted, including some game based ones that will make your most frustrating run-ins with bad design seem like a walk in the park.

This Half Life bhop volume control from Markop1CZ may be one of the most obscure on the list, honestly. Frankly, encouraging players to bunnyhop in games is getting my back up, though I can imagine this as a useful reminder to give your acrobatics skill a boost in an Elder Scrolls game.

This fantastic Morse code volume control from user LinAGKar requires a very specific skillset in order to get anywhere. Those with a knowledge of the inconspicuous 1830s telegraphic method need only tap out the word to input the required volume. 

This volume control from Maximuso tests your Curling technique, gamifying the process. Needless to say it's a bit hit or miss, but certainly an interesting take.

This incredible latitude-based volume control from maharshimartian looks like it's never gonna' give you up, or let you down, unless you run around with your laptop.

Not the most intuitive volume control design here from user mienys, but perhaps one for the artists out there. It might take ten minutes to rearrange the dots to enter the desired volume, but there's certainly a sense of free expression. I wonder what would happen if you drew a dick... Don't tell me you weren't thinkin' it too.

If you're constantly obsessing over your flaky internet, this Wi-Fi signal strength-based volume control from kleinschrader isn't going to be the one for you. A consistent signal is going to be your friend here, though it could be a useful way to keep tabs on your signal strength if you're wondering whether you need a Wi-Fi range extender.

Another gamified volume control here, this time a little more luck-based. User  kapeboi has gone with a wheel of fortune design which could result in the perfect volume, or perhaps a trip to the ear doctor.

If you're trying to monitor the temperature in your home, this Arduino and DHT11 temperature sensor volume controller from KapiteinBreinpijn will give you a reading in sound form. That does mean that when it gets a little chilly, you'll not only be shivering but also straining to hear your music. Sounds like a bad time.

An horrific vision of a capitalist future where only the rich can listen to their music on full volume. I really hope this microtransaction-based volume control from SpazJoekp never makes it onto the market.

volume_control_should_be_intuitive from r/ProgrammerHumor

This is another one of our favourites, and we've been squawking at our PCs all morning in relation to just how loud we want our volume control to be set. In fact can someone just make this, please?

There are many more in this little rabbit hole of a UI trend. It was a simpler time back then, where joy was more readily found. 

Razer promises a lot with the Leviathan V2 Pro. This beamforming, AI-powered, head-tracking soundbar is designed to wrap your ears with positional gaming audio. With how often 'AI' is thrown around these days I must admit I was a little sceptical of it all, but I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how well Razer's head-tracking system works in real-time.

Razer uses an integrated infrared camera to keep track of your head as you move about your desktop or scoot around in your gaming chair. The AI portion of the soundbar is responsible for deciding where your ears are at all times, which admittedly sounds more of a job for a clever algorithm than strictly AI, but sure, I'll bite. This data is then used in tandem with beamforming spatial audio to create either headphone-like positional audio or virtual surround sound speakers from the Leviathan's five-strong flat array of 2-inch tweeters. 

Beamforming is often used to boost a wireless signal, such as a Wi-Fi signal from your router to your device. It uses different forms of interference to direct a signal more precisely at a device and works for all sorts of wireless signals, as evidenced by the Leviathan V2 Pro that uses it to direct an audio waveform directly at your ear holes.

The THX Spatial Audio Virtual Headset mode is of the most interest to me as a PC gamer. A gaming headset isn't always the most comfortable option, but it is the best for positional audio without going all-out on a full surround sound setup. Simply put: a gaming headset is champ for competitive gaming, so a speaker mode that mimics a headset sounded right up my alley.

The Virtual Headset mode causes the audio erupting from the Leviathan V2 Pro to sound as though it originates directly in front of me, and sound evenly across both ears, no matter where I sit in front of the soundbar. It's quite an odd experience. Even if you move from side to side, the soundbar does a fantastic job of tracking your head movements in real-time and keeping the audio stage pleasantly centred on your cranium. There is a slight delay between the audio shifting left and right along the soundbar, but it's less noticeable in actual use than when you're trying to hear the audio shifting around.

How best to explain it? The Leviathan V2 Pro's audio sounds like it emanates from wherever you are in relation to the length of the soundbar. Turn the feature off and stereo audio clearly emanates from the centre of the speaker, as you'd expect from any balanced soundbar. It means you can benefit from the Leviathan V2 Pro's audio in a way that's not entirely dissimilar to a gaming headset. It's not an exact analogue, but it's a good deal more positional and all-encompassing than what a traditional soundbar can offer. Only thing is you're missing the microphone for online gaming or calls, which means the gaming headset still remains the most solid all-rounder for PC gaming.

The Virtual Speaker mode is more of a match to virtual surround features on gaming headsets. That means it's definitely a more expansive soundstage, but at the expense of audio quality for any audio that's not properly mixed for surround sound. While just the Virtual Headset mode suffices for positional audio in games, in 5.1 surround sound tests you can better make out the rear 'speakers' with this mode enabled. It's not a mode I'd like to leave on all the time—it doesn't offer a universally pleasant experience—but for the odd movie it's entertaining enough to try it out. I'm not in the habit of watching all too many movies at my desk, though.

Audio quality is generally good on the Razer but it does fall into the pitfall that often catches out gaming-first audio products. The bass is a bit clumsy. This is easily fixed: you can set up your own equaliser in the software and tone back the bass a touch.

For how surprisingly impressive Razer's use of beamforming is, what does give me pause is the premium price associated with it. Razer's not pulling any punches here, and the Leviathan V2 Pro costs $400/£400. That's not only steep for a soundbar like this, but it's steep versus Razer's non-AI augmented but otherwise pretty much identical Razer Leviathan V2. 

The standard Leviathan V2 may cut out some of the fun features, including head tracking, but it's also only $250. That's a lot more than some soundbars but it is less than the best PC soundbar, the Creative Sound Blaster Katana V2. We knocked that for its price tag and lack of optical and 3.5mm connections, and the same is true for the V2 Pro in those regards.

At least the Leviathan V2 Pro doesn't put a foot wrong in the more mundane aspects of its design. It comes with all the cables required to get it working with a PC, and it hooks up with both the Razer Synapse app and the Razer Audio app on mobile. I stuck with the mobile app for the most part, and once you're setup it seems to remember your device and get you right into the settings fairly quickly. You can also do a lot of the tweaking on the device itself, like switching between modes, adjusting the volume, or switching between Bluetooth and USB sources.

Also included in the V2 Pro package is a 5.25-inch subwoofer—a neat little number that's only let down is the requirement for a second outlet power cable. The soundbar itself also requires a power cable to an outlet, so it's going to gobble up a lot of outlet space if you don't have much to spare. At least the subwoofer is pumping out a lot of bass for the extra power—perhaps a little too much with the music mode turned on, but you can always tone it back.

It's a neat package, and the Leviathan V2 Pro is a great look into head-tracking and beamforming specifically as features for better gaming audio. What I had expected to be a bit of a gimmick has proven to be quite an impressive set of features in practicality. 

Still, that price is just so tough to swallow, and those features aren't as game changing as I need them to be. Head tracking and virtual headphones are more than a party trick but they fall into a category of fun yet completely non-essential features. I don't want to pay $150 more for this instead of the standard Leviathan V2, an already pretty pricey soundbar for its spec, and that's unfortunately all there is to it.

Now, if Razer manages to squeeze this into a cheaper product, I'd be interested. But I have a feeling AI-powered infrared head-tracking is expensive for a reason.

An often overlooked factor for a great VR experience is audio quality. I wouldn't feel so strongly about this if it wasn't for the Valve Index, which introduced me to excellent VR audio capable of tricking your brain into thinking you're someplace else. The issue is I don't own a Valve Index—it's a $1,000 headset. I own a Meta Quest 2, and I've been trying to find the best way to mimic the Index with it ever since I got it. 

The Logitech Chorus is the best way I've found so far of doing just that.

The default audio solution for the Quest 2 leaves a lot to be desired. I get why it wasn't top of the priorities list for the entry-level headset: it does a lot of other things very well instead and it used to be frightfully cheap (it is, however, a little pricier now). But I do often wish for a little more oomph in the audio department. The two tiny cut-out speakers on the Quest 2 do a reasonable job of blasting the audio towards your ears while you're wearing the headset, but they don't deliver much clarity, bass, or sound isolation. They also don't deal particularly well with high volume. All of which takes me out of the virtual reality experience.

The obvious solution is to plug in a pair of headphones. Easily done, the Quest 2 offers up a standard 3.5mm port for most headphones to slot right into. That's been my go-to approach for the past few years—I don't have a pair specifically made with a short cable run for the Quest 2 but a regular pair of SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless headphones I have for calls works well enough. You just have to deal with the mess of cables when taking the headset on and off.

Headphones are decent enough but they're not a completely perfect fit for the VR experience. VR should beget a more bespoke audio experience to reflect the 3D world surrounding you when you're wearing the headset—stereo headsets don't do this very well.

That's why I've always come back to the Valve Index's audio solution: two off-ear BMR drivers designed to both fully encompass the wearer's ears with audio and maintain long-term comfort. It achieves both goals very well. Audio comes through loud and clear, with an open-back design delivering an expansive sound stage for better directional audio. Despite the obvious gap between you and the drivers, it's surprisingly good on the sound isolation front, too.

The Logitech Chorus is close to an exact replica of the Index's audio solution in a Quest 2-friendly form factor. The Chorus also includes two off-ear, open-back BMR drivers to near-enough mimic the audio properties of its inspiration.

It really is quite a simple like-for-like audio solution and it works as well as I had hoped. The audio quality is quite simply excellent and it nails that level of immersive audio in a way that my headphones just couldn't hack. They're also capable of going much louder than the built-in speakers.

Installation is easy: the Chorus clips on easily and securely to the Quest 2 frame. It's relatively ambivalent to the strap you have installed on your headset, as clips onto the two solid arms attached to the headset proper. It worked just fine with my Elite Strap, and of course it will work with the standard fabric strap, too. Third-party straps with a similar design principle to these should be similarly compatible. You need only plug in the compact USB Type-cable run into the headset and you're ready to go.

The short USB Type-C connection also means there's no more cables to tangle yourself in with the Chorus. While it does take up the only USB Type-C port on the headset, the Chorus offers a USB passthrough so you can still run a line to your PC to charge the headset easily. (Update: Oculus Link functionality does not function via the USB port on the Chorus, which admittedly limits the Chorus to the standalone functionality of the Quest 2. There are workarounds, but none that are as simple as I'd like.)

At $100/£90, the Chorus rivals a whole new pair of headphones in price, and admittedly it's a lot more limited in use. It's easy to look at the Quest 2 as a cheaper option than many other higher-end PC VR headsets, such as the Valve Index, but if you want to piece together a more comfortable, impressive VR experience with the Quest 2 you do have to spend quite a bit to get there.

My VR headset setup now includes the $100 Logitech Chorus, $60 Elite Strap, and $80 Link Cable. If I bought all this today, with the Quest 2 at its new $400 price, I'd be looking at spending $640.

Sure, it's not the $999 that Valve asks for the Index, but it all adds up. The entry-level Quest 2 can quickly become a whole lot more expensive with a few, in my opinion, must-have accessories. 

Admittedly, a more comfortable strap is more-so a must-have in my opinion, if simply because I couldn't stand to wear the Quest 2 with its original fabric one after a while of using it.

The Logitech Chorus hits a perfect note with me, however. It's exactly what I've been looking for in an audio upgrade for the Quest 2, and it delivers all-round immersive audio to rival the best on the market in my books. If you're after a similar upgrade or just sick of the cable tangles, it's well worth considering the Chorus.

The new Razer Leviathan V2 Pro soundbar has just been announced at CES 2023, and it's promising an AI-powered head tracking beamforming audio solution for the desktop. It all sounds pretty techno-forward, but thankfully I've had the opportunity to try it out at home over the past few weeks to see if it's the real deal or not.

If you don't already know, beamforming is when a signal is directed at something to better improve the signal strength and quality. It's not just an audio thing, there are loads of uses for beamforming in regards to wireless signals, but that's what Razer is using it for with the new Leviathan V2 Pro. Basically, the system will determine where you are and, through some neural network computing, beam the audio signal directly at your ears.

To do this, the Leviathan V2 Pro comes with a small infrared sensor array, located in the middle of the unit. The data from which is then fired through a neural network processor to sense where a user is, or more specifically where their ears are, to better create spatial audio. That data is then "immediately discarded" and never gets transferred to your PC or the cloud, so sayeth Razer.

There are five 2-inch speakers included within the soundbar, operated with different interference patterns to keep the user in the sweet spot for audio, and a subwoofer that plugs in at the back to go on the floor.

So is this all worth it? I'm going to write a full review on this product soon enough, but I am pretty impressed with how seamless the audio shifting is as I move my head at my desk. You sit in the middle of your desk and the audio is firing right at you. You move to the left and the audio is firing right at you. You move to the right and the audio is firing right at you.

You get the idea.

There are a couple of modes onboard that work best in different scenarios: THX Spatial Virtual Headset and THX Spatial Audio Virtual Speakers. 

I quite like the THX Spatial Virtual Headset mode for listening to music. It delivers the aforementioned described beamforming effect but is mostly just a straightforward stereo, 2:1 listening experience. 

The Virtual Speakers, however, are a bit more involved, as they attempt to replicate a surround sound speaker setup without the hardware. I'm usually pretty sceptical about these sorts of features, as I don't find the dip in audio quality to often be worth the positional audio gain, but I have to admit the Leviathan's virtual speakers are pretty impressive. I ran a 5.1 speaker test locally on my machine and the positional audio is so much greater than the standard stereo output. Not a bad loss in quality either, though a little bit tinier on the rear left and right directions. I mean you definitely don't want to listen to music with this mode enabled, but for gaming I could see this coming in handy.

First impressions have been pretty good, then. Though I was expecting to be blown away: it's $400. That's $150 more than the Razer Leviathan V2 we reviewed earlier in the year, let alone a normal pair of computer speakers. That leads to my biggest concern so far: it's a neat feature but definitely not a must-have one, and for that sort of money it's likely a tough sell to most.

I have more testing I want to do with this soundbar before drawing conclusions. The Leviathan V2 Pro will ship from January 31, so there's plenty of time to make my mind up before then. Stay tuned for that.

SteelSeries seems to be a brand turning its hand to basically anything when it comes to gaming peripherals and accessories. They already make an assortment of brilliant keyboards, mice, and headsets, so, where’s the next logical progression from there? Ah, I know, gaming speakers!

Yes, you haven’t read that description incorrectly: gaming speakers. They exist. And these aren’t just crummy, small desktop units that have the energy and power of a wet flannel. The SteelSeries Arena 7 sound brilliant, I must say, although when you read into them further and find there’s a $300/£300 asking price attached to them, things begin to make sense. But more on sound quality a little later on.

The Arena 7 is actually the middle child in the brand’s all-new Arena lineup of speakers. At the bottom end comes the Arena 3, which gives you the two main desktop units I have here; upgrading to the Arena 7 adds a 6.5 inch subwoofer for extra rumble and low-end goodness; and finally, spending £550/$550 brings the powers of 5.1 channel audio to PC gaming by adding rear and central speakers to the party. Of course, separate units are likely to provide better immersion than a single soundbar or set of speakers, but the real question is whether a set of gaming speakers is actually any good.

Well, given that all-important prefix of ‘gaming’ attached to a set of speakers, it would be easy to assume that SteelSeries had cranked up the bass and left these to sound like a muddy mess. I’m pleased to report that most certainly isn’t the case. The Arena 7 sounds rather good indeed, with a precise and detailed sound with excellent clarity to boot. It handled pretty much everything I chucked at it with ease, be it the smooth bass and synth combo of Genesis’ It’s Gonna Get Better, or the light, emotive tones of James Taylor’s Lighthouse.

A lot of the credit for such brilliant audio comes down to the fact the Arena 7’s 6.5 inch subwoofer offered marvellous extension and rumble that made bass heavy tracks such as Yes’ Roundabout a sumptuous listen, as well as also making gunfights in Counter Strike (yes, I play with bots, please don’t leave angry comments) all that bit more immersive. At times, the bass did admittedly become a little too much, but you can dial it down thanks to the handy knob on the back of the subwoofer itself. Speaking of immersion, the wide soundstage afforded by having distinctly separate audio channels made games more engaging, as well as music, and films, too. If you’ve got the space, the Arena 7 may well be a formidable home theatre setup, too. 

Moving away from audio quality and into the Arena 7’s feature set also reveals something equally rich, especially with regards to the ways in which you can use the speakers. The back of the subwoofer reveals a lot of connectivity options including USB Type-C for direct connectivity to PCs, as well as optical audio if you do want to hook them up to a TV, and a 3.5mm audio jack for use with other devices, as well as the ports for plugging the speakers themselves in. Things don’t end there though, as the Arena 7 also supports wireless connectivity over Bluetooth. This is an absolute game-changer for me, especially as I’ll more often than not power down my PC and use my phone to listen to music or podcasts, and to have the ability to quickly pair my phone to the Arena 7 if I’d prefer a more immersive experience is excellent.

It’s not just on the hardware side of things, but also within software when connected to a PC where SteelSeries have done well. The Arena 7 works with SteelSeries Engine (now contained within their all in one tool, SteelSeries GG) and it’s in here where you can unlock features such as enabling spatial audio for an even more immersive experience, as well as to fiddle with and setup EQ settings so you can get sound just so. 

In addition, you can also configure the speakers’ RGB lighting inside Engine, as found on the back of the main units (unfortunately, there isn’t any on the subwoofer), which is in itself especially vibrant and gives the speakers a sense of personality. By default, the lighting will cycle through an assortment of colours, and it’s all very striking. Turn on any music, and it’ll attempt to match the lighting to the audio, with varying degrees of success admittedly; stick to songs with simple bass and drums, and you’ll have a full on party going.

The design of the Arena 7 doesn’t scream that they’re a gaming product, like a lot of other peripherals tend to do. Instead, SteelSeries has opted to give their latest release a refined and sleek aesthetic, with smooth curves around the main desktop speakers themselves that help them to look excellent. The subwoofer by comparison is, well, an unassuming black cube; there isn’t much else to say about it. Build quality is also generally solid, with the speakers offering quite the heft to them, acting as a reminder these aren’t a throwaway item.

All in all, the SteelSeries Arena 7 is a worthy option for anyone wanting a set of gaming speakers to offer a more immersive sound in games and music alike, as well as also for those wanting the oomph of a subwoofer to go with the main units themselves. $300/£300 might seem like a lot of money, but for what you’re getting, it actually represents pretty good value for money, especially when you can find a SteelSeries promo code. Rest assured that if I had the space for the Arena 7s in my setup, they’d be a mainstay for a very long time to come.

We've been blasting the best PC speakers all day and all night to find out if they've got what it takes to earn a place on our desks. Sure, the best gaming headsets will give you a more intimate immersion, but there's nothing like enjoying your audio out loud with the best gaming PC speakers.

The best computer speakers overall are the Mackie CR3.5BT + CR8SBT subwoofer combo, as the units combine to make a multitalented and mega-powerful 2.1 setup with superb flexibility and excellent overall audio quality. The best budget gaming PC speakers are the Creative Pebble Pro, which make up a small yet surprisingly powerful package for very little cash.

If you have the space under your desk, then you should go for the typical 2.1, left/right speaker setup with a subwoofer on the floor. But a good PC soundbar is always worth considering, as they've made a punchy comeback in recent years that places excellent depth of sound and positional audio at the front and center of their priorities. Below, you'll find my top recommendations for loud, reliable PC speakers and soundbars for your desktop.

The Quick list

The best gaming PC speakers

Gaming-specific speakers look to be a bit of an endangered species these days, and that's because truly great speaker sets are now available that are capable of doing it all. Enter the Mackie CR3.5BT and CR8SBT subwoofer combo, a combined 2.1 set that easily takes our top spot for the best PC speakers overall.

That's not to say you should rule out the Mackie CR3.5BT reference speakers as an individual purchase, however. These two monitor units are available on their own for a mere $130/£130, and their star feature, a tone dial that adjusts between flat response for studio work and "fun response" (for want of a better term) for gaming, music and more, works exceptionally well.

The CR3.5BTs really are as versatile as they come, switching between studio shenanigans and pleasant, enjoyable audio on the fly with a mere crank of a dial. Should you wish to get even more out of them, they also respond beautifully to a bit of third-party EQ, although it's by no means necessary to enjoy these remarkably accurate units.

As a set of small speakers, the bass they deliver is tight and defined, rather than room-rumbling. Should you wish for the sort of bass that brings the constabulary to your door, you can add in the CR8SBT subwoofer—an absolute Godzilla of a bass unit that's more than capable of damaging the foundations of your home, should you so desire.

The downside? It costs $200/£200 as a separate purchase, and that pushes the price overall of this now-2.1-combo up to the $330 mark, which is fairly pricey for a PC audio setup.

What you're left with, however, is a truly immense slab of audio equipment that really can suit all uses. Okay, so it's not a 5.1 surround system, but take it from us—unless you're dead set on multiplayer gaming footstep-spotting from behind, 5.1 systems really aren't worth the hassle.

Should you choose to opt for the extra sub, it also comes with a control puck that allows you to adjust the bass and speaker levels independently when everything is hooked together. It's a little cheap-feeling compared to the rest of the setup, but you'll likely want to use it to adjust that subwoofer down to reasonable levels to keep it from overwhelming the monitor units.

It really is phenomenally powerful and giggle-inducing in such a way that I couldn't leave it out of this recommendation. Still, it's probably a bit much for many, so if ultra-powerful bass is not your concern, then the Mackie CR3.5BTs on their own make for a fine choice.

I'd still spend the extra cash on that mega woofer, though, if I had it spare. Regardless of which combination you pick, the Mackie units deliver everything you could want from a PC audio setup for reasonable money. That makes them the best PC speakers by far, and the ones I'm happy to hang my hat on at the top spot of this guide.

Read our full Mackie CR3.5BT + CR8SBT subwoofer review.

The best budget PC speakers

When you're out shopping for PC speakers on a budget, it's easy to be overwhelmed by choice. It doesn't help that reliable brands have multiple options in the same price range. The low-end differences can be minimal, but the Creative Pebble Pro speakers stand apart from the competition with their big sound despite their compact size. That makes them my pick for the best budget speakers, as nothing gets close to their level of quality for the money.

These speakers pump out crisper audio better than competitors at a far less restrictive cost. They won't produce the loudest sound around, but there's little distortion even with the volume maxed out, and at more reasonable volumes, they get the job done well. The only complaint in the sound department is a lack of bass. It's still in the mix, but it won't thump like you might want.

The Pebble Pro speakers may lack some raw oomph, but they make up for it in clarity. This is why we highly recommend these speakers for students and those who move around a lot, as the speakers are small enough to fit on any cramped desk surface. They're easily the most portable speakers we've tried and perform best in a smaller bedroom or office.

Like any other pair of speakers at this sort of entry-level price range, the Creative Pebble Pro set is easily shamed by a mid-range set like the Logitech Z407. However, they surpass their predecessor, the Creative Pebble Plus, partially because of super-solid connectivity. You can plug them in via 3.5 mm jack, USB Type-C or even Bluetooth 5.3.

For this sort of price, you want something better than a lot of the no-name brands, while still keeping the hole in your pocketbook as small as possible. With that mission in mind, there is no better option than the Creative Pebble Pro.

Read our full Creative Pebble Pro review.

The best mid-range PC speakers

If you don't want to stretch your budget to the full Mackie CR3.5BT + CR8SBT speaker set, Logitech's much more tame Z407 set offers a great alternative for less money, quickly becoming our top pick for mid-range speakers as a result. They're effectively a similar set of two tweeters and a subwoofer, but ditch all the gamer stylings and lights of the fancier kit.

The Logitech Z407 set pretty much wins the award for most deceptively awesome computer speakers around. This 80 W speaker system connects via Bluetooth, 3.5 mm headphone jack, or Micro USB, so you can easily connect to it with your phone, gaming laptop, or PC. Keeping with the wireless theme, we fell in love with the wireless control knob, which lets you control your media with satisfying spins.

That's one of the key benefits over the much cheaper Creative Pebble Pro, but don't ignore their simple and effective design. Logitech's two tweeters come with small stands for your desk, and the subwoofer is compact enough not to take up too much space under your desk.

What was not satisfying was the unusually short 4ft cables, which limit how you can set them up. However, being able to lay the speakers vertically or horizontally is a nice touch. The sound achieved surprisingly balanced audio for a speaker set asking for this much cash—a strong yes for anyone looking to upgrade their current dinky desktop speakers.

The speakers here are substantial, without being overpowered, and that sub is capable of excellent bass without overpowering the tweeter units. Balance between smaller units and a big, weighty subwoofer is important, and this set does a good job of keeping itself in line. Still, crank it to the guns, and you'll still rattle your fillings, which any set of speakers at this price should be capable of to some degree.

That makes the Logitech Z407 our top pick for mid-range speakers. Not too pricey, well-built, and delivers great sound. That'll be that, then!

The best gaming soundbar

With a great whollop of a sound, a litany of solid connectivity options and a solid price (especially considering it comes with a subwoofer), the Creative Stage Pro is the best soundbar out there right now.

One thing we noticed immediately about this soundbar is that it can get tremendously loud. It's so loud, in fact, that we weren't always comfortable cranking it up above just 15%, for fear of a neighbor complaining. It is, however, still strong at lower volumes, unlike some speakers (here's looking at you, Edifier G2000 Pro).

The Soundbar itself is deep and immersive, and it's all complemented by a subwoofer packing a kicking bass. You can adjust treble and bass separately from the included remote, and that remote can switch between connectivity modes and adjust volume in a snap. It's an attractive package, and one that really pounds for its value-oriented price point.

You are sorely mistaken if you think this soundbar would miss out on RGB lights, too. The Creative Stage Pro has bright RGB lighting that accents the bar's underside and adds a little flair. Though this is quite a large unit for any desk, it might be a tight fit if you don't have much room to spare for the 21-inch soundbar.

It can feel a tad cumbersome with that included subwoofer, though, and you certainly need a decent bit of space to get it all in. If you don't have a need for loud sound or don't have much room, there are better choices, but it is a mighty impressive bit of tech.

The Creative Stage Pro is a great soundbar, all things considered. It's small enough to sit comfortably on a decent-sized desk without taking over and loud enough to easily be featured as your living room sound system.

Read our full Creative Stage Pro review.

The best budget gaming soundbar

PC soundbars only get better priced every day, and it's pretty impressive to think that something like this one would come in at around the price of a controller or new game. That's what makes the Creative Sound Blaster GS3 the best budget soundbar right now.

First off, it's worth noting that price isn't getting you super high-quality sound. The Sound Blaster GS3 is perhaps at its best as a replacement for the tinny speakers of a gaming monitor or laptop. It can add just a little more punch to a value-oriented setup. It certainly doesn't sound bad, and there's a good spread of volume and depth of clarity, making out the punch of a shotgun or the shrill of a demon screaming in your direction.

It doesn't come with a dedicated subwoofer, like the Creative Stage Pro, but it does come in at half the price, and the bass duct at the back does allow the GS3 to rumble when the low-end activates.

As far as connectivity is concerned, you've got pretty much everything you need here, with it being compatible with USB, Bluetooth, and it has a 3.5 mm port. The Bluetooth 5.4 mode only supports the rather basic SBC code, which means plugging it in is the best option, though.

One thing worth noting is that the controls are a bit hit or miss. It comes with a big dial on the right side, which you can click in to turn the whole thing off. This is satisfying and easy to use, but the buttons surrounding that dial aren't. You will have to remember the placement of the buttons to use it with ease, as it's just a little too awkward to look at, without picking up the soundbar or moving around the attached wires.

We also found ourselves unconvinced by the super wide mode, which attempts to add a bit more depth to the soundstage. For the most part, this mode is almost imperceptively different, and the less you need to mess around with this soundbar, the better.

Read our full Creative Sound Blaster GS3 review.

The best bookshelf speakers

The Kanto Ora speakers are rather ordinary-looking. For some, that's going to be a bonus, and for others, it's something of a letdown given the $350 price tag. However, that flat black aesthetic betrays the fact that these speakers are not out to impress with their looks but are instead designed to blend into a studio setup. All that really matters in a studio environment is sound, and audio quality is where the Ora set really shines, which, paired with their stature, makes them the best bookshelf speakers you can buy for the money.

Don't let the relatively small size fool you—the Kanto Oras can put out some serious bass and massive amounts of volume, too. More than that, they're detailed in a way that should allow you to hear not only the nuances of your favorite tunes, but also positional audio as well as ambient noises in your games.

Being reference speakers, these units are designed to deliver what's there and not mollycoddle the sound into becoming something that it's not. Often, that can lead to a flat, lifeless sound, but the Oras have just enough user-friendly magic sprinkled on top of their driver design to ensure that you end up with the best of both worlds: a fantastically accurate sound which still pleases the ears.

And for the money, they'd better. Still, reference speakers are not cheap, so they actually represent excellent value for the level of audio quality they're able to fire at your eardrums—and with this much volume on top, potentially your neighbor's ears too.

Connectivity-wise, you've got the option of USB-C, RCA or Bluetooth. That's a greatest-hits lineup right there, although with one major omission: a 3.5 mm aux input. Still, that wouldn't be a problem with the addition of a very cheap 3.5 mm to RCA cable, which is why it's baffling that the box doesn't include one, or indeed, any cables at all. Well, apart from the one that connects the two speakers together, anyway. That'd be really silly not to include.

Still, the Kanto Oras sound fantastic, and really, that's all they aim to do. If you're looking for pure gaming audio only, then they're probably a bit much for your purposes. But if you want speakers that can do it all and do it with just about the best audio quality you'll find outside of a studio environment, well, these are probably exactly what you need.

They're the best reference speakers we've tested to date, and despite the cost, that makes them some of the best speakers you can plug into your PC, too.

Read our full Kanto Ora review.

Also tested

Q&A

Aesthetically, the Sirius Pro buds are the most 'gamer' of all the wireless headphones I've tested recently. The case isn't so much a case as a cage. Attached to a battery pack of a bottle opener. Really. Yeah, there is maybe a feeling that Gravastar is maybe trying a little too hard to hit a particular niche of a user.

But hey, it's a crowded market, so why not do something to make yourself stand out? The thing is, you need to be able to also deliver on the fundamentals so that the thing which makes you stand out isn't the only thing you have going for you.

And that's arguably where the Sirius Pro buds fall down. When you're talking about a wireless set, what is it you want? You want battery life, good audio quality, and a reliable connection. I'd also say, having tested out some of the rest, you want decent noise cancelling, too, whether that's passive or active.

Battery life is one place where the Gravaster buds struggle. The 4 hour battery in the buds themselves is so weak you'd only want to use them on your shortest journeys. For most commutes I guess it's fine, but if you're going transatlantic it's a definite no. The fact the pseudo-futuristic charging cage can deliver another 12 hours of charge doesn't really help when the charging time is, at a minimum, 90 minutes.

But it's the audio quality where I really struggle with them, especially at this price. The Sirius Pro earbuds seem to have been too heavily tuned towards the bass. While that doesn't necessarily muddy the rest of the audio, as I initially thought it might when I first stuck Rage Against the Machine on, it just becomes too overpowering after a short time.

It's almost lucky there's such a low battery life here, because I don't think I could deal with this overwrought bass response for long.

That's only in music mode, however, as when you switch to the low latency gaming mode the bass bias disappears. That seems to be in order to cut the lag, which it does to great effect when I've been hitting men in Hitman 3 on the Steam Deck, but it does add a certain artificial quality to the aural experience.

There is some strange, almost electronic distortion going on, and the drop in audio quality is rather plain to hear. Still, you do get used to it; the human brain is very adroit at normalising poor audio over time. And the audio latency is low enough that the trade-off is almost acceptable.

Or would be if other buds didn't deal with it far better. The Creative Outlier Pro's Bluetooth connection is speedy enough, when the specific low latency mode remains enabled, and the JBL Quantum TWS has a Type-C dongle that makes it indistinguishable from a wired connection. The Gravastar seems to just lower the audio quality to tighten up the latency issue.

When there are better sounding, longer lasting, and more affordable options on offer, even if I loved the more 'gamer' aesthetic of the Gravastar Sirius Pro, I would still recommend you spend your money elsewhere.

It's been seven years since Razer released an updated version of the popular Leviathan gaming soundbar. Gaming soundbars have become less of a novelty and more of a serious addition to PC gamers' audio setups. A couple of them have even made their way onto our PC speakers page over the past year. The Razer Leviathan V2 looks to improve on its predecessor with a couple of design changes.

The Leviathan V2 sits under 20 inches long, can fit snugly under your monitor, and never feels like it's in the way. Even though it's still roughly the same size as the original Leviathan, it is more powerful thanks to the addition of two passive radiators that do a good job of providing more bass than your average soundbar. That's handy in case you don't have the room for a sub-woofer but still want those sweet, sweet thumps.

I was pretty surprised at the overall sound quality of the new V2, considering its smaller size. It's also pretty powerful to boot.

I used it around 25% volume since anything higher would be way too loud. Music sounds great though bass-heavy jams sometimes sound a bit muddy, even with the sub-woofer plugin, which was evident in songs like What's Up, Danger.

At first, I wasn't at all impressed with the default audio settings; it was only when I dove into the audio settings on the Razer Synapse software I found the sweet spot. I found that switching to its "Center Focus" made things better. For the record, Razer Synapse is my least favorite software to manage accessories. However, it was easy to get the settings for the Levithan V2 exactly where I wanted. Here you can also toggle between Stereo and THX Spatial Audio.

Speaking of THX Spatial Audio, I'm not yet a convert to the church of surround sound, but it worked pretty well in a game like Apex Legends, where I was able to pick out the direction of Octane's frantic footsteps in tight spaces. Spatial audio works best in horror games, such as Resident Evil Village, where it adds more to immersion rather than giving you a tactical advantage.

One area where the soundbar excels, it turns out, is live sports. As I am writing this review, I have the Mets and Cardinals game on in the background, and it sounds incredible. I appreciate the rich timbre of the Mets' deep-voiced commentary by Gary Cohen as he calls the game with Mets Hall of Famers' Ron Darling, and the great Keith Hernandez. The sounds of the game, people cheering, the crack of the bat, makes me wish there was an easy way connect this thing to my living room TV, but therein lies the problem.

This PC-only soundbar lacks 3.5mm or optical port inputs. At $250, it makes it a harder sell for someone looking for a speaker to plug in their consoles or television in addition to their PC. Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you went with the older model Levithan because it has all the ports you want, and it's still at least $50 cheaper than the V2. I really would have loved a wireless subwoofer just because I really can't bear the sight of seeing more cables get knotted up behind my desk.

I own a pair of Razer Nommos that flank my monitor, and it was nice to get the extra space on my desk back to fill with clutter and snacks. I've also used the LG Ultragear gaming speaker, which I consider the gold standard for gaming soundbars because of its insane amount of features, but then that costs almost double what the Leviathan V2 costs.

As far as dedicated PC speakers are concerned, there's a lot to like on the Razer Leviathan V2. It's a small, powerful soundbar that's easy to use, and it looks great on your desk. Connecting devices via Bluetooth and goofing around with the RGB was painless, which is the best thing I can say about Synapse, so good job, Razer. The real knock against it is that it's not as versatile as other soundbars out there at this high price range.

There are two wolves inside of you. One loves listening to high quality sound that won't distract others while playing videogames. The other has sore ears, a sensitive scalp and needs a rest from wearing headsets. I think we've just found a solution that might satiate both.

Panasonic is releasing a neck-worn surround sound speaker especially aimed at gamers. This curved 4-channel speaker setup sits around the neck, like a slim, not very comfortable looking travel pillow. This keeps the gamer's ears and head free from hardware. It looks like a great midway step between speakers everyone can hear, and a headset that closes you off from the world. 

Dubbed the SoundSlayer Gaming Speaker, it connects via USB or 3.5 headphone jack and should in theory act as a typical set of speakers once connected. This also means it should be compatible with just about everything. The website lists Windows 10, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, as well as some older consoles. 

This SoundSlayer has dual microphones for game chat that should cancel out echo, and what looks like easy to access controls. Overall, it looks like an easy to use piece of kit without too much fiddling about.

That being said, there are 3 different gaming modes to optimise for different experiences. RolePlaying mode is designed to work with immersive RPGs, like Final Fantasy XIV Online which is partnered with the brand. An FPS mode, which is set to focus on sounds like footsteps to help locate enemy players, as well as a voice mode that will make dialogue clearer when needed.

The downside to this speaker setup is it's really not cheap. It's listed at $299 AUD on the Panasonic site, and is also available on Amazon for $198 USD or $260 AUD. It's also $247 USD or $339 for the limited edition Final Fantasy version, so if that's your jam you might want to get in quick.

If you want something a bit more versatile, and aren't married to this new neckwear idea you can get some seriously nice gaming headsets for the same price or cheaper. Our favourite set of PC gaming speakers, the Logitech G560 are also at this price point. Though none of those options will quite fit this in between niche, which my wolves are both howling for.

Whether or not this style of neck sitting speaker will see mass adoption is yet to be seen, but these are the first I've seen specifically designed with gamers in mind. If they deliver on comfort, sound quality, and convenience this could be the answer for many gamers stuck between audio options. 

Owners of Google’s smart speakers are set to get an upsetting update thanks to a big loss in a lawsuit with integrated speaker company, Sonos.

Arstechnica reports that a final ruling by the US International Trade Commission has confirmed that Google infringed on five of Sonos’ patents. They seem to be all around speaker groups, including setting them up and controlling them.

Sonos was basically the only name in the connected speaker game until voice assistance came along. They're pretty smart when it comes to sound, and may even be branching out into wireless headphones. In an article with The New York Times, Sonos claimed that Google got a look at how their system worked back in 2013 when  the company was pitching to integrate with Google Play Music. It believes Google “blatantly and knowingly" copied Sonos when it made the Google Home speaker.

A win like this for Sonos could mean that Google’s products that infringe on these patents would be banned in the United States. However, instead Google has decided to release a software downgrade approved by the International Trade Commission. 

Thankfully, most of the downgrades listed by Google probably won’t be noticed by most users, but there is one that has people upset. Google says most speaker groups should continue to function but might need to be updated, especially if non-Google products are in the mix and some users may have to user an extra app to complete installations and downloads. The real kicker is that this update will stop users from being able to adjust speaker volumes in groups, and will instead have to be done speaker by speaker. 

Playing music on all Google home speakers simultaneously is actually pretty amazing. It does have that Sonos feel of music following you around the house, like you’re in a cool indie movie. It’s a large part of why I bothered having more than one Google speaker in my house in the first place, also I like to make sure they can spy on every room equally.

It turns out I’m not alone. The post from Google informing people about this software downgrade is full of angry customers upset about the change. Many are accusing Google of losing to Sonos and then passing the inconvenience onto the customer, rather than just paying the company its dues. Some are demanding rebates or refunds, which seems fair given the product no longer does what it claimed when purchased.

Whether this backlash will shake the tech giant is difficult to say. Next week everyone could have forgotten about their group volume controls on a smart speaker, or we could see Google finally just pay Sonos so I can have music in every room again.

LG has officially stepped into the gaming audio market with its UltraGear Gaming Speaker (model GP9), essentially an RGB soundbar built specifically to pump out audio when playing games. A cursory glance of the specs and features reveals a promising product, but is it worth the $500 MSRP?

Apologies for the tease, but that's a question I can't answer until if/when I get to spend some hands-on time with the speaker, or one lands at PC Gamer for a formal review. In the meantime, I can offer up some thoughts about the soundbar's design and claimed capabilities.

The soundbar sector is a new area of interest for me personally, having just recently retooled my home theater setup from top to bottom. That includes the audio setup—I ditched my Denon surround sound receiver and 5.1 speaker configuration for Samsung's HW-Q950A, an 11.1.4-channel soundbar with Dolby Atmos. In a home theater configuration, there is a certain appeal to the simplicity of a soundbar setup.

I'm not sure that same appeal translates over to the PC, where I imagine most gamers either don a set of headphones or get their audio from a 2.0 or 2.1 speaker set. Without a discrete surround sound receiver, neither option is particularly cumbersome.

Interestingly, part of LG's pitch for its GP9 soundbar is that it is a "superb sounding product that frees users from headphones, a key component of the gaming experience that gamers identified as inconvenient and uncomfortable after marathon gaming sessions."

Dedicated speakers (including soundbars) and gaming headsets are two different categories in my mind, but to LG's point, the GP9 boasts built-in microphones aided by what the company claims is a "unique echo-cancellation algorithm." This is supposed to suppress background and gaming noise, and highlight the user's voice.

The GP9 connects to PC and some consoles by way of an included USB Type-C cable. It also offers up an optical port, an auxiliary port, and a 3.5mm jack. So go ahead and keep those headphones, you may want them for when the competitive chatter veers off into crude territory. Bluetooth is supported, too.

The soundbar is driven by a pair of 20mm tweeters and a couple of 2-inch woofers. It also sports a Hi-Fi Quad DAC (ES9038PRO), which is promising, and offers DTS Headphone:X support and some kind of proprietary mojo based on a specially crafted HRTF (head-related transfer function) algorithm that's supposed to create a 3D sound field.

There are several buttons on top of the soundbar, as well as a volume dial. Two of the buttons let you switch between FPS and RTS modes, each with custom sound profiles for their respective genres. There's also an EQ button to tune the speaker for specific games, and LG says you can share EQ settings with other gamers through the companion app.

LG's soundbar comes with an AC adapter, and while the company doesn't really focus on this much, it is also a portable speaker. The specs sheet highlights a rechargeable 2,600 mAh battery that's good for our up to five hours of usage. Or six hours, as LG's main product page and spec list don't seem to agree on this metric. Either way, it's a neat perk that gives the soundbar added utility.

I'd suggest waiting for reviews, but if you're willing to take a flyer, the GP9 is available now at B&H Photo or you might be able to find an LG promo code. There are also listings on both Amazon and LG's website, presumably with stock arriving soon.

During Gamescom, Panasonic added another gaming sound system to its catalog: a wearable speaker.

The SoundSlayer Wearable Immersive Gaming Speaker System, or WIGSS, goes around your neck and sits on your shoulders. It's supposed to bring us the convenience of a headset without the need to cover our ears or mess up our hair. What it looks like, though, is one of those exploding collars they wear in the Fallout games. I can't help but feel like the marketing images look like they're showing the explosion radius rather than sound waves. 

The SoundSlayer WIGSS features four speakers that blast sound upwards toward your head, providing 360-degree surround sound. It's supposed to act as an alternative to wearing a headset all day, relieving the pressure on your head and ears, which can be especially bad if you have a tight, on-ear headset. At 244g, the collar is around the weight of most gaming headsets and, in some cases, even lighter. So if you ever wore a headset around your neck, it should feel like that. 

Unfortunately, the WIGSS isn't wireless, so it won't turn you into a human boombox at parties. There is a built-in noise-canceling dual-channel microphone so you can chat with teammates without the sound of your WIGSS bleeding through the mic, at least in theory. 

I'm curious to see how these sound to people in the same room who aren't wearing the speaker collar. According to the press release, Panasonic wants this speaker to make "gamers feel as though they are enveloped by sound in all directions," which sounds terrifying and also kind of awesome. Sometimes, though, the point of wearing headphones is to avoid disturbing others, so the relative loudness between the wearer and someone nearby the wearer feels like an important factor. 

The team at Panasonic developed the SoundSlayer WIGGS with Square Enix, so one of the three game sound modes ("roleplaying" mode) is optimized for Final Fantasy XIV Online, the same as its desk-sized SoundSlayer soundbar, which came out last year. "First-person shooter" mode focuses on 360 positional audio, and "voice mode" prioritizes dialogue audio over anything else. 

There is no price yet for the SoundSlayer WIGSS, but it will be available for purchase in October. 

One of my favorite sets of computer speakers back in the day, before gaming headsets became the norm, was the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1. They get loud and bring the boom and are currently on sale for $89.88 at Amazon—a good chunk less than what I paid for them many years ago.

The discounted price is down from $139.99, so technically, you're saving a little over $50. Actual pricing has been a little lower, though according to price tracking site CamelCamelCamel, they did sell for as much as $149.99 at the beginning of the year.

Regardless, getting these speakers for a tad under $90 is a good deal. They're THX-certified, and from my recollection, they sound great for a set of compact computer speakers.

The set consists of two-way satellite speakers with 3-inch midrange drivers and a 6.5-inch side-firing ported subwoofer. Both the main volume and subwoofer volume dials are built into the left satellite.

Klipsch rates the peak power at 260 watts to pump out audio at up to 110 decibels. That's loud, which is exactly how I remember them, without distortion when cranking up the volume.

One thing to keep in mind is these speakers do not have an on/off button, so you either need to leave them on all the time or unplug them when not in use. That's a little annoying, but these are definitely worth considering if that doesn't bother you.

Put simply, this Bluetooth speaker moves in response to music, but it's much more than just that. It's a groovy space-age dream of musical visualisation—the lava lamp of the future, today and is the brainchild of Hackaday maker Dakd Jung.

A chamber in the middle of the speaker contains a liquid that dances to the beat of whatever is played via the Bluetooth music maker, and you can even adjust the behaviour of that liquid on the fly by twiddling the knobs on the front of the box.

The project involves reprocessing the magnetically attracted, dancing ferrofluid used inside the speaker to give it more of that smooth lava lamp aesthetic. Because ferrofluid has a habit of sticking to glass surfaces, treatment of the water was necessary to remove the spiky look you apparently often get when playing with ferrofluid and magnets. 

There's no note on the exact treatment used, but generally speaking the addition of isopropyl alcohol to the liquid should create the desired effect. 

The mechanism itself is operated via dials on the front of the case, which edit the behaviour of the ferrofluid using an electromagnetic device. Aside from the ferrofluid concoction, and fully 3D printed housing designed by Jung himself, an 'MSGEQ7' graphic equaliser display module was employed, along with a passive radiator, and two upward-facing speakers to complete the project. 

But you don't care about that... look at the dancing liquid, man.

Though if you are interested as to how the ferrofluid speaker performs when faced with different kinds of music, here's a link to the Instagram page where Jung has posted some further sound tests. 

As always, keep on making!

It's Friday and while that means we're very close to the weekend, we also have a fresh episode of Totally Rated to catch up on. This week, our pals at TechRadar, GamesRadar+, and Tom's Guide join us to bring you the latest news and reviews in gaming and tech. All you need to do is sit back and relax as they take us through their top picks of the week.

GamesRadar+ dipped into Oddworld: Soulstorm to see what it's like to be reunited with Abe after all these years. Josh West thinks the game is a "fun—if not a little dated—2.5D platformer." He says that "if you find yourself yearning for modern games with that really cool '90s aesthetic, this will absolutely be your jam." It sounds like it's worth trying out if you enjoyed the old games, and have found yourself at a bit of a loose end at the moment. We also reviewed it and gave it 65.

Kate Kozuch from Tom’s Guide and Matthew Bolton from T3 spent some time with the Sonos Roam portable smart speaker to see how Sonos' smallest (and cheapest) speaker fares compared to others in their range. After some serious testing, Kate reckons "the Sonos Roam really could be the best portable smart speaker yet." It also has a long battery life and it's waterproof, so you can sing along to your favourite jams in the bath without worrying about splashing and breaking it.

If you're on the hunt for a new mobile phone, Tom's Guide and Techradar have kindly outlined the pros and cons of the Nubia RedMagic 6. Turns out its gaming performance is pretty solid, but its budget-friendly price tag comes at the expense of cutting some features.

Tom Bedford from Techradar is a fan of the handset's "top specs, high screen refresh rate, and easy-to-use haptic triggers", if it is a little rough around the edges. Jordan Palmer also thinks it's "actually quite good, once you set aside its camera performance". This sounds promising if you're looking for a gaming phone on a tight budget.

You can find new episodes of Totally Rated across Future's websites every Thursday.

Ever wanted sci-fi speakers that shoot sound straight into your head so that you can privately listen to your games and music without the need for headphones? Well, sound beaming technology can do just that. Kinda like a wireless headset, without a headset.

Noveto, an Israeli startup company, has just announced the SoundBeamer 1.0—supposedly the world's first branded consumer product to use sound beaming technology. Though, companies like Hypersound (associates of Turtle Beach) have been using similar technology for a while now, so what's so special about this device?

Well, where the alternatives broadcast audio in one general direction, the SoundBeamer 1.0 can actually beam the ultrasonic sound waves straight to your ears as you move around. The company's CEO, Christophe Ramstein, offers this amazing titbit: "The brain doesn’t understand what it doesn’t know," which sounds all very mysterious, but how does it actually work?

According to the Associated Press, who were granted an exclusive interview with Noveto, the SoundBeamer utilises a "3D sensing module" that, at the touch of a button, can seek out the users ears and pump sound waves directly to them. The device is able to forge and maintain pockets of sound either side of the user's head, tracking their ear positioning so they can move about freely, without the sound being interrupted.

The SoundBeamer 1.0 works in either stereo or spatial 3D mode, meaning it can totally immerse the listener into a world of three-dimensional sound, without blocking any sound from the rest of the world. So, not only can you privately listen to your heavy metal, or play your games without disturbing your housemate, there are also no more awkward moments of pulling off your headphones to ask them to repeat what they just said.

"You don’t believe it because it sounds like a speaker, but no one else can hear it," explains Ayana Wallwater, the SoundBeamer Product Manager. "You’re in the middle of everything. It’s happening around you… it follows you wherever you go. So it’s personally for you—follows you, plays what you want inside your head."

If you've just invested in one of the best gaming headsets, you might find yourself reaching for the receipt when the SoundBeamer 1.0 prototype launches this Friday. But let's not jump to conclusions just yet. This may be an incredible technological advancement, but it probably isn't going to be the most affordable piece of gear, when the "smaller, sexier" consumer version hits markets next year, in time for Christmas 2021.

It is certainly a baffling mechanism, one that conjures intriguing visions of what a wireless future might look like. There are so many potential applications, and I'm sure the military are probably already utilising this kind of tech in a host of terrifying ways we won't ever hope to understand.

One thing's for sure, it's going to become even more difficult to determine whether your housemates have gone crazy, as they laugh maniacally to themselves in their own personal sound bubble about things you cannot hear.

Enhance your gaming experience with the best computer speakers. Sure, you can pick up a pair of dinky speakers from the clearance rack but you're doing yourself a great disservice. The right set of speakers has the quality, balance, and bass that showcase all your favorite games the way they were meant to be heard. If you have roommates that don't appreciate the sounds of alien death rattles, you may want to consider picking up a gaming headset. 

Most multi-speaker systems usually come with a subwoofer and left/right speakers which provide great depth of sound and positional audio, but you usually pay a pretty penny for that. If you don't have space, a soundbar might be a better, more affordable option for you. 

Leading the pack are the Logitech G560 speakers with their immersive Lightsync RGB lighting that isn't tied to any janky software. If you're on a budget and still want some decent sound, the Creative A250 speakers are maybe the best computer speakers you can find. 

We've got choices for everyone from the budget-conscience to the audiophile, the best computer speakers won't ever steer you wrong.  

When it comes to RGB lighting you either hate it or love it. The PC Gamer office may be divided on this topic but there's one thing we can agree on: Logitech's G560 Lightsync feature is anything but gimmicky. If there's one RGB product we'd recommend that might actually impact your PC gaming experience, it's this one.

Logitech's software allows you to choose between two control modes for the speakers. Hardware control ditches the software and uses Bluetooth or AUX input devices for lighting. You get a nice rainbow color cycle that also acts as an audio visualizer that flashes and brightens to the beat of music being played. Switching over to software control allows you to choose between fixed color, color cycle, breathing, audio visualizer and screen sampler lighting modes. 

Screen sampler is where the G560 really shines. Much like ambient backlighting products, the software takes user-defined areas of the screen and extends the colors outwards to create a very immersive lighting experience. Since a good portion of this effect relies on the rear facing LEDs, the speakers need to be positioned right beside your display with their back against a wall to get the best effect.

While the lighting was a huge factor in the immersion aspect, the precision of the positional audio really impressed us too. We don't normally like the virtual surround of 7.1 digital gaming headsets but were pleasantly surprised with how well DTS:X worked with the G560, especially while trying to pinpoint where we were being shot at in Fortnite. It's the perfect compromise if you want surround sound without the hassle of a 5.1 or 7.1 set.

When you're out shopping for cheap PC speakers, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the choices out there. It also doesn't help much when reliable brands have multiple options in the same price range. The differences between the multiple low-end speakers we tested were minimal, but the Creative A250 2.1 Speakers stood apart from the competition with big sound despite their compact size.

With a total power output of 9 watts, we were blown away to see the speakers pumping out crisper audio than some of their competitors using two to three times the amount of power. While they won't produce the highest volume of sound, we found little distortion with the volume cranked all the way up. Despite being smaller and lower powered than a few of the other options we tried, such as the Cyber Acoustics CA-3602 or the Logitech Z313, the A250 subwoofer actually provided clearer lows. The only complaint here is a lack of bass control to complement the convenient volume knob located on the right speaker.

Wherever the A250 speakers lacked in volume, they made up for in clarity. This is why we highly recommend these speakers for students on the go. Pictured above with my 13" ultrabook, the speakers are small enough to fit on any cramped desk surface. They're easily the most portable 2.1 system we tried and perform best in a smaller bedroom or dorm.

Like any other pair of cheap speakers, the Creative A250 2.1 Speakers are easily beat when compared to a mid-range set. If you're willing to spend a bit more for a quality speaker system, the results when gaming can be very rewarding. But for gamers on a budget, we found these speakers to be the clear winner.

Most users couldn't imagine spending hundreds on a PC speaker system, but audiophiles crave the high-end like any PC gamer lusts for the best graphics cards. High-end desktop speaker systems are typically composed of powered monitors and a separate subwoofer. And while many of them offer exceptional sound clarity, we found them lacking in consumer-friendly features PC gamers would benefit from. That is until we tested the Klipsch R-15PM powered monitors.

With up to five input options including Bluetooth, USB, 3.5mm AUX, digital optical, and analog RCA / phono, the R-15PM is the most versatile set of speakers we've tested. A small remote allows you to plug in multiple sources at once and switch them on the fly. The built-in amplifier eliminates the need for an external DAC to help keep your desk clean and allows you to forgo the a/v receiver when used in the living room.

On their own, the speakers already delivered consistent robust sound in all ranges. But once we added the Klipsch R-10SW subwoofer into the equation, the R-15PM monitors quickly entered a class of their own. While passive speakers have to be paired with an external amplifier engineered to work with a multitude of speakers, the internal amp inside the R-15PM was fine-tuned for one specific model. And the optimization shows as the system produced unmatched accuracy in all of our tests. 

They aren't the cheapest high-end speakers by far, especially when you consider the cost of adding a subwoofer. But once we consider their simplicity and consumer friendly features, the R-15PM monitors are our top choice for high-end PC speakers.

When building a gaming PC or upgrading a battle station, speakers typically aren't very high on the priority list. But jumping from the integrated set of speakers on your monitor to a pair of external speakers can actually give you a sound quality boost similar to the performance increase you'd see when switching from integrated to discrete graphics. When moving on with our tests from our low budget speakers to the Harman Kardon SoundSticks, the difference was night and day.

The price tag on our top choice for mid-range speakers can be a tough pill to swallow. But when you consider their one-of-a-kind design and equally satisfying performance, these speakers are a worthwhile investment and great addition to any battle station. Among our speaker tests within the same range, the SoundSticks excelled in audio clarity with little distortion even when cranked to uncomfortably high volumes.

Unlike most Bluetooth speakers, the SoundSticks enter and stay in pairing mode as soon as they're turned on. This made it easy for us to switch between audio sources at any time without having to touch the speakers. We also noticed little loss in sound quality up to the 30ft recommended range. Unfortunately for those that are using the speakers in an apartment complex or dorm, nearby strangers can connect to them at any time. This can lead to some awkward moments if you aren't already using the bluetooth connection yourself.

With their beautiful looks and satisfying sound, the SoundSticks were an easy favorite for PC gaming. But for big budget audio purists looking for the best of the best, the performance and expandability of powered bookshelf speakers or studio monitors are tough to beat.

One of the great things about gaming headsets is that they take up very little space. Unfortunately, if you're looking for a great set of speakers, chances are you'll have to sacrifice some of that real estate at your battlestation. Luckily, Razer has a solution for the modern PC gaming minimalist: the Leviathan soundbar.

The Razer Leviathan is designed to be placed directly underneath your monitor and features both wired and wireless input options to help reduce clutter. We especially appreciated the notch in the middle which allows you to cleanly run your keyboard and mouse cord underneath.

While it certainly won't match an actual 5.1 surround sound system, the Dolby 5.1 virtual surround sound built into the Leviathan performed exceptionally well in our tests. We found it quite easy to pinpoint gunfire and footsteps using the soundbar. Considering its compact nature, the Leviathan sounds fantastic.

Razer's soundbar directly competes with several other options on this list. It may not match the sound quality and feature set of the Logitech G560, but the Leviathan remains a smart choice for PC gamers who want a simple single speaker setup.

A new entry to this list, Creative's latest subwoofer and soundbar combo is a competent mid-range sound system, with a pleasing number of connections. There's a 3.5mm, Bluetooth 2.1, Optical, and USB option, so it not only fits with most PC builds and laptops, but can be handy for other devices around the home. In terms of bass it rumbles away well, and if you're looking to crank out games at a decent volume this speaker system performs well via dual 20W speakers in the soundbar, and a 40W subwoofer. 

The problem is that the speakers don't perform well with quiet sounds, and the frequency response is only average, at 55Hz-20,000Hz so you do lose a bit of subtlety in incidental game noises, which are the bread and butter of decent gaming headsets. There are a couple of other tiny issues, like a short power cable and a slightly flimsy remote, but overall the lower price makes up for this speaker set's shortcomings.

A recent release from Creative, the T100s are exceptionally workman-like, competent desk speakers. They have a fairly simple and restrained design, and limit their physical presence and footprint to that of two small-ish speakers which are deceptively good. The two speakers have simple but effective on-board controls, and the handy remote is filled with enough presets and options for you to find the right one for you. It'll connect via Bluetooth, optical cable, and regular audio jack, so while they'll demand a bit of extra desk space, the wireless option is a good bonus.

The sound that the speakers provide is also deceptive. The 2.75-inch/70mm full-range drivers in each unit have a good range for little desktops, and even provided a realistic surround effect when necessary too. While it can't compete with a designated woofer and the bass - and thus, the range - that that brings, the T100s do a really great job of everything else that can be asked of them.

The overall sound is crisp and clear but, perhaps due to the bass being a little lacking, it's not as rich and rounded as we'd like. The clarity is such that dialogue—something headsets can often feel light with—is particularly clear. Other audio cues and details are good too, with anything in the mid-to-high-end of the audio spectrum cutting across everything else particularly clearly and successfully. 

The T100s are solid, competent and do a spectacular job, making them pleasing all-rounders. They couldn't quite blow my socks off with the likes of Doom, for example, but they are as good any desk-bound set of speakers that we've tested.

I find that April 1st is the toughest time of the year to cover hardware news, because silly product announcements are abundant. It may sound easy to discern between what is real and what isn't, but that's not always the case. And sometimes, April Fools' pranks morph into actual products. That's the case today with Phanteks showing off its Evolv Sound Mini speakers at CES.

These tiny speakers started off as a joke, with Phanteks humorously hyping "+30 percent digital-RGB performance." However, the design resonated with fans, several of which pleaded with Phanteks to make these speakers an actual product. And so it has.

The 2.0 speaker setup consists of a pair of tiny satellite speakers in the distinct mold of cases like the Evolv X. According to the product page, they are made of ABS plastic with a fabric finish, and Phanteks says they only cost $29.99 (£26.90). At that price, I wouldn't expect thumping bass or anything approaching audiophile-quality sound reproduction, though Phanteks claims the drivers "pack a punch" and deliver "impressive stereo sound." They're certainly affordable, at least.

As for the RGB lighting, both speakers light up along the sides, similar to the Evolv X. There are buttons on the main satellite to control the RGB lighting on both speakers. Phanteks also plans on launching a taller, slender version of these speakers as well.

Another one of Phanteks' jokes last year was a Revolt PSU with a removable CNC-cut aluminum cheese grater. Who knows, maybe that one will make an appearance as a real product at CES 2021. It would be a nice complement to Razer's LED toaster. 

Phanteks did show off some cases, including the budget-oriented Eclipse P300A.

The Eclipse P300A is a relatively compact mid-tower case measuring 7.8 x 17.7 x 15.7 inches (200 x 450 x 400 mm). It uses "ultra-fine performance mesh" to facilitate better airflow while keeping dust bunnies from taking residence, and features a magnetic cover on the top fan cutout.

There's room in the P300A to fit a pair of 2.5-inch SSDs in the back and two 3.5-inch HDDs in the bottom chamber, in front of the PSU bay. The most impressive thing, though, is the price—it carries a $59.99 MSRP.

Speaking of cheese graters earlier, Phanteks also had on display a couple of cases that look like the Mac Pro, the Neo Matrix and Neo Pro. These are designed in collaboration with Metallic Gear, and while we don't have a whole lot of info to share on these cases, we do have some shots of the fancy RGB lighting effects. Have a look:

There will be a bunch of lighting effects that users can choose from, beyond just changing the colors.

Both the Evolv Mini speakers and P300A case will be available sometime this month.

The best computer speakers tend to be 2.1-channel sets, primarily because of space constraints. However, if you have room for a 5.1-channel set, Harman Kardon is selling its HKTS 16 5.1-channel surround sound home theater speaker system in refurbished form for $139.99. That's a savings of around $460, which is enough to get our attention.

Normally we shy away from refurbished products, but this deal has a few things going for it. For one, it's being sold direct from Harman Kardon. Secondly, the speaker set carries a "1-year electronics / 5-year loudspeaker" warranty. And finally, the price is even lower than what this set was selling for on Cyber Monday.

Of course, the MSRP on speakers is often inflated. In this case, several marketplace sellers have this set listed at around $289 on Amazon. So, you're still saving a significant chunk of change.

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

Some would argue RGB is a gimmick that offers very little when it comes to an actual improvement in gaming—especially in a pair of computer speakers. Most of the time we'd agree with that statement, but Logitech's G560 Lightsync feature is anything but gimmicky. If there's one RGB product we'd recommend that might actually improve your PC gaming experience, it's this one.

With more than two decades of experience making speakers, we had some very high expectations for Logitech's G560. They might not be the best for the modern audiophile, but we can confidently say these are the most immersive speakers we've tested for gaming.

The G560 features six high powered RGB LEDs per speaker: four facing the rear and two for the front. At maximum brightness they can be a little distracting in a dark room, but a nifty button at the top of the right speaker lets you tone it down or turn them off completely. A pleasant rainbow color cycle works as the default mode but jumping into Logitech Gaming Software is when the magic happens.

The software allows you to choose between two control modes for the speakers. Hardware control ditches the software and uses Bluetooth or AUX input devices for lighting. You get the same rainbow color cycle that also acts as an audio visualizer that flashes and brightens to the beat of music being played. Switching over to software control allows you to choose between fixed color, color cycle, breathing, audio visualizer and screen sampler.

Screen sampler is where the G560 really shines. Much like ambient backlighting products, the software takes user-defined areas of the screen and extends the colors outwards to create a very immersive lighting experience. These speakers won't provide the same experience the HUE 2 Ambient will provide, but it's a great start. However, since a good portion of this effect relies on the rear facing LEDs, the speakers need to be positioned right beside your display with their back against a wall to get the best effect.

Like most brands creating RGB peripherals, Logitech has an SDK that allows developers to fully utilize the G560 lighting. As of this writing several popular titles already feature game integrations such as: League of Legends, Fortnite, Battlefield 1, DOTA 2, CS:GO, GTA V and a few others. Some examples of these include built-in screen sampling, flashing while being shot, siren lighting while entering pursuit mode, low ammo indicators and much more. There's even a nifty Discord integration that flashes with new messages or mic activation.

While the lighting was a huge factor in the immersion aspect, the precision of the positional audio really impressed us too. We don't normally like the virtual surround of 7.1 digital gaming headsets but were pleasantly surprised with how well DTS:X worked with the G560, especially while trying to pinpoint where we were being shot at in Fortnite. It's the perfect compromise if you want surround sound without the hassle of a 5.1 or 7.1 set.

The G560 comes with a very powerful down-firing subwoofer which proved to be amazing for things like explosions but became quite overpowering at low volumes while listening to music. Adjustments in the software help a little but you're on your own if you've connected to bluetooth. 

It was disappointing to see the lack of independent bass or volume controls on these speakers considering Logitech's much cheaper sets have them. There are volume buttons at the top of the right speaker but that just adjusts the volume output from Windows or your connected bluetooth device. However, if you don't have any downstairs neighbors and like your audio loud, the G560 might just be perfect. In any case, we think they're a steal at $200 and still recommend them for any gamers looking to nab a fantastic set of speakers.

After unveiling a new THX-certified speaker system lineup at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) back in January, Razer and its retail partners are now accepting orders for the flagship variant, the Nommo Pro.

The Nommo Pro is one of three Nommo speaker systems Razer sells, the other two being the Nommo and Nommo Chroma. All three sport a pair of satellite speakers powered by 3-inch drivers (one per speaker).

Where the Nommo Pro separates itself from pack is by adding a 7-inch, down-firing subwoofer to the mix, making it a 2.1 system. It also has a wider frequency response (20-20,000 Hz versus 50-20,000 Hz), and is the only one of the three with THX certification. It's not surprising to see Razer pushing THX, considering it acquired THX two years ago. Finally, the Nommo Pro gains a pair of 0.8-inch tweeters.

The drivers in the Nommo are constructed a bit differently as well. Razer says they are "full-range Dupont Kevlar" coated drivers, versus the custom woven glass fiber drivers found on the other two speaker systems.

Consistent with its entire product stack, Razer is pushing all three sets at gamers.

"The Nommo speaker range was engineered to aid gamers with sensing environmental factors. The entire range features accurate positional audio using true left and right stereo imaging to help ensure gamers know exactly where sounds are coming from for quicker more accurate response.  Additionally the Nommo Pro features Independent tweeters for enhanced highs to catch minute details in gaming audio," Razer says.

We haven't evaluated the Nommo Pro yet, and while we got to hear the speakers at CES, the show floor is a terrible place to demo audio products. So, we'll reserve judgement until we get a set in for review. Until then, check our guide to the best computer speakers.

The Nommo Pro is not cheap—it's available now for $499.99. That represents a significant pricing premium over the Nommo Chroma ($149.99) and Chroma ($99.99).