Best Computer Speakers 2022 – Picks for music, movies, or games
Most people will agree that sitting in silence is no fun… most. Luckily, in this day and age, you don’t need to hire a bard to sing you tales. Instead, you can just pick up a nice pair of speakers and listen to music, watch movies, or play games.
However, the market for speakers is full of choices, and making the right one can feel like a daunting task. This is why we rounded up our picks for the top five best computer speakers on the market today and reviewed all of them for you. Also, we included a short guide below to help arm you with the knowledge you need to make an informed purchase.
Products at a Glance
How to Pick the Best Computer Speakers for Your Needs
Below, we’re looking at our top five picks for the best computer speakers on the market right now but let’s go over a few things to keep an eye on while shopping. Depending on what you plan to use your new speakers for it can be important to keep an eye out for certain features.
Surround Sound
Surround sound has come a long way since its first introduction. Believe it or not, it is possible to create the effect of things like overhead sound without using any overhead speakers at all. Instead, some soundbars today can bounce the sound off the walls and ceiling of the room to produce very convincing spatial sound.
If you plan to watch movies or play games, then surround sound is a fantastic feature to have. The improved immersion in movies and television with surround sound is often understated and the competitive edge in many games that spatial sound offers is significant.
For the best surround sound experience, we suggest the Razer Leviathan. This powerful soundbar comes with a subwoofer, two tweeters, and two full-range drivers. These drivers in the soundbar can cast their sound around you in Dolby 5.1 surround to give you the feeling of being in the action.
Volume
Generally, when measuring how loud something is, the measurement is made in decibels. Decibels are a surprisingly complex unit of measurement since it is not a linear scale, but rather a logarithmic one. This means that an increase of 10 decibels will always amplify the intensity of the sound in question by a factor of 10.
For a little perspective, a vacuum cleaner is roughly 70 decibels and an average lawn mower runs at around 90. Obviously the latter is significantly louder than the former. If all of this sounds confusing, that’s because it is.
When it comes to volume, the Logitech G560s are king. These speakers can reach a (potentially literally) deafening 97 decibels that will rattle your house and annoy your neighbors.
Clarity and Fidelity
When it comes to audio clarity and fidelity, it is much more difficult to pick any single outright winner, unlike volume or surround sound. Those things are relatively easy to quantify, whereas fidelity is much harder to measure (that’s an entirely different type of website though; we aren’t trying to get into that!) and even doing so doesn’t really remove the subjective aspects from the equation.
Each set of speakers will have a different tuning, meaning they can either be heavier in the lower, higher, or mid frequencies. In each individual review, we try to touch on the sound profile of that speaker, but in this section, we will pick three winners.
Frequency Response
Finally, the last vocabulary word for the audiophile uninitiated is “frequency response”. This is a term that is found on the spec sheet of almost any audio related equipment ranging from headphones to microphones and, in this case, speakers.
Frequency response is the range of frequencies that the speakers can produce. The average human can hear sounds ranging from 20Hz to 20,000kHz. Many of the speakers on our list are lacking a bit in the very low end of this range, so if you’re looking for powerful bass then be sure to look at the lower limit of the frequency response of each speaker.
Additionally, some of the speakers we looked at go even higher than the limit of human hearing. This design choice is usually made as a way to allow a speaker some headroom to produce exceptionally clear highs without distortion.
- The Razer Nommo Pro wins for overall audio fidelity and clarity. These speakers sport excellent audio in all frequencies and no portion of the sound profile pushes its way to the forefront.
- The Logitech G560 wins for best bass clarity. These speakers as we have mentioned are super loud and have pounding bass.
- The Harmon Kardon Soundsticks 3 wins for best fidelity in the mids and highs. The glass housing of these speakers allows the sharper sounds in the mids and highs to resonate better and come through more clearly.
Best Computer Speakers 2022 – Picks for music, movies, or games
- Excellent sound quality
- Convenient volume adjustment knob
- THX and Dolby certified
- Expensive
Many people might be shocked to see a Razer product at the top of any list that doesn’t start with the word “gaming”. But hear us out, the Razer Nommo Pro are some of the best computer speakers you can find today.
For starters, the sound’s quality is fantastic and suitable for any application. These speakers are the best computer sound system for music listening thanks to their incredible fidelity, but also boast astounding performance for movie viewing or gaming.
The subwoofer puts out punchy and powerful bass, while the two satellite speakers produce clear mids and highs. The satellite speakers also produce spatial sound that is second to none thanks to both Dolby and THX certifications, which further enhances the movie viewing and gaming experience.
What’s more, is that the Razer Nommo Pros are RGB speakers that are compatible with Razer Chroma. This means that you can customize the lighting built into the base of the speakers to match your other Razer devices. And don’t worry, if you don’t have other Razer peripherals now, you’ll be converted into a fanboy just like me after you experience these speakers.
- Elegant looks
- Good sound
- Limited connectivity
Harman Kardon is an audio equipment manufacturer that has been making high-quality products since 1953. To many, they are most known for their rather unique looking and at times innovative designs.
The Soundsticks 3 are no different and are eye-catching enough to be the centerpiece of a room. While taste and style are subjective, these elegant glass speakers are the best 2.1 computer speakers for putting on a bookshelf or similar spot where not only their sound, but also their looks can be appreciated.
Speaking of which, the sound profile of these speakers is unique. Rather than resonating inside the plastic or metal housing that most speakers have, the sound produced by these is resonated inside the glass chambers giving a unique timbre to the sound (but at the cost of being noticeably fragile).
The only thing we can say that is negative about these speakers is their lack of connection options. These lack wireless connectivity and only support standard 3.5mm audio cables.
- Powerful 240-watt speakers
- Customizable RGB lighting
- Can get distortion at high volume
If you’re “all about that bass” as we hear people say these days– wait, that song was released in 2014… wow, can’t believe it’s been 5 years!– then we have just the speakers for you. The Logitech G560 Lightsync is a phenomenally powerful pair of speakers that come in at a whopping peak power of 240 watts.
To put this into perspective, I am currently at my desk listening to music through a pair of two-watt speakers that produce enough sound to fill the room. The main culprit of this seemingly immense power draw is the pounding subwoofer that Logitech has designed.
The G560 offers punchy and strong bass from the subwoofer along with powerful audio from the satellite speaker that can be turned up to 97 decibels, which is actually powerful enough to damage your hearing if left at maximum volume for several hours– we suggest against leaving them at maximum volume for several hours.
Additionally, the G560 sports excellent customizable RGB lighting on the back of the satellite speakers. This lighting can be configured in Logitech’s software and can even react to in game events in some cases.
- Dolby 5.1
- Excellent wireless connectivity
- No USB plug
When thinking of the best desktop speakers, for most people a set of two separate speakers comes to mind. But what if we told you that you could get the best surround sound experience from a soundbar?
The Razer Leviathan is a powerful soundbar that sports Dolby 5.1 certification and truly immerses you in the content you love. Whether gaming, watching movies, or listening to music Razer continues to impress us with the build quality and performance of its products.
The soundbar itself produces clear highs from its pair of tweeters and rich mids from the duo of full range 2.5” drivers. The soundbar paired with the included subwoofer offers an immersive media experience.
What’s more is that Razer has designed what is probably the most advanced wireless connectivity possible into these speakers. For starters, it uses Bluetooth aptX which provides much clearer audio and carries superior sound fidelity than standard Bluetooth. Additionally, these speakers use NFC to communicate with your phone while pairing to make the pairing process faster and in many cases practically automatic.
- Great mids and highs
- Easy to use
- Underwhelming bass
Bose is a name that almost anyone shopping for speakers will be familiar with. A company founded 55 years ago, Bose was catapulted to fame largely due to the success of the tremendously popular quiet comfort headphones.
The Bose Companion 2 lives up to the company’s reputation of making high-fidelity audio equipment. The tuning on the speakers is excellent for high notes and especially in the mid-range, but might not be for everyone. Due to the lack of a subwoofer and the general tuning that Bose tends to use, these speakers are a little lacking in the bass department.
These are also some of the easiest speakers to set up and use. One of the speakers has a typical 3.5mm audio jack on the back, and all you need to do is plug it into a device. On the front of the speaker is a headphone jack passthrough and a volume know.
Our Verdict
