HowTo Network emblem How To: Gaming THE HOW TO CO. — EDITION 10
A small desktop speaker on a stand beside a monitor base, woofer cone lit from one side.

SLOT 06 · AUDIO · THE CONES

Two small speakers, placed properly.

They beat a large system placed badly, and they beat it by more than the price difference suggests.

The triangle, from above.

THE DETAIL

Two speakers and your head should make a triangle with three roughly equal sides, with both speakers turned in to point at you. That is the whole placement rule and it is free. The one thing worth adding: the tweeters want to be at ear height, which on most desks means something under the speaker rather than the speaker on its side.

EAR HEIGHT 01 THE TRIANGLE Three sides, roughly equal 02 THE TOE-IN Both pointed at your head 03 EAR HEIGHT Raise the speaker, not the desk

What we are writing.

5 PIECES · IN THE WORKSHOP

Five pieces on sound that fills a room without filling the neighbour’s.

01

How to place desktop speakers properly

The triangle, the toe-in and the height, in about ten minutes.

★☆☆ · 5 MIN

02

How to choose speakers for a desk rather than a room

Near-field versus everything else, and what changes at close range.

★★☆ · 6 MIN

03

What a subwoofer actually adds

And what it adds through a shared wall, which is a different question.

★★☆ · 6 MIN

04

How to get good sound at a quiet volume

Why everything sounds thin quietly, and what genuinely helps.

★★☆ · 6 MIN

05

How to stop a desk resonating

Isolation pads, and the cheap alternative that works nearly as well.

★☆☆ · 4 MIN

A pair of speakers angled inward toward a chair, seen from behind the desk.

The cheapest upgrade in audio is moving something six inches.

SLOT 06 · AUDIO · THE CONES
A desk at night: two speakers, an interface, a coiled cable and a foam isolation pad.

FROM THE CURATOR

Put them on something

Almost every desktop speaker I see is sitting flat on the desk firing at somebody’s chest, and it is the single most common reason people think their speakers are muddy. Two paperbacks under each one, angled up slightly, costs nothing and does more than a new pair would. Foam wedges are better and they are eighteen pounds. Both beat what is happening now.

BY POPPY — CLASS: CURATOR · THEPINKPIPER.GG

THE REST OF THIS STATION

Headsets THE CANS →Microphones THE CAPSULE →

BACK TO AUDIO →

You are here.

SLOT 06 / 08 · AUDIO

01 PC BUILDING 02 KEYBOARDS & MICE 03 CONTROLLERS 04 CONSOLES 05 MONITORS & DISPLAYS 06 AUDIO 07 DESKS & CHAIRS 08 STREAMING

Every station in this room has its own chapter. This one is 06. Back to the room to walk to another.