We do like a pair of really great desktop speakers. We don’t come across as many as we do, say, floorstanders or standmounts, but there’s something incredibly appealing about a set of compact boxes that can give your desk-bound audio a real kick up the proverbial.
Neat, compact and often exceedingly versatile, they’re a great way to enhance your home audio for what is often a rather reasonable outlay.
It’s not before time, either. The previous incumbents, the Q Acoustics M20, hovered around the same price of roughly £319 / $599 / AU$899, a while we’ve still got a lot of love for their neat, unfussy nature, we’re talking about a pair of speakers that came out nearly five years ago. It was, naturally, time for a change.
Hence, we’re recommending the superior GX-30ARC as our the new front-runners at this budget end of the market.
Nicely made, great value and with a range of talents which takes them beyond the bounds of mere computer or desktop use, they come highly recommended as the best budget desktop speakers we’ve tested.
Onkyo is back with a bang
The Onkyos are neat, compact and nicely made boxes which stand about as tall as a large paperback book, with a clean design which blends nicely subtly into the background. You also get a pair of rather dapper magnetic grilles, as well as a set of upward-angled stands if you’re planning on relegating your speakers to pure desktop use.
Bluetooth 5.3 is the only way you’ll get a wireless connection going, so don’t expect any wi-fi streaming, while physical connections come courtesy of pair of RCA stereo inputs joined by optical and 3.5mm auxiliary inputs, as well as a USB-C connection for directly plugging in sources such as laptops or smartphones.
Better still, the GX-30ARC offers a moving-magnet phono stage if you want to establish a neat little turntable system, while an HDMI ARC input is on hand for giving your TV’s sound a boost. That’s a lot of flexibility for this kind of money.
Inside, you’re treated to a total of 50 watts of power with dedicated Class D amplifiers for each drive unit, with each box packing a 19mm tweeter alongside a 10.6cm cone woofer. Bass performance, meanwhile, is tuned by a slotted port on the back panel.
The results are excellent. When playing Tidal tracks through Bluetooth, the Onykos deliver a crisp, measured delivery as they dispatch what is often rather complex fare with confidence and composure. As we stated in our review, the GX-30ARC have an air of “measured maturity, and no matter the tunes we play, we’re conscious that they are keen to get out of the way and let the music do the talking”.
They may sound a little dispassionate via Bluetooth, but give them a decent source and the Onkyos will really start to purr. Connecting to the Cyrus CDi CD player via the RCA inputs demonstrates a clear ability to stretch when called upon, while connecting to a laptop via USB-C showcases how capable the speakers’ internal DAC is.
Perhaps the best part is how good that phono stage is, offering up a clear, punchy and dynamically engaging performance when connected to a turntable, such as the excellent Rega Planar 3 RS Edition turntable. We weren’t necessarily expecting such a convincing vinyl performance for a product of this type and price, so we’re impressed and surprised in equal measure at how capable the GX-30ARC are when we push them.
For the price you'll pay, we couldn't ask much more of the GX-30ARC. They might have found their way onto our guide to the best desktop speakers, but this versatile pair are capable of so much more.
They're good when you want the convenience of Bluetooth, but pair them with a decent source and you'll realise just how talented the GX-30ARC are.
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