Best Mid-Market Computer Speakers 2021

Sound is a useful and often integral part of using a computer. Watching videos wouldn’t be as fun without any sound, you couldn’t listen to music in the background while you work, and you’d struggle with situational awareness when playing video games. Headsets and earphones can do a decent job, and are generally the preferred option for gaming, but a decent set of speakers are a great piece of tech to add to any computer.

While you can get cheap speakers, they’re not very good. Often they struggle to get particularly loud and have a poor mix with little bass or highs. Going the other way, you can spend a huge amount of money on audiophile quality gear that will be almost indistinguishable from a similar reasonably priced setup to most people. As you might expect, mid-market is the place to look for the best bang for your buck. In the $100 to $300 price range, you can get good quality without breaking the bank.

Your exact needs and preferences in a set of speakers may vary. Generally, this will depend on what you generally plan to listen to, but budget, styling, and just personal preference are also important factors. To help you get a good deal on your computer audio, we’ve put together our list of the best mid-market computer speakers in 2021.

The Bose Companion 2 Series III is a classic. This model was first released in 2013 and almost a decade later is still good quality. The age does show somewhat in the styling and connectivity, but certainly not in performance. The speakers come as a pair for stereo audio but don’t feature an extra subwoofer. Despite the lack of a subwoofer, the speakers offer reasonable bass.

The speakers receive audio through two 3.5mm jack ports. Audio from both sources is played simultaneously, which can be useful if you want notification sounds from a secondary device overlaying music or video audio from your computer.

The Razer Nommo Chroma is a pair of unusually styled speakers with an RGB flair. The 3-inch drivers are mounted in a tube on top of a stand that features a Razer Chroma enabled RGB light strip. If you prefer a slightly more subtle design, a version without the RGB light strip is available for $30 less. The speakers feature the expected volume control knob, however, they also feature a second knob to control the amount of bass the speaker produces. This allows you to dynamically adjust the sound mix of the speakers to your preference.

The speakers connect to your computer via a 3.5mm jack cable for audio. A USB connection is also required for the RGB lighting to work, but this can’t be used to transmit sound to the speakers. The unique styling of the Nommo does allow you space to place items around or on top of the base of the speaker, however, the top portion with the actual speaker in it is quite bulky.

The Logitech Z625 is a beast of bass as it is a 2.1 setup with a dedicated subwoofer. The balance of the bass can even be tuned to your preference with a discrete bass control knob on the right speaker, next to the volume control knob. This means you don’t have to go to your subwoofer or find a rarely used remote to adjust the bass settings.

The speaker system can be controlled via a 3.5mm jack, RCA, and optical signals allowing for up to three devices to be connected at once. The whole setup is THX certified so you can trust that it produces good sound. The one downside of a discrete subwoofer is the extra space requirement, as it is a bit on the large side. The styling of the speakers is not particularly appealing and may put off some users.

The Harman Kardon SoundSticks III has a unique transparent industrial design. This design follows in the footsteps of the previous model that was featured at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, to make it an attention-grabbing showpiece. Unfortunately, this transparent design does make it very vulnerable to scratches, marks, dust, and other dirt.

The volume can be controlled with touch-sensitive controls on the speakers and on the subwoofer. You can adjust the angle of the speakers if they don’t fit under your monitor or other desk equipment. If you’re planning to use the system in a dark room, you should be aware that the subwoofer features white LEDs that can’t be turned off.

That was our round-up of the best mid-market computer speakers in 2021. Have you recently bought some mid-market speakers? What sold you on them and what has your experience been with them so far? Let us know down below.