Don't skimp on audio in your workspace
Maybe you should consider an electronics upgrade before January 20th
My drafts folder is littered with newsletter ideas, and I’m not getting any traction in the midst of all the chaos out there. I decided to write about something easy to keep things moving.
Would that it were so simple. A straightforward review of some excellent gear got highjacked by my futile attempt to get a handle on tariffs. There a lot of people in the audio business who are worried about what’s going to happen in 2025, and I’m not sure that the manufacturer of the outstanding desktop monitors I’m writing about here are one of them. They just happened to be on deck when I started thinking about this.
If you’ve tried to buy audio or home entertainment gear over the past couple of years, you might have noticed how hard it is to find informative reviews or descriptions of what’s out there. That’s a function of the vicious and ever-changing SEO rules enforced by Google.
Most tech websites have been cornered into a business model that depends on affiliate links to generate income. Ad income has been drying up, and there is too much competition out there for anyone to risk putting up a paywall and moving to a subscription model.
Editorial websites have been forced to continually tweak their formats in what’s often a hopeless effort to have their reviews show up in Google search results. There are a lot of audio retailers who have started adding just enough SEO-friendly copy on their product pages to make their sites show up on your search pages ahead of any editorial copy.
Almost all of my links are affiliate links to Amazon, and it’s only Amazon because they’re the easiest for me to set up. If you prefer to do your trading elsewhere, you can go to the manufacturer’s website and buy direct. I also like Crutchfield and Audio Advice as gear-focused retailers. Both of them add useful and informative copy to the listings on their websites. They care about what they’re selling and have people on staff who can answer questions after you buy.
If you’re interested in specs, you can usually get all the details you want from a manufacturer’s website. I’m never going to generate the kind of charts and wave forms offered by the most serious audio reviewers. If you’re looking for that kind of thing, check out excellent sites like Audioholics, where founder Gene Della Salla has put together a team of reviewers who combine technical expertise with an appreciation of music. I understand most of the science going on there, but they’re into some advanced analysis that occasionally leaves me behind.
Since I’ve spent so much time in recordings studios and record stores, I’m more interested in how gear makes sense for non-audiophiles who want their music to sound good. There’s plenty of commentary coming below that would never survive an edit from the audio gear websites I’ve written for in the past.
I love talking about the top end of the audiophile spectrum, and I can understand why someone might spend more on their home system than they did for the house where it lives, but I’m not going to discuss $250K speakers here because I figure most of you would just calculate how many rare records you could buy instead of a pair of speakers that sounds just a little bit better at 10x or 20x the price. If that little bit extra is important to you, I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong, but you will have to go elsewhere to learn about it.
Kanto ORA 4 desktop computer speakers
The $400 Kanto ORA 4 desktop speakers are the latest from the Canadian audio company, and they’re just as good as the $350 base ORA model that I wrote about for Home Theater Review earlier this year.
Most of what I wrote about the ORA speakers will apply to the ORA 4, so you might want to read that one review first. I’ll get to the main differences between the two versions in a few paragraphs.
Unraveling the mysteries of the supply chain.
But, first, the chaos. The past decade has been great one for audio gear, and a big part of the reason is that Chinese manufacturing know-how has shaken up the electronics community.
Chinese companies like WiiM, FiiO, HiFiMan, and Sivga make gear that competes with the most famous Western brands for usually a fraction of the cost.
There’s also a long list of top-shelf manufacturers who design their gear in their native countries and outsource much of their manufacturing to China: Bowers & Wilkins, Wharfedale, Q Acoustics, and KEF build some or all of their excellent gear there.
It’s true that Focal still makes its speakers in France, Sonus-faber makes theirs in Italy, U-Turn Audio makes turntables in Massachusetts, and Rega makes turntables in the UK. You’ll usually pay a premium for that kind of approach, but there are very few audio-related products that don’t contain some parts manufactured in China.
So here’s the question: What happens to the audio and home theater markets if the incoming administration enacts the tariffs on Chinese goods the president-elect promised during his campaign?
I’ve wasted too much time trying to research this. There’s not a news source that has a solid idea of what the effects of those tariffs will look like or even what they’re likely to be. I could point you to sources that suggest 25%, others that say 40%, and apparently there’s footage of our leader promising 60% at one of his campaign rallies.
Any of those numbers would have a massive impact on audio market. What I don’t know is whether a tariff would apply to units shipped from the UK or Canada if they contain parts originally manufactured in China. Would the tariffs apply? No one seems particularly interested in this kind of annoyingly detailed question.
Here’s an example that could affect the LP business. Everyone I’ve talked to believes that China is the only source for the vinyl pellets used by pressing plants to make LP record albums. What would a tariff on vinyl pellets do to the cost of LP manufacturing in the USA?
Pressing plants in Eastern Europe use those same pellets. Will they have to declare the source of their raw materials or will they be able to ship their finished product to the USA with no tariffs?
If Czechoslovakian pressing plants have access to cheaper raw materials because they’re not paying a tariff on vinyl pellets, what impact will that have on U.S. pressing plants? Vinyl manufacturing is a precarious business these days. I’m not sure many American manufacturers could survive the extra cost of doing business if they’re most critical raw material price jumps.
If you’re looking for a way to convince your family that you need to buy imported electronic gear in the next month or so, feel free to tell them that there’s a strong possibility that we’ll all pay more in a few months because of import taxes.
Maybe all this tariff talk is a negotiating tactic. I can’t figure what the goal is here, but let’s hope someone’s got an endgame figured out here.
Let’s talk about your workspace.
Listening to music via a computer and desktop speakers can be a challenge. I can’t understand why manufacturers put such lousy DAC (digital-to-analog converters) into their machines. Decent DACs aren’t prohibitively expensive, so Apple and its competitors have no excuse for their terrible audio output.
If you plug an audio cable into the 3.5mm headphone jack on a computer, there’s no speaker in the world that can undo the damage your computer has already done to the music.
I’ve been testing the new $130 Questyle M15C portable DAC, and it’s a great fix for the problem. Plug it into a USB C port on your computer and the digital audio signal will bypass the computer’s internal DAC and get a proper conversion with the Questyle. I’ve long used the more expensive $250 Questyle M15i portable DAC, and I think most people will prefer the smoother, more relaxed sound of the M15C. The M15i has the kind of hyper-sharp resolution that appeals to me, but I like them both a lot and both are currently on sale for the holidays.
If you’re using the audio port on a computer, invest in a DAC. I’d also recommend AudioQuest’s Dragonfly DACs. I love the Cobalt, but the Black model is a great first step into improved audio. All of these DACs are portable enough to use with a phone and wired headphones.
Kanto time
You won’t need a DAC with the Kanto ORA 4 speakers, because they’ve got one built in that kicks in if you connect them to a computer via a USB-C cable. They also support wireless Bluetooth streaming (which still not a lossless playback format, no matter what anyone’s marketing tries to say). There is a single pair of RCA inputs so you can connect a turntable, CD player or cassette deck (or all three as long as you’re willing to hook them up one at a time).
What’s particularly appealing to me is that the ORA 4 speakers are detailed enough for critical listening but not so flat that they make casual listening a chore. I’ve tried everything over the years: KRK studio monitors powered by a Cambridge Audio amp, half a dozen brands of sub-$200 powered speaker, and the Orb desktop speakers and Mini-T amp. The Orb speakers looked incredible, but there were a bit harsh for me.
I’ll confess that what I liked best was a pair of old Radio Shack Minimus 7 bookshelf speakers, which at one time were selling for around $25 a pair on eBay) driven by a series of sub-$100 no-name Class D amplifiers. I’d still recommend that setup for anyone who wants '80s vibes in their workspace.
I always grade audio gear based on how well it would fit into the decor of Joseph Cotten’s flat in Soylent Green. The white ORA 4s might capture the ideal of early’s70s sci-fi futurism. Every corner is perfectly rounded and the indentation for the tweeter seems like an art piece as much as wickedly effective audio design.
There’s a lot of reasonably-priced audio these days that sounds great, but there aren’t many affordable units that evoke the greats of industrial design: Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Raymond Loewy, Jonny Ive. These are design museum-worthy pieces. I’m not sure if Canada has its own version of the UK’s Victoria and Albert Museum, but Kanto’s designs deserve a place of honor if they day.
I watched about 10 minutes of Soylent Green to do that screen cap and then spent another few minutes realizing how much I love the look of the ORA 4, so apologies if I got carried away there.
Back to audio
Here’s a list of specs shared by the ORA and ORA 4:
Bi-amplified speakers (i.e. separate amps power the tweeter and woofer).
Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless streaming from your computer or mobile device.
Automatic low-pass filter, which reroutes the low end to a subwoofer if you decide to add one. No fiddly adjustments required.
RCA line-level input, which allows you to connect a CD player or turntable with a built-in phono preamp (Or, yes, a turntable that uses a dedicated standalone phono preamp but, seriously, if you’re getting that deep into the pool, you’re likely going to want something more elaborate than these speakers.)
3/4” silk dome tweeters
What’s the difference between the ORA and ORA 4 speakers?
The ORA 4 upgrades to a 4” aluminum concave cone woofer from the ORA’s 3” paper cone woofers.
The ORA 4 speakers are larger and heavier than the ORA, coming in at 4.7” W x 6.7” D x 8.3” H and weighing around 4 lbs. each. (ORA: 3.9” W x 5.6” D x 6.9” H and 2.1 lbs. each).
The ORA 4 features 140 W peak power, up from 100 W on the ORA.
The ORA 4 supports audio resolution up to 24 bit/96 kHz via its USB C port, up from 16-bit/48 kHz on the ORA.
Kanto has long embraced outrageous colors, but the ORA 4 speakers are currently available only in black or white. The base ORA speakers are available in pink, red, and the greatest purple I’ve ever seen. I’m currently testing Kanto’s new REN speakers (more to come on those very soon), and they’re available in the most perfect ’70s orange I’ve seen in decades. If you’re looking for a pair of speakers that draw attention to themselves, you might want to go the (more expensive) ORA plus subwoofer route or wait until Kanto releases some new colors.
What should you buy?
Not everyone needs or wants a dedicated desktop audio setup, but it’s worth the investment if you’re someone who works at a computer all day.
These are smaller and less expensive than the excellent AudioEngine A5+ monitors and more powerful and far sleeker than the Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT speakers recommended by Brent Butterworth over at the Wirecutter.
For me, the best reason to use dedicated desktop speakers is size. I’ve been using the smaller ORA speakers in my home office and the ORA 4 speakers at the studio. The ORA 4 speakers have a superior bass sound and support the resolution of the overwhelming majority of the hi-res audio tracks I stream from Qobuz.
I’ve tested both pairs with a Kanto SUB8 subwoofer. The improvement is dramatic with the ORA speakers, but I think the bass on the ORA 4 is good enough that almost everyone will want to skip a sub.
The SUB8 is currently available for $200, down from its $300 list price. That makes the ORA 4 plus sub price around $650. I’m also bypassing the ORA’s internal DAC and using my (incredible) $600 iFi NEO iDSD desktop DAC. Is that $1250 setup better than just a pair of ORA 4 speakers? Maybe just a little bit, but mostly because they have so much of a smaller footprint on my desk.
Unless you’re just dying for one of the weirder colors, your best investment is a pair of ORA 4 speakers if your desktop has room for them. You’ll also want speaker stands. The $40 Kanto S4 speaker stands eleven, with the $60 SE4 speaker stands bring things closer to ear level.
All of this gear is solidly built and the industrial design is beautiful. I’ve messed around with dozens of workspace audio solutions over the years, and these are my favorites.
8-track of the day
Tina’s first solo LP was made with Nashville producer Tom Thacker at Ike’s studio in Inglewood. As usual, she doesn’t hold back as she plows her way through “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “I’m Moving On,” and “If You Love Me (Let Me Know).” It’s just been reissued on vinyl and CD, but you’ll have to find your own 8-track.