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Amazon Basics Computer speakers are really basic. This hasn’t changed since we initially reviewed them two years ago. From packaging to design, this affordable USB powered set has a spartan vibe. You won’t find glossy paper finishes or a thick manual full of details here. Instead, a plain brown box will land on the doorstep, with two simple compact black speakers and a very slim user guide hidden inside. That’s all.
What has changed is the price. In 2019, these inexpensive speakers could be found for just $ 10 for the set. These days they are hovering at $ 18, which starts to counter the cost of the superior Amazon Basics with Dyanmic Sound speakers, thus making them ripe for a reassessment.
Note: This review is part of our roundup of budget computer speakers. Go there for details on competing products and our buying advice.
Mentioned in this article AmazonBasics USB Powered Computer Speakers with Dynamic Sound
Whether you’re looking for an upgrade from your laptop speakers or just need an output for a desktop PC, this particular Amazon Basics set provides clear stereo sound, with distinct left and right channels. Voices in podcasts and video calls are crisp and easy to understand. But despite being relatively well balanced, the audio is largely flat and when pumping music through these speakers, a persistent hard edge becomes apparent. It can cause different elements in songs to bleed together, stifling the joy of listening.
The experience gets even worse if you turn up the volume too much. On our test system (a desktop PC), operating the dial beyond the two-thirds mark caused noticeable distortion, limiting the volume you can go to. That said, these speakers can reach deafening levels. As long as you’re not trying to hear audio from a distance, losing some volume due to distortion isn’t as restrictive as it might initially seem.
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Given that other products in the Amazons Basics line may be good, these problems are a bit disappointing. Good stereo speakers under $ 30 are generally rare, especially USB-powered ones, but you can find them. Case in point is our best choice for budget computer speakers, $ 25 Creative Pebble, which delivers rich, satisfying audio and is usually priced at $ 20 or just $ 2 more than these Amazon Basic Computer Speakers. .
Amazon
No matter how hard we searched, we couldn’t find the R or L marks on either speaker.
The problems with Amazon’s budget speakers lie partly in their low power, the combined output being only 2.2 watts total. (Conversely, Creative Pebble has an RMS of 4.4 watts.) The company may have been a little too careful to keep costs down.
Or maybe Amazon wanted to keep a minimal footprint – this USB version measures around 5.3 x 2.76 x 3.55 inches (HWD), and while they’re wired, it only has two cables to handle. One cable connects the two speakers to each other, while the other connects to a PC via USB-A for power and 3.5mm plugs for audio.
Too bad the speakers don’t stay in place, despite not taking up much of it. The feet on the bottom are more like felt than rubber, so these can slide when using the volume knob or plugging in wired headphones for more private listening. Not that you want to do much of the latter. You can hear an audible background hiss at low and medium volumes that can still bleed at higher volumes, depending on what you are listening to.
A couple of final complaints about this budget set are the intensely bright blue LED on the power indicator and the lack of signs indicating the left and right speaker. On the latter point, the position of the left and right speakers for our review unit also had to be reversed from what is shown in the user guide to achieve correct output. It was a problem easily solved by listening to a track with moving but slightly irritating directional audio.
Bottom line
Cheap speakers can’t work wonders, but Amazons assumes a cheap USB set is average at best. If all you need to do is hear the audio clearly enough, these will fulfill that mission, but you can do a lot better by spending just a few dollars more on rival options.
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