Best small, desktop speakers, $500 or under (new or used)

I paid $389 for my C1 pair new on Amazon about a year ago, FYI. Sealed is nice for desk and with only 8” behind. They are currently in my main HT system, which maybe could be considered a promotion from backup duty in my third music system, where the Kefs are (or maybe a lateral move, haha). If your amp is neutral or laid back, the C1’s should be fine. If your amp is forward, then maybe not.
The Kef q150, while rear ported, do include port bungs.

I’ll give a little more feedback on the Kef q150s. 
I am a Spendor fanboy. Have D7’s in my main system, D1’s in my secondary system, and SA1’s as the main speakers in my 3rd system, with the Kefs as the backups that I rotate thru (along with some NHT Absolute Zeros -ya, I gotta problem, but don’t judge haha). 
Anyway, the SA1’s have $2.2k msrp, the Kefs 600 msrp, and the Absolute Zeros 300 msrp. 
The SA1’s are the best of the three, but it is sure no landslide. 
For example, if I say the SA1’s are a 100 on a normalized scale of sound quality, I’d rate the Kefs a 95 and the Absolute Zeros a 60. (for me the C1’s maybe an 85, but if you like clarity and forward sounding speakers more than I do, you might rank them higher - I do not typically prefer forward sounding speakers). 
So at about one quarter the cost of the SA1’s, the q150s punch outside their weight class IMO. Ymmv. 

@kren0006,how do you think the Q150’s compare to the R100’s?

Sorry never heard R100s so couldn’t say.

I’d assume probably little better but would have to hear both. R100 higher series but also older series I think right? I’m no Kef expert, just grabbed the q150s when they were on sale half price a month ago to get some more variety and was really impressed (admittedly probably wasn’t expecting too much but they were better than expected). 

I think part of it is I’m pretty underwhelmed with my Spendor SA1. They aren’t worth their msrp.

If I include my D1 (3.2k msrp) in the mix as a true reference bookshelf speaker imo (they are fantastic), and rate the D1 as 100, then the SA1 drops to 77, the Kef q150 a 74 on this scale, the NHT C1 a 67, and Absolute Zero a 42.
Just my opinion and damn I am really rambling on here but maybe this helpful for some or maybe n........

Thanks, guys. The NHT sound interesting.

125 responses to a $500 or less speaker. You’re overthinking this My Man

Maybe I already bought some speakers.
Maybe I just like to watch the monkeys dance.