The MOST Underrated Gaming Upgrade: DIY Speaker Build 

I must say getting to finish these was really fun! And I’m not an audio expert by any measure but these speakers sound amazing.. like everything was right in front of you irl. Really immersive 👌🏻🤩

Wait, Dawid is reviewing a premium product for its intended purpose and in the proper configuration and there was no risk of anything catching fire or exploding? That's certainly different than testing literal potato GPUs! I love it though, Dawid can do serious reviews just as well as he does crazy ones!

Always use pieces of wood between clamps and the item if the item surface is something that you will see in finished product.

Speaking as an audio gear nerd, this video was super vindicating haha. I'm more a headphones user since cramped room = not ideal for speakers, but having a great 2ch system is the dream! I know you're a PC guy and all but "tech stuff" has a lot under the umbrella and it'd be cool to see more vids like this!

I recently took up building speakers, man it's an addictive hobby! I started off by desoldering caps and resistors from old satellite/pvr boxes and then winding my own inductors. Did not expect a video like this from Dawid! This man truly likes to dabble in everything, and that is a man of my own heart

As a music production nerd, I appreciated this video. I've ALWAYS gone with non-gamer audio stuff and had much better results in terms of price to performance. Plus, I have the added bonus of having those tools for my creative workflow as well.

The sound is always the most under appreciated part of gaming.I hook my SNES to a sound system back in the day and was blowed away.Sound really makes a difference.

As an audio enthusiast this is such an underrated upgrade. A really good way to get started is looking at used or vintage speakers and seeing what you can find a good deal on and make work!

OMG, that censoring part is hilarious!!! 🤣 I think you doing a good job. 😁

Nice vid, I recently upgraded to some studio monitors for my PC. I like having good audio, and I’m not a fan of wearing headphones for long periods of time.

Dawid's first baby speakers, and they're DIY! Let's hope he goes down the rabbithole that is audio equipment.

This is by far one of the coolest diy projects I've seen in a long time, very cool video!

As someone who has done woodworking as a hobby you and your wife did a very good job of assembling and finishing the cabinets.

It's fun building speakers. I build my own and some friends car speaker systems. Good hobby. Lots of fun. Cant go wrong with woodworking. Can you do a built from scratch desk/integrated computer next?

It’s called sound stage and when you get it right it’s just amazing.

You seem a little nerdy about audio, I'd love to see more of that. Enjoyed this video a lot :D

I love how you love soundstage (that feeling of spacing). It's great for games, but music and movies also benefit tons. In music it's almost like you can sense where the instrument was in the room. I have a Bowers and Wilkins 5.1 setup, powered by a Denon AV receiver with a LG 48" OLED. It's kind of like a one man IMAX. If you love that Saving Private Ryan feel, I'd recommend a subwoofer. Also, I still use VOIP in games because I'm a selfish bastard (I try not to make callouts during artillery).

Dawid video on a Thursday?? Could it be a dream come true?!

Liked the little longer format of this one! Great work!

I was so excited to build some myself….until I saw that price tag 😭

2:20 Stuffing my wood in the wrong place and getting glue eveywhere sounds somewhat awesome. I can't see a problem here.

Yes, very good speakers are a must and so often overlooked. You have some pretty serious piece of kit there and it turned out great, really enjoyed this one

While I'm not knocking these speakers because I'd never be able to afford them in the first place. I'd recommend C-NOTE speakers for those on a budget. Same experience at a much reduced cost. I love mine. ~$150 and you get to build your own crossover and speaker cabinets. I can't compare the sound quality due to the cost associated with your kit but, I enjoyed the learning experience and the sound quality (for me) was a game changer. I used to game with Sennheiser hd599's.

Good to see and hear vintage Hi-Fi Separates still being used for great audio.

That's awesome, you should build a 75% or tkl keyboard next (don't use cherry switches)

Loved it, to be honest. I rather pay more and build my own speakers but know how to fix it and what is inside. And thats not talking about the possible upgrades. Would be cool to see more of these videos

A few things: exceptional headphones and IEMs can provide quite a wide soundstage with good imaging, but it is largely true that speakers will give you a better experience in that regard, assuming they are competent. High-end components for your crossovers isn't strictly necessary as long as the parts you get have been matched for deviation. The main reason some audiophiles order extremely high quality crossover components is because they aren't building 50 or 100 speakers, so they don't want to order a bunch of components to test and match up just to get a set that measure the same, so buying some that have much tighter tolerances to begin with is just easier. A lot of the cost associated with kits like this is just the convenience of not needing to do the maths to figure out enclosure size, port size, port length, and crossover design for yourself. Personally, I think I'd just spring for a set of Yamaha HS-8 instead and be done with it.

I always love to see something different from this channel and Dawid delivered! Please do more DIY with other things!

Awesome looking and apparently awesome sounding speakers as well. Your color commentary is always great to hear :-) I have a set of Bose Companion 3 Speakers I have been using for 11 years now, and they still sound great.

Watching you struggle and complain is my therapy. Thank you.

It fills my heart with such hope that you censored the soldering to avoid the comments in the troll bucket.

I can remember back around 2000... when EAX audio made it's way into gaming, and specifically Star Wars Jedi Academy. I got a creative Live 24 bit, 5.1 system, and turned on the EAX audio setting, and for the first time on home PC I had movie quality sound. And it has just gotten better since then. I work in pro audio, and I tell people, there is a lot of fudging you can do with the images shown to a person, but if your sound is off, the whole product is off. Always great to see something that expresses these qualities of sound. FYI though, you can do this cheaper.

A few tips, if you don’t have enough clamps, tape will work to “clamp” work together. If you’re using clamps, put take where the clamps will go to help mitigate scuff marks. You don’t need to mask off the are to prevent glue, just use a rag to remove the over spill is always better to have to much glue then not enough, also you should be sanding before so that’s makes no difference.

As one coming from the Baltic states, I do approve the use of our birch.

i've had a 3.5mm jack to aux cable plugging in to my technics stack system for probably 20 old years,its just the best way

Dawid: "blew my mind." Proceeds to get headshot

thank you alot for covering this topic. quite a while ago i was slowly shifting my entertainment budget away from pc stuff and more into home theater/audio gear and man... its such an awesome place to be in but heartbreaking to see how people simply ignore this world alltogether. its literally mindblowing how much great audio (and no gaming headphones, beyerdynamics and soundbars are not considered ''great'' audio) affect immersion in movies and games alike. and its even more mindblowing how affordable this hoppy actually is if you know what youre looking for. diy speakers basicly allways outperform their prebuild counterparts if you can build them... amps you can snack prett good ones up for almost free on the used market, same with speakers. And the great thing on speakers is how they dont really age that much. Speaker design has not changed drasticly the last 20 30 years so if you listen to speaker that were great 30 years ago... they most likely still sound great and if you build or buy great speakers today they will most likely still sound great in 30 years, because the audio hardware besides amplification doesnt really age or change that often. good speakers can grow on and with you and accompany you for years. So if say 800 bucks sound way to expensive for a pair of nice speakers... how much did your gpu cost? can you still play modern games on a 30 year old gpu? no? as a long term investment, nice audio is actually a really cheap hobby if you look at it as a price per month. And the most important things dont even cost you anything at all because stuff like speaker placement and alike is one of the most important things that can take months to get down right, that can be the difference between a great speaker and a freaking magical speaker. Speaking of: i would still fiddle with the placement david, you kind of dont want your speakers sit behind the screen because soundwaves dont go straight but have on axis and off axis sound projection and having them sit behind your monitor will cause off axis early reflections on your monitor surface. you really dont do your lovely critons justice with that Yes average joes hifi dad i am looking at you sir, getting those nice speakers for the living room to slap them into some room corners or tv shelf with no concept behind it, making those theoretical nice speakers sound absolutely terrible... pls dont be this guy. a couple years ago i did not even had a tv, nor did i wanted one. i had some nice headphones and thought thats what i want... boy was i wrong. speakers make you feel the music or movie around you and the room in a way headphone can never do. And today i m at the point where audio is literally the most important aspect for me in media. music, movies, games. i simply dont play, listen or watch it if the audio experience sucks. it reminds me of those gamers a couple years ago, i think you know some of these aswell. imagine you re buying this super fancy high end pc with a freakin rtx 3090 because why not... just so that you can play heartstone on it on some random 12 year old 60hz acer office display. its the same thing... its such a wasted potential in experience

Now look what y'all have done!.. We don't even get to see the soldering anymore. 😁 I know the thermal paste has been the most horrendous thing to show an audience for console repairman for years. 🤣 No matter how much you apply its too much or too little or too thin or something 😁 I use razers haptic feedback headset. Nari ultimate I think it's called and I can never go back to a regular headset. Once you FEEL the sound, you know you been missing out 😉 Gaming is next level with it.

He sure glossed over that extremely high end used amp like it was nothing. I'm sure it was at least half of audio experience.

the bracing seems a bit barren, no batten as well. if you heard some rattling or some loud odd frequency, you can nail a bit on each edges for a bit more rigidity. as for inner damping, that foam is a bit too much lol; you can replace it using 2mm or 3 mm eva foam lining if you feel the bass is a bit too thin 13:15 with that acoustic foam. (you've already got some on that wall behind monitor anyway) that Unico Research amp seems overkill, but it's good enough for most; otherwise, good job.

I bought a set of Logitech X-530 surround 5.1 computer speakers, years ago. They are discontinued but are still some one the best PC speaker systems ever made. They still sound mint.

I have two computers at my desk, so I use an Apollo Twin as a DAC for both. The primary computer connects by Thunderbolt and the secondary by optical. Works. Mixes their audio together so I can hear both at the same time, and good DAC. Want new speakers…

Finally someone addressing one of my main must-haves for my setup. Decent speakers with decent amp. I don't care how much your fancy headphones cost, unless you're streaming, speakers are the way to go.

One of your best videos. Many thanks!

I love your videos my friend. The sense of humor and playing around with PC and building them up and tearing them down is by far my favorite thing to do other than working on cars. I wish I had the PC you have and work on them. Since I'm new to Kamloops and in recovery battling addiction I unfortunately don't have the financial aspect of buying parts to build my own gaming rig.

The blurred soldering was hilarious. Nice touch.

i love the blurred solder job. I don't know how these speakers sound, but I do recommend getting good bookshelve speakers for a PC. It's really great. I have a pair of B&W CM1 S2 on my desk. The directional audio thing is really correct. You don't need "real" 5.1 with good speakers and a properly configured game (like BF5, which does it really well). I think they "simulate" direction by playing sounds with different low-pass/high-pass filters (that matches the perceived difference in sound by your ears when sound is coming from behind) and very small differences in latency between left and right channel. I always found that all battlefield games do this exceptionally well on a good pair of headphones OR on a good pair of speakers.

Now you just need to get yourself your first tube amp Dawid. I'm playing on a pair of high end vintage monitors (the modern new production equivalent sells for $1400 from the same company, with slightly improved parts), but what REALLY blew my mind was when I upgraded my amp to a nice vintage tube amp (i bought a Dynaco ST-70). You can get tons of mods for this amp, my modified all in one driver/rectifier system-on-board came from Curcio Audio Engineering up in Washington state, previously from the SF bay area. My total after buying the original vintage amp for $500, was about $1900, but expect to pay more than I did for the starter amp (or for a parts kit to send to Joe Curcio or another modder who, will also do the assembly if you aren't up for it). If you're comfortable assembling a crossover, and you can read a schematic, you should be able to assemble an amp as well, just keep in mind that unlike a crossover, an amp will have deadly voltages inside it at some point during your post-assembly testing, and wiring it together wrong will damage your components. I did it and i only partially damaged the PCB with my wiring error, no big deal, just had to send it back and get it repaired by joe xD. Your glue-up error is definitely no big deal btw, I've assembled worse built speakers than that before, thanks in large part to my friend's CnC work being dogshit. Such is life when you're new at CnC and haven't calibrated your unit yet, the parts they were producing weren't even matching lmfao. But yea, welcome to the DIY home Hi-Fi rabbit hole, next you're going to want a sub, and to do that you'll need an external crossover, or ideally a DSP of some type that also has phase adjustment and some form of EQ (6 points of parametric is all 99% of people will ever need), and before you know it you'll be wanting to upgrade your interface from whatever cheap consumer grade device you bought to get started out. edit before the edit: PASSIVE IS NOT A DOWNSIDE. It makes for a much higher quality amp, you can buy great used amps for dirt fucking cheap, and if the amp fails, you can just plug another one into your speakers and those will still work fine. The only downside to that is it adds an extra set of cables, and it takes up a bit more space, but generally this is far outweighed by the advantages of being able to upgrade your amp separately of your speakers, do repairs with another amp powering the speakers, etc... post-edit: it's also worth noting, that for anything super-competitive, a pair of audiophile headphones will probably serve you better, since speakers and microphones don't mix super great together (RTX voice helps, but wont suppress voice echo). Anyone who is going to buy a setup like this, should not expect to play CS on it with their clan. You should expect to go play Witcher III on it and spend hours listening to the music in game alone, the atmospheres, etc....

Cool video, I really enjoy these types of projects personally. Here is a fun story I thought I would share. In the mid 2000s I purchased a JBL Spot 2.1 system, well lets be honest, because it was on clearance at a local retailer. Everybody that has listened to this little system, including me, has been blown away at the size to sound ratio, truly impressive. Eventually like all speakers, especially subwoofers, the speaker surround broke down and disintegrated. Instead of disposing of the unit I decided to "refresh" it. I ventured online and found 2 DT ProMonitor 800s and an Episode 8" woven fiberglass powered subwoofer. I pulled the JBL unit apart and wired it all together and it sounds amazing once again, dare I say even better than before? All in cost under $100 and an hour or so of my time. Anybody with basic tools and a few bucks could easily duplicate this as well.

For anyone wanting cheaper check out the Dayton Audio C-Notes. I love mine.

For the price of those "DIY" kits, you can have a pair of active studio monitors and a pretty good audio interface. The pricing for a kit is a bit crazy ^^' You really have to buy it just for the pleasure of customizing it

Two speakers can do a very good job with imaging (positional audio). Provided they're set up correctly (pointing at your head, something most don't do properly), you can get some crazy good imaging out of most speakers, and it only gets better with better speakers. We have two ears, we only hear in stereo. Good speakers, and headphones, are designed to work off that premise.

I agree that audio plays a huge part in PC use and is often underrated. That said, only the elites will go to the trouble of paying thousands for a setup you have to build yourself. For a fraction of the price, I recommend two things: Klipsch THX Pro 2.1 computer speakers, plus a good set of open air headphones, paired with an optional mic if needed (I use some Philips HD9500's). Still a very interesting option, even if it is out of reach for many gamers.

Glad you had a great experience with building your own speakers. I do believe one of the discripters you were trying to say is "sound stage" when you were remarking about speaker placement and drivers (DACs). Audio is definitely a overlooked thing for most people. One of the few percent that are aware but I'm not a audiophile by any means.

Thank you so much for showing us what's possible with great audio and gaming. I couldn't agree more about the point you made of audio being the most underrated aspect of gaming. It's such a treat see you shout that out loud and 👏 😁

Speakers are way important for immersive gaming. I got a pair of used Bose bookshelf speakers paired with a powered subwoofer....I've been using them for well over 10 years and even now for games like Mechwarrior 5 it's wicked...the room actually vibrates with explosions. Dawid you should do a gamer review of something like the Woojer vest...

Really good idea to use tape for the glue spill, I'll remember that for my build.

Something bout Dawid handling wood makes me happy, maybe it's his amazing carpentry work

A nice set of "bookshelf" speakers and a good amp is one of the best upgrades you can do. Still using my Dayton B452s with a Fosi TB10A amp, sounds great!

Dawid ist right. I am an Audiophile myself, but a bit more peasant. On my editing I use some Microlab Solo 6C speakers, a Beyerdynamic DT990Pro Headphone in combination with a Antlion Modmic, powered by an ASUS Xonar ROG Phoebus sound card. My gaming rig uses a ASUS Xonar DX to power the Beyerdynamic Custom Game headset. A Creative USB-soundcard is responsible for the Mackie CR4 studio monitor speakers. Combined with a Tonor USB mic, that is a relatively cheap audio setup with way better sound than any gamer stuff. General takeaway: Buy used audio gear, not gaming headsets and speakers. The sound is amazing by comparision and it is much more robust. And probs to Anna for the woodwork!

Wow! That was verry satisfying! Thanks Dawid and Anna :)

I'm using Audioengine HD4 self powered speakers with an SVS 12" sealed subwoofer. Great imaging and deep bass on explosions! I used to use an Emotiva 75W speaker amp, with EPOS EL3 speakers. The Audioengine built-in USB DAC is pretty good, but I get more ambience and depth with the CEntrance HiFiM8 as DAC, which I used with the Emotiva and Epos.

Building speakers is a lot of fun.

I have a set of Edifier bookshelf speakers that I will use when not using voice communication. Then, if I need to talk, I have a Logitech G Pro headset. I may have overpaid for it because of the branding on the microphone, but I don't think they are that bad. Much better than what I remember my Turtle Beach headsets sounding as I grew up. However, my favorite set of headphones I've ever used are the Audio-Technica ATH-AD900x. I ran those through a mix console with speakers and a microphone. Things happened and that setup is no more, but the memories I make playing with my friends are still just as good.

For those who would like something a bit different and don't want to or can't pay 1k for speakers how about a bit of leg work. Charity shops full of old hi-fi equipment. Some good some not so. UK you'd get a decent quality separates system with speakers for less than £100. Therr are lots of forums and groups that discuss vintage hi-fi so you'd probably be able to to a quick search to check how good the stuff is if your not familiar with it. Personally I paired up a pair old jvc bookcase speakers, I got for £16 with a cheap little 20w amp from ebay, think that was about £8. Id say better than anything I could find in a purpose built pc speakers for under abou £100 I dare say with £150-200 budget and some spare time I could come up with something on par with this system.

For my audio production hobby I use M-Audio monitors and a Tascam Interface. I know for enjoying audio monitors are not ideal, but they sound incredible while gaming. In my living room, I have passive hi-fi speakers from Heco and DIY ones with a Denon stereo amp, and those sound way better for consuming audio. But for PCs I prefer active speakers with an interface!

If the building I lived in didn't have walls made of tissue paper and saliva I'd totally get one of these kits - but I do, so I'll live vicariously though your experiences in this video :D

I switched to some passive monitors combined with a smaller amp like that s.m.s.l. unit you showed a few years ago and it blew every kind of "gaming speaker" setup I had before away. Even if you only pay around 200-300 bucks for this kind of setup it is well worth it.

Dude; Sweet DIY Vid. I'm gonna check this out for my Dad, he loves Tube Amps. Just the fact that he built his own monitors would be a sweet Idea for a BDay gift!

I never thought i would see you review high end audio equipment! I just set up a AV receiver 7.1 setup for my PC and its super immersive

"You don't want to go stuffing wood in the wrong place and getting your glue everywhere" I lost it. I see what you did.

You should do more of these types of videos

Audiophile! I'm using an old Vecteur I-4 amp, Atoll ST100 streamer DAC, and my old first pair of speakers, B&W CDM1's. 👍🙌

So you bought 2k worth of audio stuff......well it better blow you away....just saying

i have a 5.1 speaker setup with a marantz amp, 2 pioneer reference towers, 2 Polk Audio RTI10 towers, a nice center channel and a dual CLamshelled 10 inch sub. Games like battlefield really do sound sooo much better with a nice audio setup.

LOL the blurred soldering had me laughing out loud 😆

Brilliant review as usual mate, loving the censored soldering, even though I usually advocate for freedom of viewing.😁

Good speaker build video, I will buy the Baltic Birch kit now.

Those actually came out looking really nice ... I have vintage speakers / amps in my computer area .. Set ups (1: optical out (B550 Elite> FiiO D03K> Sony TA-N77ES (amp) / TA-E77ESD (pre) > Yamaha NS-344 (10" 3 ways) ( the sony amp and pre are TOTL from 1989~ amp weights about 65lbs.) Additionally I have 2nd set up:: Firestone Audio Blackkey (usb dac) Pioneer SX-3600 > JBL L1 bookshelf speakers

dawid this episode was awesome!!!

I appreciate that Dawid took the time to protect his wood before finishing it.

11:00 And this, good people of the internet, is why you don't want big woofers. You want small woofers, in a well designed cabinet. These look very promising. Nice cabinet design, beautiful looking units, decent filters, internal cabling looks acceptable (at least it's no solid core washing line crap). I can't help but think that there's probably cheaper alternatives to these that sound just as good (Maybe something by Dynaudio, The Tannoy M2 or the little Boston Acoustics A25. Or if you're not a basshead, the Wharfedale Diamond III. Or, more vintage, Acoustic Research ar4ax) but these definitely look promising. What also makes me really happy is the huge space around the tweeter, prevents sound diffraction from the edges of the speaker. And I like that they're a 2-way with a soft dome and a smallish woofer. They just make a lot of sense.

The AMp is called Ubico Primo. Ubico still makes the Primo as model, but afaik is newer revisions then yours. Its a great Amp which was a good seller when i worked at a hifi store.

I'd say Sound Cards are even more underrated, most people just forget they exist, even though they elevate even cheap speakers to new levels. DIY speakers can be nice, but you can also easily mess it up and end up creating mediocre speakers. A proper setup with an amp and a DAC plus your selfmade speakers gets expensive quick, and that is for a 2.0 system that just can't quite reach as low as a proper subwoofer can

I love a good 2ch setup, and they don't have to break the bank! I have a pair of Klipsch R14M speakers hooked to a Fosi Audio T20 sitting on my desk flanking the monitor; the whole setup cost me less than 300 Canadian Rubles at the time. Can't crank the bass up too much, though; I live in an apartment with relatively thin walls which is also an issue with good speakers.

I had no idea this was a thing, but I'm gonna keep my eyes on these for when I need to finally upgrade my speakers (probably somewhat overdue). My only question (and this is probably answered on their website lol) is how is the frequency response on these speakers? Is it more of a flat response or one tailored for listening? As someone who dabbles HEAVY in music production Flat responses from any headphones or speakers is a MUST. I saw later in the video you mention the speaker's bass, is there any control on the speakers to tweak the bass response? My current speakers (marketed as "studio monitors", not sure if that has anything to do with having the feature) have some frequency tuning on the back which includes dropping the db of low end depending on how far they are from your walls as they have rear firing subs. Audio is definitely one of the most overlooked parts of a setup. I just upgraded my headphones (previously a pair of sennhesier HD579s) to the Sennheiser HD6xx from drop (only $200!!!!) and am absolutely loving them. I don't even have a set of truly balanced cables for them (yet!) and I can already tell how significantly better they are at separating/emphasizing the right and left channels.

Nice soldering i saw i bit of it at 6:53

That Speaker blew Dawids mind as much as i blow out my hair

2:18, innuendo overload! 🤣

props Dawid for the Harrison Ford comment. not a lot of folks know that he was a carpenter before acting

Was not expecting an item like this being reviewed. That was way cool!

I remember, back in the day, buying a subwoofer and 4 Twitters from a LG kit (a very cheap one) and play unreal tournament... i was crazy, earing the bullets going around me¡¡¡ sound in video games are very very inportant. Hey David, continue your good work¡¡¡¡

speakers kick booty, especially if you dont need a mic. for everyone who suddenly needs an upgrade but doesnt have $1500 laying around, you can get powered kantos for $200ish, vanatoo t0's are $400ish and have dsp which give them amazing soundstage(i have a set of these), and at $500-$600 vanatoo has t1e's which i can only imagine are great, kanto has some crazy speakers, and swan also has some killer sets at this price but they may not be as good as vanatoo or kanto for near field (ie desk instead of living room). if you get any 2.1 system (2 speakers and a sub) id say stick with swan or edifier, but just remember that you wont get the same speaker performance for the price, and most powered speakers (except swan sometimes) will have an output port to add a sub later.

I was just looking at these!! awesome to see a channel i love talk about them

6:43 Ah don't worry too much about it, soldering just takes practice. I'm not as practiced as I should be, but I can still get the job done. So long as the solder joint isn't "cold" you should be fine (if it is cold you will eventually have to fix it later, but on a speaker it should be *immediately apparent* if your joints are messed up.

Damn you sensored the soldering once again... finished solder joints don't look bad honestly. I think your soldering thin has too little flux from what I can see in the video though, but not your fault! A digital to analog converter... every motherboard has one and you honestly don't need much better when you're not driving headphones! I also made my setup. I picked two small form factor but deep speakers (I mean in size) so pretty bassy, and I even added a sub. The amplifier is what I made diy, and I didn't use any tutorial/premade thing My DIY amp has precise control of frequencies for both the main speakers and the sub! Amazing for gaming and listening to music too!

5:30 Dayton is no crap. There's indeed a certain 'don't go below this level and you will be okay' to all of this. Same with speaker cables, really. As long as it's copper and has some Thicccc to it (2.5mm2 is plenty) it shouldn't ruin your sound TOO much. Anything about that is, really, a matter of taste. I have tweaked the sound of my rig by changing from one speaker cable to another (in my case it was Wireworld Stream 16/2 to Dynaudio Ocos). Brought a little life back into it after a change for slightly more laid back sounding speakers. Same really happens with capacitors. You have clarity caps for instance, that do exactly what the name suggests. Generally though 'half decent' is at least good enough to get a very solid impression of what the speakers are capable of

Bruh I just started this as my summer project... I think I'm being watched. Multiple youtubers I watch have just done speaker vids at the same time. XD Also first comment. 🙃

Unfortunately, in gaming circles sound is given too little attention compared to graphics.

speakers are so much better than headphones. since growing out my hair I stopped using my headphones because they squished my hair. now I use my studio monitors for everything (except voice calls)