I am trying to decide on speakers for the fireplace mantle to stream music from Amazon Echo Dot. It would be nice to fill this room, ranging from soft ambient classical guitar, to hosting an electronic pop music dance party. Mostly, I am looking for clarity because I love to hear the subtle details of the classical guitar. Some additional practical considerations:
- The mantle shelf is 9" deep (it looks like I can fit speakers with 4" or 5" woofers because those cabinets tend to be around 8" deep).
- The speakers should be white to blend in with the decor.
- There should be minimal devices taking up space on the mantle where we also keep photo frames etc. so I'm looking at active studio monitors with built in amps rather than a separate mini amp.
- There is a convenient electrical AC plug on top of the fireplace mantle.
- I probably won't add a separate (bluetooth) woofer on the floor, as I like to keep it simple.
So far I am looking at the KRK VXT4 and Yamaha HS5 active studio monitors. Both are available in white and it looks like they accept unbalanced input. The KRK VXT4 has the bass port in the front, while the Yamaha HS5 has the bass port in the rear. Since I'm not using this for pro music recording, the extra bass boost from putting the HS5 right up against the wall could be a good thing. But I am not sure -- would it sound too boomy if I have the HS5 flush against the wall? Recording artists wouldn't want this because then they would mistakenly turn down the bass in the recording mix, but it may be a good thing for a purely listening environment.
Or maybe there are some other (white) speakers I should be looking at too? I also noticed the KRK Rokit but I don't like the super bright yellow cones. The AudioEngine A2+ and A5+ also look interesting.