The working from home thread: tips and advice

They rated highly on some "what speakers should I buy" list for an amount that didn't scare me. I am no audiophile.

those look great but not sure why everyone goes for studio monitors. I find them very harsh.

Studio monitors are "transparent"... you hear the audio but not the equipment. Yes if you're listening to music a lot this can sound harsh, and if that's the focus then regular stereo speakers can be more comfortable... they introduce character, and this can mean "warmth" and "smoothness" or "fullness" (typically people mean more bass)... which can be an easier listen than studio monitors.

But thinking of audio work, vocals, video conferences, audio editing... actually voices with more bass can be boomy and that's tiring, or for gaming explosions can be too overwhelming, or the stereo separation isn't great (speakers are usually for rooms, whereas studio monitors are "nearfield" and are good 1m away from you).

Studio monitors aren't better / worse than stereo speakers... they're just different. Whether they work for you is totally down to what you use them for.

For a desk and mixed use that includes meetings and gaming, IMHO any nearfield monitors will be a better choice than speakers designed to fill a room... the "tightness" of the sound is why that's my preference (also called "directionality"), meaning nearfield monitors will try and make a really narrow cone of perfect sound in front of them. There's a sweet spot horizontally and vertically in front, which creates a really perfect listening spot with wide stereo separation. Compared to stereo speakers which really just try and fill a room and tend to have a wide spread for the sound they make.

For example here are decibel heatmaps for a pair of Adam T5V studio monitors:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/adam-t5v-review-studio-monitor.18122/

Nearfield monitors are perfect sound, transparent, and loud in a specific sweet spot in front of them - which is all great for mixed use and on a desk... precisely what they were made for in a recording studio.

If all you're doing is putting music on... don't bother, some AudioEngine A2+ connected via bluetooth will knock yours socks off at the price point https://audioengineusa.com/shop/wirelessspeakers/a2-wireless-computer-speakers/ and they don't need an amp or cabling from your laptop.