What Hi-Fi? Verdict
Best budget desktop speakers, Awards 2011. The Frankenspiels rewrite the book on budget desktop speakers
Pros
- +
Great looks
- +
easy to use
- +
wide, detailed sound
- +
comes with decent cables
Cons
- -
There’s really not much to complain about at this price
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.
We first heard of the Frankenspiels’ parent company SoundScience when we looked at its nippy little QSB desktop speakers back in April. Now it’s the turn of these little beauties to come to our test rooms.
Octagonally attractive, and well finished, the dual-input FS-1’s deliver an impressive 40W output on USB-only power, or 50W on mains – quite a jump from the QSB’s 15W.
Room-filling sound
Sonically, the Frankenspiels are impressive performers. They are able to fill a room with clean, detailed sound. There’s taut, solid bass here, while the top end is smooth and detailed, without hints of stridency.
Vocals possess real insight, and a silky midrange sets the whole package off nicely. As a second room solution or merely a set of portable speakers, we can’t recommend the FS-1’s enough.
Not only do they look good, they sound fine too, are easy to set up and use, and are an affordable £130.
They come with a small carry case, complete with USB and RCA cables – so now there’s no excuse not to have decent sounds with you wherever your laptop is.
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