How to upgrade your office audio experience
It makes for depressing reading, but the average office worker will spend roughly 53,000 hours sitting behind a desk before they retire. It’s a long time to be stuck in one place, and while I endorse regular breaks and a decent chair, I’d also urge you to upgrade your desktop audio equipment. Though some are lucky enough to have large offices with space to indulge their Hi-fi obsessions, most of us make do with a desk, chair and laptop. But even the oldest Wi-fi streaming computer can be transformed into a highquality music player.
As with modern TVS, laptop speakers offer subpar sound quality, and a dedicated pair of stereo desktop speakers will greatly improve the audio. Not to be confused with explosion-enhancing gaming speakers, these audio upgrades can either be connected via the 3.5mm headphone jack and USB port or wirelessly using Bluetooth. Ruark’s MR1
Mk2 (£349; ruarkaudio.com) offer gorgeous looks and size-defying sound quality, while
Q Acoustics M20 (£439; qacoustics.co.uk) are equally enjoyable if your desk is big enough. For modern-day streaming there are countless smartphone-controlled wireless speakers that will enhance any office – you won’t go wrong with the Sonos
Era 100, Apple Homepod or Kef’s latest and glorious LS50 Meta (£1,199; kef.com).
While headphones with wireless active noise cancellation help to muffle the din of the office, these hi-tech extras are less important when working from home – in which case I’d highly recommend a pair of wired over-ear headphones. I’ve been using the excellent
Audio Technica ATH-WP900 (£599; audiotechnica.com) for a few years, but you don’t need to spend £600 to further your enjoyment. Austrian Audio’s HIX15 is a bargain at £99 (austrian.audio) and the Philips Fidelio X3 (£139; philips.co.uk) is also a steal.
Though all computers have DAC (digitalto-analogue converter) chips, adding a DAC headphone amplifier vastly improves sound quality. You don’t need to spend big either: the portable ifi Go Link costs just £59 (ifi-audio. com), and the award-winning Chord Mojo 2 (£395; chordelectronics.co.uk) is great value.
For the best experience, you’ll also need high-quality audio recordings. Compressed MP3S might sound OK in the background, but they miss so much detail. Thankfully, sites such as Qobuz, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music and classical specialist Idagio (idagio.com) all offer hi-res Cd-quality streaming.
The average office worker spends around 53,000 hours at their desk