Best small, desktop speakers, $500 or under (new or used)

The vanatoo’s punch way above their weight, er, size.  Really dynamic for their size.

I was going to mention the Audioengine A2+ as well.  I have the the B2 which is 2 A2+ smashed together into one unit.  I also use an audioquest red dragonfly and jitterbug to go wired.  Def a noticeable difference between that and bluetooth.

The red is sexy for sure!

TMR has the bigger brotherIn white, the A5+ for $310...

I have a pair of powered studio speakers on my desktop next to the monitor.

Adam Audio A5x
These were highly recommended by my son. He is a professional musician who uses these for mixing...and sheer enjoyment. I have not been disappointed! Used they are in your price range, but then you have a spare amp.

Thanks, Kacomess. I know I was very pleasantly surprised by the audioengine DAC I got. Good company. I’ll look into the Vanatoo, too. I like the name. I’ll look at the A5, b_limo!

I also noticed some Totem Dreamcatchers. I like Totems.

The one hesitation I have with powered speakers is that I like all the $$ to go into the speaker itself, not the connections. I do have some reasonably good power and that inclines me to have a speaker that is passive. But maybe that's outmoded thinking for this application.

This thread ties in with my diminishing returns thread... it just goes to show how awesome of a set-up you can get for very little $ and how many choices are out there.
My buddy has the Adam T5v and they are awesome! His $800 setup (acoustic panels, isoacoustics, dac) sounds waay too close to my $4000 set up

You might as well add emotiva B1+, wharfedale 225 and Elac Debut 2.0 b6.2 as well.

Theres going to be a difference between something like the adam A5x and the Audioengines.  The Adams will rock the house, the Audioengines, especially the A2+ really aren’t 

I think you’d be pretty surprised with something like the Adams.  They probably sound better than your adcom gear with some dreamcatchers.  I love totems too, bu the way.  There is a pair of rainmakers for $400 somewhere I saw.

Your adcom gear paired with elacs, or the wharfedales in nearfield will sound so good you might feel a little bad about your main rig.

Another thing too, if you buy a pair of Adam A5x’s used at $500 and sell your adcom gear for $250, you’re only in it for $250. Powered monitors are going to clean up the look at volume controls easily accessible on the speakers might be a plus over the adcoms.

Some swans or edifiers might be a consideration as well but 
Adams are definitely the real deal though.  You need to know that with these powered speakers you are getting 4 amps, so think of it as dual mono blocks.  Each driver has its own amplifier, picked out but they speaker designer to perfectly pair with the speaker that they designed.  Also, they don’t have conventional crossovers.  The crossovers are all handled in the digitail domain.