They look very tidy. I wouldn't call myself a bass head, but I do like response fairly flat down to around 50hz at least. I struggled to get that out of small speakers without a fair bit of EQ which destroyed power handling, so ended up going with a sub. Tight-arse build follows... Mine are kmart specials - use a cheap bamboo storage box from kmart, brace/line it heavily, add a side panel of ply and a Vifa FR driver (drivers $20ea, kmart bits < $10). Only about 1L so does peak a tiny bit around 200Hz. All up about 2hr work. Sub was using a previous cab I'd already built so repurposed, approx 20L, existing old 8" I had kicking about, replaced the dust cap and made a new baffle (real wood over mdf). Amp an old Pioneer receiver I had, played in all channel stereo mode with centre channel therefore getting all material, use the built-in EQ to take the bass out of the fronts and highs out of the sub (centre channel), added a coil to the sub for some extra roll-off of highs. Pictures coming a bit later. For $50, a few hours effort and some parts I had laying about it sounds and looks far better than it has any right to.
I wish I had your MaD sKiLlz and I would. I'm pretty happy with my Edifer's. I went from 5.1 Z960's to the smaller but very capable 2speaker Edifiers and the transition was not really that noticeable. I just found I didn't need the 5.1's and it was basically just overkill.
Ooops didn't get around to sharing these. Sub could use a clean up and a finish on the baffle but it's kinda hidden so no big deal.
How small is small? And do you need a short height? A short width/depth? Or Both. IMO, the Fluid Audio FX50 Concentric's are pretty small (18cm wide / 23cm deep) and can be easily extended with a F8S sub if need be). The Eris 3.5's are another option, 14cm wide, 16cm deep. I'm out of my depth any smaller than this, but these two I've auditioned before and thought they sounded pretty good especially for the size.
I picked up some Edifier R1280DB and had the same reaction, surprisingly good. I got mine from new from ebay for $139 but I've seen them drop to $110 occasionally.
I was going into it thinking they'd have barely any bass from the woofers, but they're way better in that regard than I was expecting. Changed from a set of BOSE Companion 5's and they had bass enough to shake the room.. so the Edifiers were good enough to let that go and still be an acceptable pair.
These are the Edifier's I have also. For the pc this is really all I need right now. The only small first world problem I find is that when I boot into windows sometimes it won't pick up the BT connection so I have to turn the speakers off then back on and they're fine.
Yeah not really too sure, motherboard is only a few months old. Not a deal breaker as it only happens once in every 20-30 boots I guess. Haven't tried any other sources. Couldn't even just be a windows thing which is probably more likely.
Unless your soundcard or onboard is a total potato, be better off using that rather than Bluetooth Audio anyway