Do you like to hear music? Is music an essential part of your lifestyle? If yes then you should be knowing how important it is to have a good speaker with you.  Well plugging an earphone or a headphone isn’t comfortable for a long period of time. When you have a house party you cannot just play it on an earplug or a headphone, you need a speaker for that. A speaker that can entertain you while washing dishes or an in-home workout session. Most of you reading this would like to dance when alone when no one is watching, or you have planned a home date for your loved one. 

Nowadays people think that Bookshelf speakers have been outscored by Bluetooth speakers, but that not the reality. The reality, in this case, is the opposite, bookshelf speakers are still a vouge. The bookshelf speakers are made to give that extra touch to the quality of your home theatre experience.  They come in many styles and sound quality in the different price range.

Although finding a bookshelf speaker for under $200 is quite difficult because it a modest budget. You may get a good product, but not as good as mind-blowing features. They are made in such a way that they will work well when placed on an ear height cause they are made for it, but if you will change their height you will notice a difference in their sound quality. 

Thankfully because of few good manufacturers these days there is some good bookshelf speaker available in the market with nice sound quality, and we have included those in our list too. 

Before jumping on the list of our bookshelf speakers let’s look at our Bookshelf speaker buying guide, which will help you to understand more about the features you need to look for before buying a Bookshelf speaker.

Guide to buy a Bookshelf Speaker

We have brought our guide for buying Bookshelf in the same way, as you will think and have a question about the need you have, and what kind of product you need to buy.

“What size of speaker do I want?”

 Buying a good speaker is easy, but keeping in mind that what amount of space you are ready to lose while having it at your home is a real deal. For an instance, if you have a large hall or room with good headspace or a tall ceiling, then you can go for floor-standing speakers. They do offer a big and natural sound and with solid bass because they have a large acoustic chamber. 

If you have less space or a small room or an office cabin then a bookshelf speaker will do the work. They have the same mid-bass driver as a floor-standing speaker but are more flexible in adjusting, as they can be placed on a table, or mounted on a stand, or just keep on furniture for small span use.

“What kind of music style do I listen to the most?” 

Well if you want a headbanger sound at your house party, you can go for a big floor speaker, but on the other hand, if you are doing some work, maybe cleaning dishes or complete your office project and you need a slow and moderate level of sound, you can run to have a bookshelf speaker.

“Do the specs really matter?”

Well, yes it does matter. If you will buy a speaker or any product by coming in the influence of someone or without researching about products details and specs, there are chances that you will gonna buy something which will not justify the price you pay. There are some things you need to consider while buying a speaker are:

•  Frequency Response – This is measured by Heartz (Hz), which indicates the range of tone it can produce. The lower the frequency the better the bass, the higher the frequency, the better the treble. 
• Sensitivity – It is a rating that tells what is the effectiveness of the speaker in converting power into volume. The higher rating creates louder sounds and lower ratings create slower sounds. It is represented by dB.
• Power handling –  This gives an idea about how strong the amplifier is, the lower number shows the minimum weightage required and the higher number tells you the maximum weightage required. 
• Impedance – The amount of electrical resistance that the speaker presents to the amplifier, is indicated by Impedance. It is a bit tricky term, as the impedance fluctuates when you play songs. It can be said that the speakers with lower impedance i.e. 4 ohms can be a problem to the receivers and amplifiers.
• Speaker material – The material of the speaker is an important term, as the driver of the speaker can be made by the composition of metal, plastic, rubber, and paper. Manufacturers try to make them more sturdy and reliable as well.

 

Our Picks for the 5 best bookshelf speakers under $200 in 2021.

We have brought you all a list of the 5 best bookshelf speakers, under a modest budget. We have kept in mind that most of the things you can consider while buying a speaker. As aforementioned you cannot have the best in the market but we have tried to bring one of the best under this price range.

If you are planning to buy a Bookshelf speaker or going to buy, these products on our list won’t disappoint you. We have brought these by viewing all the ratings and reviews. All the products are having above 4 stars.

1.Sony SSCS5 3 way 3 driver Bookshelf speaker system

Pros

•  Very high quality build with reak wood
• Great sound 
• Wide frequency coverage and a 3-way system     

Cons

• Not much astonishing at this price

Sony is one of the most popular companies in the world, which have made their place so strong in the entertainment industry, that only utterance of their initials can tell the impact they have made on the market.

Sony is popular for making no-frill speakers and SSCS5 is a perfect example of it. They are compact in size and do justifies the name Bookshelf speaker. Each cabinet of the speaker weighs less than 10lbs.

Talking about the cabinet, it is not made from generic fiberboard, but it is of solid and durable wood. The inner frame design is quite solid. The design and material are made and used in such a way that it absorbs unwanted vibration and resonance. 

The cabinet is five and quarter-inch foam reinforced which is 3-way designed. There is a soft dome available in which is a 1-inch tweeter, the super tweeter is the ¾ jigsaw. The sound is in the front of the design process. The super tweeter is equipped with a powerful magnet. The frequencies are good in this price range. It delivers a powerful and nice bottom end.

Overall, it is a good quality speaker and can be considered if you are wanting or planning one to buy.

2.Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers

 Pros  

• Well built 
• Attractive design
• Sounds descent with front ports

Cons

• Power could have been more

Edifier started in 1996 in Bejing China. In the beginning, they were only providing products in the Chinese market, but now in the past few years, they started providing the products world-wide. Currently, they are one of the leading names when it comes to audio equipment. They also have a wide range of quality speakers, and R1280T is one of them.

Considering the name Bookshelf speaker it looks well. It has good size as well, it can easily fit in places. The speaker has a standard MDF fibreboard build. The grills are removable and having clothes material finished in great, which adds a simple and sober look. 

It has a decent powerline and has 40mW. It comes to switch a connecting cable and a basic remote control which makes it using handy.

The sound quality is not that much good, although the Edifier are known for their sound quality, it can be acceptable in this price range. At the basic settings, the volume is good but as you change them you will feel there is a space left for bass and treble.

Overall, they are impressive and do not let you get disappointed, you can buy them if you are ready to compromise a bit in sound quality, but for moderate usage, this is a good option.

3.Klipsch R-14M 

Pros 

• Looks great
• The sound quality is good
• Strong build

Cons

• Power could have been more

Klipsch is a brand that produces quality products, and their R-14m is one of them. As the company claims to bring one of the best products in the market this one justifies that statement.

The design is the key feature to notice in this speaker. The performance of the speaker is good but there are some flaws, as it feels like there is some space left in the power section. It could have been more loud and smooth.

The speakers from the Klipsch is not hard to distinguish from the other products because it is easily noticeable because of its design.

The polymer plastic is used to make the cabinet. For bookshelf speakers, it’s a bit necessary to weigh under 14 lbs. The tweeter is made of aluminum and is 90×90 in size, which generates an excellent high-frequency response. If used in a small mid-sized room the speaker will work well, but in a large room, it may not be good. The thing you need to remember that you don’t have to put it close to the wall, it has a firing bass which can affect the speakers.

Overall, this is a good option available at this price range, if you want you can jump on this one.

4.JBL Arena B15 

Pros 

• Great Design
• Decent sound quality
• Affordable

Cons

• Bass could have been better

One of the leading companies in the field of audio equipment, famous majorly for their headphones, JBL is one of the most trusted brands as well. JBL produces home-quality speakers and is liked by the consumers in the market. They are one of the companies which are brought into the limelight by Harman International, which is a sub-brand of Samsung, a South Korean company.

It doesn’t come with gaudy or astonishing looks. It is simple looking and not too attractive by looks. It is having 5 inches of the poly-cellulose woofer, which looks dominating on the cabinet. It has one inch of the tweeter in a soft dome having a horn design.

It has a loud sound but lacks in quality, the bass is not that good. The mids work well but if you will increase the volume setting it may feel a bit crowded. The bottom end is quite weak, and the size of the driver is surprising.

If you are planning to make it as a movie system setup at home, then you can consider adding sub speakers to it because listening to music it’s good but for hearing and experiencing movies you need to have good bass.

It comes with a wall mounting system, on the back of the cabinet. These speakers can function as your music partner or use as a home theatre setup, it will work well.

Overall, you need to remember that you can use it for a purpose of listening to music, if yes then you can hop on it, but if you want a speaker for home theatre checks others in our list too.

5.Polk Audio TSi100 

Pros 

• Looks good
• Lightweight
• Sound is decent

Cons

• Weak backend
• High tunes can be better 

Polo’s TSi series is one of the awesome affordable speakers in the market. They can be easily mounted on the wall and weighs less than 10 lbs.

It has a basic yet high level of design. there are two back-ported so it will not be good if you place the speaker close to the wall.

The cabinet is of generic plastic and polycarbonate, which is having a rubber surrounding the cabinet. the connection in the speaker is gold-plated so that they cannot collide with each other and get burned up, it also provides secure connectivity.

Overall, it can be a better speaker under a modest price range of $200, it is good for low melodies and songs.

Conclusion

So here we end our list of the 5 best bookshelf speakers under the budget of  $200. You can buy any of these speakers mentioned above. 

Remember this is not an extravagant budget, but you can get a good speaker under this price range, if you are still confused about the features go and read the buyer’s guide in this blog above.