Desktop Speakers, Minimum $ - Maximum ​🎵

[rando]

Slightly opposing viewpoints for the sake of not over thinking something for light use in a cramped hectic space without the audiophile equipment chain.

 

If they will be playing a fair amount of non-musical sounds you might well bump it down to under $100 and get 2.1 nearfield speakers.  At least over here the (desktop sized) options between this and something like the $500 Vanatoo are not great (for the list of reasons Ralf noted).

 

I have some $80 Hi Vi Swans M10 w/5" sub. These are the most musical cheap multimedia speakers I've ever owned.  However, I doubt your use case is eventually promoting them to a lifetime at full volume behind a climbing wall. Non-boomy, but 40hz, bass was the tradeoff against enjoying a few minutes of 160 kbps mp4 YouTube audio slightly more.  

[rando]

That looks to be a very intelligent choice.  Rather a difficult equation making low quality hosted files sound passable without introducing too much coloring or other cheats to hide what is really going on.  

 

My joke about the effect of a 30' x 100' enclosure with thousands of "ports" drilled into it was just that.  Having a wall of music while you climb is a different type of enjoyable experience.