I bought these speakers before purchasing a standing desk because my existing speakers were attached by a fixed length cable. The cable had to be a certain length because the volume controls used capacitive touch all the way back to the amplifier/subwoofer.
These speakers have a separate controller console attached using a cable with a DE-15 connector so it can be extended with any VGA extension cable.
I turn the power on/off remotely with a keyboard shortcut but the speakers always turn on in standby mode. Having reverse engineered the protocol between the console and amplifier I could bypass this but the console itself would still not turn on. If it's not turned on then the volume control knob won't do anything.
By decompiling the firmware on the microcontroller inside the console I was able to find and modify a parameter that would make it turn on automatically when powered on. I also found a hidden feature to disable the automatic standby that happens after 2 hours and the procedure for enabling this (hold the "level" button for 5 seconds until the level change light goes out).
Full details on the interface, protocol and firmware access.