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nightcraw1er.488: I am using creative gigaworks t20 series 2, they seem pretty good and I got them because of good reviews.
Same here. I wanted pretty affordable speakers that don't come with a separate subwoofer, and T20 seemed to get pretty good reviews.

While I am not an audiophile, to me their sound quality seems quite good and enough power and oomph in the sound. I have two complaints about the speakers though, not related to their audio quality:

- There is no on/off button, but you switch them on and off by turning the volume knob to 0. I prefer speakers where you can keep the volume at certain level all the time and switch them on and off from a separate button, like Creative's other, cheaper, speakers (like Creative A60, which unfortunately have much poorer sound quality).

- The three turning knobs (bass, treble, volume), it is hard to see how far they've been turned currently. I actually had to draw small arrows into them with a black marker pen so that I could more easily see how far I've turned them.

For laptop use on the road, I prefer some kind of USB speakers that get their power from the USB. I really really REALLY love my Logitech V20 speakers, they have quite good sound quality considering their small size and low power (getting power from the USB). Not as powerful as Gigaworks T20 Series 2, but it doesn't have to be ashamed either.

Also as the sound comes through USB digitally, it doesn't have any extra noises as analog plug speakers might.

Too bad Logitech has apparently discontinued V20 speakers a long time ago, I would have loved to buy a couple of extra pairs and I fear the day my existing V20 speakers stop working. They've served me a very long time already, probably well over 10 years.
Post edited March 19, 2018 by timppu
Well, I don't even know what makes a good set of speakers. Right now, I've got some tower speakers and a subwoofer, but I've been tempted to replace them with a smaller set of Creatives or to fix the Phillips upstairs. (Lead broke off.)
I like PC Speakers, but basically everything under 100€ is sub-par and only above 200€ you can get average quality.
Good audio equipment is too damn expensive..
Hate pc speakers? Get pair of monitor speakers. Want PC speakers? Get decent branded 2.1's
Thanks for the recommendations all. I'll take a look.
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muddysneakers: Can anyone recommend a decent set of PC speakers? They don't have to be super fancy or anything just something that sounds decent and won't die after a couple months. For reference I've been using a pair of Juster SP-668 multimedia speakers from the mid 90s that I think finally died. Thanks.
What ever you buy. Go second hand. It's amazing what you can find at a thrift store sometimes for just a tiny fraction of its original cost. Plus more of the money you spend is likely to remain in your local economy. :)
These!

https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-NS-SP1800BL-5-1-Channel-Theater-Speaker/dp/B001AVRD62/?tag=aboutcom02lifewire-20&ascsubtag=4059402%7Cgoogle.com.au%7C%7C%7C66%2C21%2C83%2C51%2C26%2C3%2C32%2C79%2C10%7C1%7C

and

https://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-SR373-5-2-Channel-Receiver/dp/B06XVGCBZ4/?tag=aboutcom02lifewire-20&ascsubtag=1846333%7Cgoogle.com.au%7C%7C%7C66%2C21%2C83%2C51%2C26%2C3%2C32%2C79%2C10%7C2%7C

you have to buy them both!
For that kind of money you could get a pair of JBL 305's.
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richlind33: For that kind of money you could get a pair of JBL 305's.
If you don't mind the glossy finish, you can get the LSR30X from Massdrop for even cheaper. It's not regularly available, but it's available right now. One thing to keep in mind if you're going with studio monitors is that you'll need some way to control the volume -- on a PC you can use the software volume control, but for other devices (or if you want analog volume control on PC), you'll need something like a passive preamp or monitor controller.
Post edited March 22, 2018 by HK_47
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richlind33: For that kind of money you could get a pair of JBL 305's.
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HK_47: If you don't mind the glossy finish, you can get the LSR30X from Massdrop for even cheaper. It's not regularly available, but it's available right now. One thing to keep in mind if you're going with studio monitors is that you'll need some way to control the volume -- on a PC you can use the software volume control, but for other devices (or if you want analog volume control on PC), you'll need something like a passive preamp or monitor controller.
And you have to isolate and position them correctly, but well worth the effort!
I'm surprised that no one has said the Klipsch Pro Media 2.1. For a 2.1 pc setup they're hard to beat.
https://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-ProMedia-Certified-Computer-Speaker/dp/B01MQOC40C/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1521680262&sr=1-4&keywords=klipsch+promedia+2.1

I highly recommend them.
Post edited March 22, 2018 by SpeedBo
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muddysneakers: Can anyone recommend a decent set of PC speakers? They don't have to be super fancy or anything just something that sounds decent and won't die after a couple months. For reference I've been using a pair of Juster SP-668 multimedia speakers from the mid 90s that I think finally died. Thanks.
I'm pretty fond of moderately cheap stuff but I really like my Creative A60s - they have a power saving function though, and it goes nuts if your motherboard happens to output signal it doesn't like. That's why I'm using Genius SP-HF500A speakers on my dedicated DOS/Win98 machine - the OPL twang sounds glorious on them with proper tone adjustment!
I just bought these Creative SBX Kratos S5 speakers and they sound great - at least compared to what I previously had, which was a Creative Inspire T3100 kit.

Haven't yet heard what the neighbors think, though I'm sure I'll find out soon :).

But yeah, it's an investment.
Post edited March 22, 2018 by WinterSnowfall
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WinterSnowfall: I just bought these Creative SBX Kratos S5 speakers...
Wow, that's the first RGB speaker system I've seen. What's their RMS power? I don't find it on their site's page (I hate when they do that).
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ariaspi: Wow, that's the first RGB speaker system I've seen. What's their RMS power? I don't find it on their site's page (I hate when they do that).
60W in total - 12W per speaker + 36W on the subwoofer.
Post edited March 23, 2018 by WinterSnowfall