JBL Creature II Computer Speakers

Pros: Good sound for the price, small
Cons: awkward power button location, enormous power bar.

This setup works great in a small room, like an office at home or work. Why? Because the left/right speakers are small and unobtrusive on a desktop, while the sub hides well under a desk or table. At the same time, with a location such as an office ...

Pros: nice non-rectilinear design, small footprint (the subwoofer can go below)
Cons: Power switch in back, no indication of current settings on controls, connectors a little cranky.

The preamble: (skip if in a hurry) I just got back from attending the 2005 MySQL user conference in Santa Clara, CA. Not wanting to spend the $$ for a room at the Westin where the conference was being hosted, I was kipping at a friend's some ...

Pros: design (if you like), performance (for average user), space saving
Cons: design (if you don't like), high distortion at maximum power, power switch location

Tired of those built-in speakers of your monitor or the beeper that's inside conventional PC's (regardless of the OS)? Try something new, and while you're at it ... Go radical! And what could be more out of the ordinary than JBL's Creature? It even comes ...

Pros: Inexpensive, well-made, decent-sounding
Cons: No headphone jack, not for the discriminating audiophile

I've always been skeptical of PC speaker setups employing tiny satellites and a "subwoofer" which is really just a single woofer -- the main virtues of these systems are easy placement and low cost, not great sound quality.

For the new PC in...

Pros: Great design, perfectly matches Power Mac G4s (silver) or iBook/iPod (white) Great desktop sound
Cons: Could use more power

JBL creatures are pretty amazing, tested it with Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, Diablo II and Warcraft III, and the 2.1 speaker system creates a pretty immersive environment and really lends itself to explosion heavy games. The 20 watt subwoofer made my...

Pros: Very cool looking, good sound reproduction, great overall compact speakers.
Cons: Not strong at high volumes or deep bass.

Speakers are at the soul of our society today. Well, I have no evidence of that really, but think about it: P2P music sharing, RIAA sales are up, and people are spending more and more on audio/video these days (so I believe).

Then there is...

Pros: Nice appearance and good sound.
Cons: Max volume is less than ear-splitting

I bought these speakers because my old yamaha system took up too much desk space.

The mini-satellite speakers look great with my Apple Cinema monitor and have a cool lighting effect. I'm not exactly an audiophile, but to me they sound just as good as the yamaha system. The bass from the subwoofer is powerful enough to annoy my girlfriend while she's in another room.

They're plenty loud enough when sitting at the computer. I did try to listen to them from far away once and found that they didn't get loud enough to project into the next room.

They're a good buy.