I just moved into my own apartment and I'm looking to upgrade my speakers. Right now all I've got are my dad's old Realistic radio shack speakers from a time before I was born. They're not unpleasant to listen to, but I'm so spoiled by nice headphones that I'd like something a bit better. My experience is in headphones and I know next to nothing about the current speaker scene.  Budget is $100 or less which may be unrealistic, but.........college. I suppose I'm looking for the KSC75 equivalent of the speaker world. Can any of you fine folks suggest something to me?

Used Energy e:XL-16 bookshelf (or XL-25, XL26 towers) on eBay. I got a pair for $43 shipped once but they are usually close to $100.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on ebay for those. I spent a bit of time playing around with my receiver and examined my speakers more closely. They're Realistic Minimus 7s which I understand were actually quite well-regarded across 27 years of production. I'm beginning to suspect they would be quite acceptable if I could get the right audio settings going. I'm not terribly fond of the receiver; it's just a basic mid-90s Sony that I might replace with an old Sansui or something.