Looking for new speakers

For 200 euros £170, you would be better of with a 2.1, since you will need the bass for listening to dnb & dub, the edifier s530 is a good option, or you could spend a bit more and put together your own 2.1 system.

I have the m-audio's and love them but haven't heard the Krk's yet.

My Swan vs M-audio review:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=19882376#post19882376

The prodipe's are better than the krk's at the same price.

Is it the av-40 your considering?, read the 9th post http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/535419/2-1-vs-2-0-pc-speakers-comparison , the av40 is made with cheap junk, the swans will likely sound better than the edifier, but the edifiers will have more low-end due to a much bigger 8"inch sub, i think most the swan speakers are active so no amp required.

Yes adding a sub reduces the frequence load on the bookshelf speakers and gives you a proper low-end, you only need 5.1 for games and movies it's pointless for 2channel audio, the swans will sound alot better with music but the z-5500 will be alot better at gaming and movies but not so good with music.

rycon writes:

Budget around 200 Euros

For 200 Euros you could buy a really rather good second-hand integrated amplifier and speakers which I suspect would be very much superior to the options available to you new.

Throughout the 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's and 10's truly vast numbers of integrated amps and speakers were made and so you can buy these very cheaply today.

The amps and speakers being sold today do not sound better than the ones made in the previous decades.

For listening to music, or indeed any sound about which quality is a concern, then the "2" setup is probably going to give the best quality.

If you buy second-hand this is a smart move for the environment because you won't have created a demand for manufacture of something we already have ready made in plentiful supplies.

With your good integrated amp and stereo speaker pair nicely set up then at some future date if you go into a computer shop and listen to some budget 2.1 "active" speaker system for comparison I think it is likely you will be very glad you didn't buy it.

Well I notice you are in Malta, so you can buy on eBay from anyone doing international delivery. In the UK part of eBay there are always many integrated amplifiers and speakers available. You will find people offering international delivery because to be honest, the prices we in the UK get for overseas sales are often much better than those available in the UK. There is no secret to the reason for this, the UK is just absolutely full of hi fi systems, you can hardly move for them :)

Even if people don't offer international delivery you can politely suggest it to them in an email. Often they just haven't thought of doing it.

Those integrated amplifiers of the 80s and 90s, are for the most part easily fixed by a competent electrical engineer type, so, even if the amp arrives broken you could very likely just get it fixed anyway and still be massively ahead in the "quality for cost" ratio than buying new.

The most likely problem with speakers is that they may need re-foaming. However this is a very easy job and the same person who would fix any problems with an amp can refoam your speakers as well.

Obviously this is all a suggestion, so if it all sounds like difficulty for you just ignore my comment :)

However it is also true that once you get a bit into the way of buying second-hand audio there really is no going back to new imho, because you just get such great quality for much less money.