I was looking for a pair of cheap desktop speakers with no sub (no room for one) to do some casual file playing. For more serious listening, my 5.1 HT is in the same room and Tivo will stream my music. My search took me to Micro Center in Cambridge, MA, where I was able to try out a variety of models from Bose, Logitech, Altec Lansing, and their house brand. My needs were modest but my ears are somewhat selective. Using an iPod as source with a few selected tracks I eliminated the clunkers that otherwise met my criteria, and these Logitechs were the last man standing...for $29.99 a pair.
Their main strength is that they don't sound bad. They have a range I would judge subjectively to be from about 100Hz to not much above 10KHz, with no pronounced holes or glaring peaks. There is little HF dispersion due to the absence of a tweeter, but they don't sound particularly dull as some other models I heard did. There is an odd control labelled "tone" that should be left in the near proximity of 12 o'clock to maintain tonal balance. If rotated counterclockwise, it cuts bass, clockwise boosts boom, but may serve as a loudness compensation at low volumes. The second diaphragm may be an ABR (passive), as no midrange is audible, and its surface is flat.
Another feature is a built-in headphone jack, which mutes the speaker when used, and which provides wider bandwidth listening through my favorite old Sony earbuds. The sound is noticeably better than if I plug directly into my PC tower's Realtek HD integrated soundcard. There is also an input for a portable player, which presumably overrides the main input when used. All connections are 3.5mm stereo.
In summary, if you are looking for a well made decent sounding pair of really inexpensive computer speakers with a 2.0 footprint, check these out. They may surprise you!
