Hi everyone. My speakers are really showing their age: a set of 5.1's, about 5 years old. They crackle at loud noises (regardless of the volume they're set on), I need to crawl under my desk to switch one of their 2 power switches on, they buzz loudly whenever they're on, the back speakers are barely audible and, to top it off, they're not built for a PC so the signal feeds out of the main line out port into a box, so I don't even get proper surround.

I'm looking to spend up to about £100 (about $200 at time of writing) on a new set of speakers, at least 7.1's. However, I barely know anything about buying speakers, and PC speakers are completely ignored in technology mags and websites. I did think of headphones, but I'd rather have the speakers. So, any ideas?

Cheers,
DG

i just got a simple 2.1 set (subwoofer + 2 speakers for stereo sound) in order to replace a set of broken 5.1s. Frankly i dont notice the difference

I've been looking at these.

I decided I may not really need 7.1's for this small room, so now I'm looking at 5.1's. These seem to be good, judging by the customer reviews, and they have a nice fat wattage for the price, plus they're not too costly so if my motherboard sound doesn't do them justice I'll have some cash left over for a soundcard.

Does anyone have any experience with these speakers or have any ideas?

Cheers, DG