Enough to stop me buying them straight away.

If they were 5.1 or 4.1 I'd be tempted.

Do they make one without the microsoft branding? One that will control non-microsoft apps? VLC Media Player would be nice, along with WinAMP.

Maybe i'll just get some decent speakers and a wireless mouse...

You say you'll unlikely to be watching on anything but a small computer screen...

Chances are, if your willing to cough up £250 for PC speakers, you'll proberbly have it hooked up to a decent tv.....but then again, why would you have these speakers and not an a/v system?

So personally I think this would be less for movie watchers, more for dedicated gamers or people with large MP3 collections.

I had a set of Logitech ZX-2300s, they were awesome speakers. Solid amount of sound, very decent quality *and* they cost less than my old Sony mini-HiFi. (They were £95 from eBuyer when I bought them).

These seem to be quite a bit more :-\.

2.1 systems are quite handy when you don't have the shelves behind you, or are a student and need to move your computer quite often (as I do).

No mention whatever of support for Linux and Mac in this review?

I've just been looking at PA systems and some of these are now amplified 2.1 setups. £200 will buy you a 400W (RMS) system with a serious subwoofer and decent satellites that would blow this stuff into the weeds. And you can plug your CD player into it...

Getting carried away there - that should have been £300..!

..not convinced at all, specs don't read too well at all.

Acoustic Energy Aego M or Jamo i300 still lead the way in 2.1 for me... depending on what you need.

Your PA system might "blow this stuff into the weeds.." as far as volume is concerned, but we are only interested in sound quality.

...than the THX z2300's i already have.

excellent sound quality, superb bass response too.

So, after reading this review I threw caution to the wind and ordered a set from Novatech for £180, which arrived the following day. They look great in the flesh and not ugly at all. Build quality is excellent and everything is sturdy and robust.

I've mainly been using them to listen to music to far, but I'm very impressed. The sub is larger than I expected, and produces a filthy, room-shaking amount of bass. However, even on maximum this doesn't outgrow the speakers which max out without distortion. Sound is clear and defined - music from my PC is suddenly a joy to listen to.

The only issue I've noticed is that there seems to be a compatibility issue with my Logitech Quickcam software which causes it to crash when the speaker software loads during startup.