Cheap speakers

I'm partial to Creative Labs personally, but your best bet is probably to go into a store and listen to them side by side.

Currently I'm using Creative's Desktop Theater 2500 (4.1) which I've had for about 3 years now. The speakers were actually produced by Cambridge Soundworks, so they have a much cleaner sound than alot of the similarly priced PC speakers I've heard. Also using an Audigy2 Platinum that I'm very pleased with.

I'm not a Creative FanBoy by any stretch, but there's my personal opinion, now go formulate your own.  

In the same price class for 2.1 speakers are the Logitech Z340. Probably have more bass impact (great in games) than the speakers you mentioned.

I haven't heard any models lately but for music I've been kind of partial toward Altec Lansing speakers.

I have the Z340's and although they a beautifully crystal clear there is too much bass, not boomy or heavily distorted but too weighty, even with the bass module turned all the way down. Still they are much better than one would expect for $40-$50 USD. For $70-$80 you can step up to the Z640's which are basically the same but are a 5.1 system.

<b>99% is great, unless you are talking about system stability</b>