Todays WOOT... M-Audio AV40's
 

These are some awesome computer speakers. I've wanted them for a very long time. For under $100, I will finally own a pair.
http://www.woot.com/

http://media.gdgt.com/img/product/29...0-2h4x-460.jpg

Are these speakers or monitors?

They have "studiophile" and "reference" in the name. I'm gonna assume they're monitors.

They are low end monitors, 20 watts per channel. Still a good find, they normally sell for $120-$140.

While on the monitor front, I plan to pick up a set of BX5a's pretty soon. I have a good HT setup, but still typically most of my music is listened to at my computer using my decent 2.1 Altec system. I need more punch and clarity. Might spring $200 more for the 8'' version.

Why would you want a monitor to listen to music?!?!?

Why wouldn't you? Each speaker driven by its own amplifier, better clarity and accuracy...

That's only part of the truth. The other part is that they don't enhance the sound in any way, they just just reproduce it as faithfully as possible. I don't know your tastes in music, but were I come from, I do prefer normal, (high end) speakers to monitors. I have several friends who are in the music business, and the music I hear in their studios always sounds a bit too sterilized for my tastes.

I thought monitors were simply high end speakers capable of accurate reproduction. To each their own. I'll take my set of 130W 8'' kevlar speaker and 1 1/4'' tweeter in a solid enclosures. Sure as hell beats my current 2.1 with speakers probably only 2'' being pushed by no telling what kind of pitiful amp, also driving the 5.5'' enclosed "woofer", which is just a cheap looking paper cone.

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just really nice computer speakrs built like their monitors... wooden cabinet, individual amps... use a regular stereo jack input like any other speaker.

Brain nailed it. I went for a set. Thanks samnavy!

I use ADAM A8X.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MAudioAV40.html

Professional-quality media creation. These aren't going to sound good if you want to listen to music. It's exactly the same reason I lol at people in public listening to $300 studio headphones while I have better sounding $80 Grado SR-60s.

A lot of audio engineers do use Grados.

I built my own computer speakers and amplifier. Woot that.

^My current media speakers in the office are some DIY Aura NS3's running off a Lepai 20watt amp... standard Parts-Express project.

For general computer stuff, I've got some Creative Gigaworks T40's that are still in a box for some reason after I planned on taking them to the office and never did... they're heavy on both ends and light in the middle, but they're really pretty. Home PC speakers are about 8yr old Bose Companions. I hate Bose on principle and the connector for the second speaker has always needed to be inserted just right. I guess I have no complaints beyond my own prejudices with them.

I have wanted the AV40's specifically as a tool. A lot of my buddies ask me for advice on shit, and I'm trying to build a small collection of equipment where somebody can ask me "whats the difference between..." blah blah and I can just show them. The AV40's fill the "monitor" role perfectly and now I have a pair and can fire them up and run them side-by-side with anything else I've got for demo purposes. Besides, sometimes you just want to "listen".

When I retire from the Navy, I really want to get into speaker building. Also, I got huge into headphones about 2 years ago and went through quite a few... Audio-Technica, Koss, Denon, Beyerdynamic... nothing outrageous, mostly $100-$200 models. I'm mostly over it, but currently rock a pair of Sennheiser HD555's because I read a few places that they're a sub $100 benchmark and I'm all about that. Those were actually one of the first pairs I bought, but I bought so many so quick that I never really gave them a shot. I've sold everything except those and the Panasonic earbuds I run with. Those exact Grado's are actually on my list, but have been browsing headfi lately and think I may try something from AKG first.

my home theatre surround system consists of HiVi B3S (3" fullrange) in small boxes on ikea stands. It is super win for the space it's in.
http://zaphaudio.com/audio-speaker18.html

Oh and then there's the 15" sub in a small box with a Linkwitz Transform circuit that gets it down to 20Hz ish.

It's been a while since I built something because I have no garage now. The last thing I built was a sub for braineack's trunk.

I confess I did buy a pair of Polk LSi7 speakers when Fry's had them for $199/pr many years ago.

Got any acoustic treatment in your room? I have some spare broadband absorbers--- Owens corning damped 703 and 705 rigid fibreglass based. Absorbs down to 70hz. Not shitty foam.

acoustic treatment is two fat cats. and auto eq to null any peaks.

+2 on the Grado SR60s. I've had my pair for at least a decade, and have damn near worn out the pads on them from use.