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"Decent" is pretty open to interpretation, but:
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Creative GigaWorks T40 Series IIIf I may qualify that a bit (given the topic was not supposed to be speakers, I glossed that very thinly) ...
For what they are, they are "OKay" to "decent." I would not recommend these for audiophile use, but you still get decent performance/sound out of them as desktop speakers. For the circumstances I use them, they are "good enough," and part of those circumstances are that if I require some pro-range audio definition, I can always slap those Sony MDR-V900HDs on that I listed above.
These T-40s are a bit muddy and (without a subwoofer) cannot achieve rich bass, although it's not entirely shabby. The mids & highs are reasonably clear without being perfectly crisp. There are some other design flaws. Check the feedback at that newegg link for 4/12/2012 by "nearPhilly" and you'll see just about everything I could mention. I'd probably give these three eggs rather than two and give that review a +1 for just about every point. The caution on the headphone pass-throuigh is an important and very disappointing flaw; it's completely useless.
What they do have going for them is that they are desktop speakers, which don't need to play loud so much as "clean" because I sit so close to them. Although slightly tall, their footprints are fairly normal so you conserve desktop real estate. The connecting cord is sucks short, though ... making it impossible to span a dual monitor setup. They barely work for me because one of my monitors is a 19" 3:4 while the other is 21.5" widescreen ... they barely fit on either side of this setup with no more than an inch of extra cord. That's a God-damned fucking stupid design flaw.
The other positive is that I picked mine up for $89.99 delivered on a Shell Shocker between Thanksgiving & Christmas last fall, when they were normally going for $150-ish. At $90, I could wish they were a little bit cheaper. I used to have much better Aiwa speakers I got for about $50 back in ~1995 ... but those are gone and today's economy has made deals like that disappear.
So, a weak recommend for cheap but "decent" desktop speakers for sub-audiophile but acceptable sound to watch anime & movies & youtube. But, when I want to put on particularly tasty music, I jack in the headphones.
I also have a
Logitech Z305 Clip-On USB Laptop Speaker bar that isn't doing anything. Got one on a stock liquidation sale at the local Target for $15.99. I had hoped they would get me by, but they didn't and that's why I then got the Creative T-40s.
However, I've been trying to figure out how to power the Z305 (MUST use a USB cable) without using the USB as the sound feed ... which these do automatically and bypass the analogue output of my audio card.
IF I can solve that problem, then I'd like to use my analogue center channel jack on my audio card to feed the Z305 as a center channel while using the T-40s for front right-left stereo channels. Then I'd have a 2 + 1 sound configuration which I suspect would be more than adequate for a desktop.
I think what I need to do is sacrifice a USB cable where I can identify & cut the data feeds while keeping the power feeds. Then, the center channel analogue off my soundcard needs a conversion jack so the stereo Z305 bar can push the mono center channel out both its left & right speakers.
In theory, that should be a pretty rich 2 + 1 config. Just one of many hardware hacks on my "to-do" list once I cross off a few other emergencies first ...
