I second the Logitechs. Cheap and great sound. They require power. THX certified with excellent sound given the factor.

Bose and Klipsh each do and sound good. I’ve had both

A while back, I bought a pair of M Audio speakers for my computer. They've been great, much better than normal computer speakers. They have regular audio connections, not USB. But they're pretty old now. I'd check out their current offerings to see if they have something that would work for you.

I have Cambridge Soundworks. Two small cube speakers on my desk and a subwoofer below my desk . They’re “old”, cost <$100, and still sound great.

Just for clarity, all of these speakers need power. A 3.5mm jack barely has enough power for a decent set of headphones, let alone desktop speakers that don't absolutely sound like garbage.

You are seeing a proliferation of USB computer speakers because it has the added convenience of delivering USB power and sometimes audio over a single connection. Mainly, these are lower power speakers... typical USB port only provides 5 watts of electrical power to work with. The better quality speakers will want to use AC power anyway, and this end up using a 3.5mm audio jack for the signal.

The Audioengine A2+ would be perfect. Or if you want a one-piece, the B2. It works on BT, but also has a 3.5 mm input--I'm looking at the one on my desk right now. Extremely well made, get great reviews, you can't go wrong.

I've been using a Logitech Z-2300 system since July of 2008 (according to amazon) and here they sit today, sounding just as good as ever and they just use the standard 3.5 green output jack.

They have more modern offerings but I will not switch at this point.

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:
Bose and Klipsh each do and sound good. I’ve had both

Thanks all!

I decided to go with the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers, they sound like they’re great for music and has only the 3.5mm jack which is perfect.

I've found that Logitech sound OK, but have really crappy build quality - knobs have dead spots, crappy internal connections, etc. That opinion was formed from 2-3 systems ranging from $20-100ish.

Klipsch is just a bit more $ in comparison, but much better build. I have one that has the old-school 30-pin apple connector as a 'dock' and it still sounds great. Was an awesome alarm back in the day.