I'm looking to get my wife a nice set of speakers for her Mac for Christmas and would value your input. Requirements are:

* Stereo (or two + sub) setup - 5.1 not required.
* Headphone output for private listening.
* Quality beats looks.
* And the all-important budget - up to about 150UKP or $250.

Go for it.


Having a quick flip through the offerings in the Apple online store, my first instinct is towards the M-Audio Studiophile AV40

For the price, THESE are pretty tough to beat. I've had mine for about 5 years now. Stellar sound quality, plenty of sub bottom, (in fact, I have to cut some bottom from the computer) and nice high end clarity, for such a small speaker system. Doesn't sound mid-rangy at all like most small speaker systems.

+1 on Ian's advice - I have a considerably older Altec system with sub-woofer on my bedroom primary PC (one I am using now), I also have the machine setup as a secondary DAW, and an eMu 1212M audio card in it.
I can also patch the machine in to an aux input on the 100w RMS per channel stereo system in the bedroom, but don't really find that needed.
For something that small, it sounds good.

Thanks guys, those look good. Placing an order today.