Speakers for laptop running Garageband?

[pirateyarrr]

Hi all, my 13-year-old nephew is turning into a guitar virtuoso and music producer thru his constant use of Garageband. Problem is he has to steal the crappy $10 speakers from his parents' desktop to hear his work (doesn't like listening thru headphones)

So it's time to buy him some real speakers. Can anyone recommend a good pair of speakers (or a L/R + subwoofer set) for under $100? Thanks.

 

[AE50P]

I have had these for about 6 months and they have been great

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Z323-Speaker-System-Subwoofer/dp/B002FU5QM0

I use these for moderate music listening, movie watching and random musical recording playback and they worked well in my dorm room, so I assume they will do a good job in a bedroom or similar smaller space.

 

[Bardasian]

I have had these for about 6 months and they have been great

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Z323-Speaker-System-Subwoofer/dp/B002FU5QM0

I use these for moderate music listening, movie watching and random musical recording playback and they worked well in my dorm room, so I assume they will do a good job in a bedroom or similar smaller space.

Not to jack this thread but how would you connect these to a monitor connected to a laptop?

 

[dXTC]

The Logitechs are okay for listening to music. However, like most computer-centric 2.1 speaker systems, they tend to have built-in emphasis on the bass and treble.

Pro music producers and recording engineers tend to prefer as flat a frequency response as possible when composing or recording. Many mixing engineers even prefer "midrange lift" monitors. (For example, my main music-composition headphones are Roland RH-50s; they emphasize (lift) the midrange slightly to make different instrument lines in the busy midrange frequencies stand apart better for mixing purposes.) Once everything's mixed, producers listen to the finished mix on several types of speakers, from studio monitors to regular earbud headphones to Hi-Fi stereo systems to the speakers built into computers, to make sure that the song sounds right on a wide variety of playback devices before release.

I recommend you visit Musician's Friend or Sweetwater online, or your local professional musical instrument store; there are some nice monitor combos to be had for under $100. Some have a USB connection and an extra audio input for recording.

Not to jack this thread but how would you connect these to a monitor connected to a laptop?

The Logitechs have a stereo audio jack that connects it to the laptop's regular audio output. I think I understand your confusion, though; that's a rather convoluted-looking cabling setup for a 2.1 system, although I admit it makes logical sense.