Good speakers to get (2)

[MarkW]

I just bought a Altec Lansing 2.1 system VS4121 and am very happy with
it. The sound is great and I like the subwoofer but want to get
speakers for a 2nd computer but for this one there is no room for a
subwoofer. Are there any 2 speaker systems that have similar sound
quality to these?
One feature that is important is that they have a plug to plug in
headphones.
If there are any speakers available where I can simply use them
without the subwoofer I would consider that but hate to pay the extra
cost for something I won't use and I know with some systems you can't
use them without the subwoofer.
Any suggestions?

 

[kony]

I just bought a Altec Lansing 2.1 system VS4121 and am very happy with
it. The sound is great and I like the subwoofer but want to get
speakers for a 2nd computer but for this one there is no room for a
subwoofer. Are there any 2 speaker systems that have similar sound
quality to these?
One feature that is important is that they have a plug to plug in
headphones.
If there are any speakers available where I can simply use them
without the subwoofer I would consider that but hate to pay the extra
cost for something I won't use and I know with some systems you can't
use them without the subwoofer.
Any suggestions?

AFAIK, all manufacturers have switched to using subwoofer for bass on
anything but the cheapest of speakers. Using such a system without
it's subwoofer will result in very, very poor bass and lower midrange.

If you don't have room for the subwoofer do you even have room for the
larger 2.0 speakers you'd need, a size large enough to have reasonable
sound? Such a speaker would be, at a minimum, a 2-way with separate
tweeter.

If you have (or can find) a small amp, you have the option of small
shielded bookshelf speakers, though the space required for the amp
wouldn't be much less than a subwoofer. There are a few aging
soundcards with integral amps able to drive speakers, but typically
max out at around 2-5W per channel, depending on whether they make use
of -12V and how well they (or you) heatsink the onboard amp chip, as
it gets quite hot trying to drive low impedance speakers.

Examples of non-amp'd speakers might include something like Yamaha
NS-U50, though I've never heard them in person, and it seems a
separate amp will make the total cost a lot higher.