Price Paid:  $180.00 from shipped, www.klipsch

Summary:
These speakers are incredible, considering what I paid for them. Sure they're pricy, but few systems meant for the pc can match their accurate audio production. I have a friend with a set of logitech z680, though those speakers have much more powerful bass, and probably go lower, the klipsch seems to have tighter more responsive bass, and overall more accurate sounding music.

The sound quality of these is so good, that it will reveal all the audio artifacts of low quality mp3s. In fact since I got these, I've been spending my free time deleting all my old mp3s, and re encoding my cd collection in 256k and above at variable bit rate. Even so, some pieces still sound better played off the cd than in mp3 format.

These seem to sound "warmer" than the 5.1 ultras also by klipsch. But the ultras can obviously go lower, and higher, and louder, and have more of a "crisp/clean" sound to them.

I have a friend with the klipsch 5.1 gmx. When it comes to music, he prefers the sound of my promedias over this gmx.

These speakers require you to get optimal drivers, and settings, especially crossover, before they sound at their best. I have an nforce soundstorm, and 3.19 drivers actually sound the best, using a 80hz crossover, with all equalizers and reverb or any kind of dsp disabled. Enabling any sort of dsp for me muddies up the sound.

For my ht, I have an energy take 5.2 with es-10 sub. The klipsch's performance is definitely not up to that system (not fair considering $600 diff). But the klipsch comes close enough to the energys, that even though the take 5.2 were some of the greatest audio bargains under $1000 for a long time, I feel a little duped. (keep in mind though, the energys are filling a larger room with sound).

Strengths:
Great audio quality, at a decent price
Reliable (using these refurbs daily for almost 3 years now)
Can go quite loud before distorting
Quality gets better with proper tweaking

Weaknesses:
Makes your low bit rate mp3s sound like crap
There are many cheaper alternatives out there.
Can bother neighbors
Requires proper tweaking to get optimal sound

Similar Products Used:
energy take 5.2/es 10 sub
logitech z680
klipsch 5.1 ultra
klipsch 5.1 gmx
klipsch 2.1 promedia

Price Paid:  $149.00 from www.klipsch.com

Summary:
Cannot beat the price and quality of sound. you can go to www.klipsch.com and get the refurbished ones at half the price of normal. www.klipsch.com. These speakers rock! I did not want to shell out $400 bucks for the 5.1, so I ended up purchasing these bad boys. They are listed as ugly high-fi blowout. The only adjustment that I had to make with the soundblaster 5.1 sound card that I have is to change it to set the speakers to Quadrophonic and the soundcard setting is set to 4 speakers.

Price Paid:  $199.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
Got these speakers at Best Buy. They were trying to get rid of them so they could set out more 5.1's. All I can say is that everything about this system that I have heard is absolutely true. The sound is amazing. Incredibly clear, bass sounds HUGE if you want it to. I can't even turn the sound up past half way, because these speakers are so incredibly powerful. Don't waste your money on lesser systems. At two hundred bucks these speakers are the best value in computer audio i have seen yet.