Seemingly, these Harman/Kardon HK 19.5 speakers are good. However, as it turns out, they only maintain their form for basic use. I usually use headphones, to keep from disturbing the other members of my family. What i've found is that with headphones, sound does not travel well, and the volume must be turned quite a bit up for hearing to be adequate. Furthermore, if you raise the volume too loud, you can still hear the music (or such) through the speakers. Furthermore, the wires are too short while the actual speakers are too bulky, making for odd placements on desks. This is especially a problem for people with larger monitors, or desks that require the tower to be placed quite a distance from the desk. Now, not all aspects of these speakers are bad, they are quite durable (something i have tested numerous times by dropping them), but after having mine for approx. 2 years, the cloth covering has begun to rip, and some wires are loose for no conceivable reason. It has all the features of normal speakers (volume, bass, treble, etc.) and can be hooked up to a subwoofer. Also, the volume can be blasted to a level where i could hear the music NEARLY ACROSS THE STREET! Of course i barely heard it, but still... Anyways, to make this brief you can get these speakers, but don't expect anything great. If you are hardcore, you'll hate yourself for buying them.