Dunno if I should post this here or in portables.
Wifey and I travel about one weekend per month and bring along a laptop. Since every place we stay, we've become spoiled, what with Pandora, Zune, and our Comcast Xfinity available for movies anywhere we can connect to the Internet, the teeny speakers in the laptop don't make it any more.
Not wanting to confine ourselves to headphones nor commit to carrying some fairly bulky speakers, I've been exploring what's available on reasonably small speakers.
I discovered found USB speakers, which rely on a computers USB ports for power. No wall-warts needed.
..and these are cheap as well!
Which leaves sound. Well, small and with limited power means some compromises must be made so I embarked with somewhat lower expectations than I would normally allow.
I tried some $13.00 GE speakers from Target. My Gawd, I don't expect much but these were mind-numbingly horrendous! Shrill, shrieky and just plain bring tears to my eyes awful. They were louder than the speakers in the laptop, but actually sounded worse!
I then tried some name from Radio Shack but these were no better. More expensive, but no better.
Then I found, at Walmart, these
Altec BX 1220's. They look like a black cross between a beer can and a can of red bull. considering their size and intended use as very near-field monitors. Altec seems to have tamed all the obnoxious sounds that a small speaker can generate and left only what's musical. And, they do a decent job of filling the room with very listenable sound. No earth-shaking bass, but very listenable nonetheless
Just what I was looking for: Decent sound in a small package that doesn't require a wall socket or batteries for about $15.
