If you are fed up with poor PC speakers and want to give your ears a rest, try a set of Inspire 2.1 speakers from Creative.

You will see what low-cost sound quality can really be about.

They are housed in attractive cases, with no rough edges.

Apparently the secret is in the "heavily reinforced"

12-watt RMS subwoofer, a powerful, heavy cube-style speaker that really thumps out the bass line and compliments a pair of smaller 4.5-watt RMS per channel satellite speakers.

I had my office neighbours banging on the dividing wall as I tested the built-in volume control.

The sound quality slipped as the volume increased but, despite experiments with a wide range of games and music styles, I still came away feeling good.

The speakers are great value for money.

They are not exactly hi-fi but a lot better than anything else I have tried and half the price of some inferior models.

Price: £39.99.

Contact: www.creative.com
Feel good factor: 9 out of 10.