JBL's stylish Creature three-piece speaker system consists of two powered desktop speakers and a powered subwoofer, all of which feed off a single stereo analog minijack (.125-inch) input. Both the speakers and the subwoofer are magnetically shielded to prevent undesirable image distortion when placed on or near your computer monitor. The Creature comes with elegant "capacitance touch" volume control buttons (up/down) positioned on the right satellite.

The units are rated at eight watts apiece for the satellites and a hefty 24 watts for the subwoofer (which handles audio from the upper-bass region, 180 Hz, down to a reasonably solid 50 Hz or so). The speakers' 10-percent distortion at their rated power is fairly high, but you'll get much cleaner sound and still-decent power when driving the system only half as hard, especially if you're using the system in near-field.

Both satellites boast fancy, green down-firing LEDs, which look particularly cool in low-light settings. And while the Creature system is not expandable beyond the three pieces it comes with, some sound cards support multiple analog outputs, which would let you drive multiple Creature systems simultaneously.

Features:

• Works with PCs or Macs
• Three-piece speaker system
• Subwoofer 24 watts at 10%, speakers 8 watts per satellite at 10%
• Frequency Response of 50 to 20 kHz
• Signal-to-Noise radio greater than 80 dB

* In the box: 2 speakers, 1 subwoofer, user's manual, warranty info
* Finish: White
* Bi-wirable: No
* Directionality: Monopole
* Powered: Yes
* Headphone jack: No
* Removeable speaker grilles: No
* Speaker drivers: Subwoofer: one 4-inch Magnum driver; satellites: 1 Odyssey Plus driver each
* Speaker terminals: Clip-type
* Speaker type: Satellite/subwoofer system
* Transducer type: Cone
* Wall-mountable: No
* Weather-resistant: No
* THX-certified: No
* Crossover points: Subwoofer: 180 Hz
* Frequency response (+/- 3 dB): 50 to 20,000 Hz (system)
* Input: 1 stereo analog minijack plug (.125-inch)
* Input impedance: Greater than 5 kohms
* Signal-to-noise ratio: Greater than 80 dB
* Speaker power (RMS): 8 watts (at 10 percent THD)
* Subwoofer power (RMS): 24 watts (at 10 percent THD)
* Input sensitivity: 400 mv RMS at rated power
* Video shielded: Yes
* Speaker mounts included: No
* Power input: 120 V AC
* Item length: Subwoofer: 9 inches; satellites: 3 inches each
* Item width: Subwoofer: 9 inches; satellites: 3 inches each
* Item height: Subwoofer: 9 inches; satellites: 3 inches each
* Item weight: 11.5 pounds (shipping weight)
* Warranty: 1 year parts and labor