best sound options and speakers for laptop

so yesterday i went to the bose outlet in rehoboth Delaware and my ears are now opened to how importantly good sound is

what is the best sound options for laptops and speakers? right now i have an creative usb 5.1 x-fi setup with 5.1 speakers by logitech.

what is the best 2.1 speakers i can get that are reasonably priced because its way to cluttered with 5.1 speakers and i know the 5.1 x-fi isnt the best option and because its just way to cluttered

 

Prepare yourself for the torrent of Bose-bashing among people who probably have worse anyway.

That said - Low-cost, nearfield studio monitors are good for getting accurate sound which isn't overtly 'entertaining' but still pack decent musical enjoyment overall. You can start at the hundred-and-a-bit-bucks with M-Audio's range and end up at the likes of Genelec if you're prepared to spend in the thousand range, going around manufacturers such as KRK, Tapco and many others.

Bose speakers in general do 'consumer room-filling' very well. And the fact that they're easy on the eyes is also a plus in many situations. However, you may get a more 'reference' sound out of the above.

As far as getting the audio out of your laptop, probably the best idea is a low-cost USB semi-pro sound module like the Creative E-Mu 0202. However, I'd suggest trying the speakers with the laptop + X-Fi first.

 

IMO not suggestable with X-Fi USB options since it's an at-home kind of deal. X-Fi is mediocre at-best for at-home setups, and as such good external sound cards can get quite expensive and won't come with features liek the X-Fi such as 3d virtual surround sound (even though it sounds like dirt on their external solutions), although the tradeoff is they'll sound ALOT better than external x-fi cards could ever offer. (I'm a fan of internal x-fi cards so don't think of me as a creative hater)

First try out some USB interface speakers since they bypass your laptop's internal soundcard and dont require you to spend extra money on an external sound card; since you're looking at 2.1 speakers, check out some M-Audios as Vogelbung has mentioned, but also check out some of logitech's offerings; alot of their speakers are really good ~albiet bearing an expensive price tag sometimes.

 

ok sounds good

 

Oh btw, the reason why I said USB interface is because of 2 reasons, one of which i have already mentioned:
1. Bypasses laptops internal sound card, so if your laptop has a really really crappy sound card, even the best speakers in the world will sound like cr@p through a 3.5mm jack.
2. No background hiss when you plug your speakers in; this is an issue for many speakers + laptops, and as such USB speakers can get around it

 

Well your first problem is that you didn't give us a $$ range. I can suggest a set up from 150USD up to 3000USD easily. Really, if your running anything nice then the first thing to change would be the creative x-fi sound card. Go with an Echo AudioFire card. Now that you have the source figured out, I really need to know your price range to suggest which reciever amp, monitors, and sub/amp. I personally use a Cambridge switcher, with definitive speakers and a self contained SunFire Jr sub. But like I said, we need to know your price range.

 

here's the first bose bashing, mildly flavored:
bose are fine, but they don't worth the retail price

 

Logitech Z-2300 $129

Logitech Z-5500 $292

 

I was gonna recommend the Z-2300's as they're pretty good and you can nab them for $80 if you look hard enough

However, as the OP said, no 5.1 speakers so the z-5500 is off