The Great: The LED touchpad deserves some extra love. It allows you to power up by touching the center, control the volume by dragging your finger around the edge, adjust the bass, choose between Line 1 or 2 if you have it set up to multiple systems and mute within seconds so you don't have to fumble around when silence is required. Hey, that Dominos pizza guy isn't going to let himself in.

The Bad: If we had to nit-pick, and we do, it'd be the number of wires needed, which all plug into the subwoofer. The satellites use thick ethernet-like cables—there's a bunch of warnings not to plug it into your ethernet port (though we were very curious to find out if we could hear the Internet; then we realized we hear it everyday and it's very angry). There's also a cable for the touchpad and another headphone-like jack to plug into your computer. This really isn't a huge obstacle, but since our desk is wire-central as it is we'd appreciate some consolidation.

Space Savers: Proof that bigger isn't always better. They save a ton of space, especially on a desk as messy as mine. Plus, the speakers and subwoofer use the surface they're resting on to improve sound quality and power. How is this possible? Who knows? Seriously, we're not scientists so we don't know.

The Verdict: By far the ultimate desktop sound system we've ever experienced. The price may be a little steep for computer speakers, but the power and quality more than make up for it.

The rundown: