BOSE Bose Companion 2 II

Designed to provide a clearer and more realistic music or movie or gaming experience.

Contemporary, elegant appearance

Dual inputs for easy connection to computer and additional audio source

your computer is a primary source of entertainment.

They're also designed for convenience, with both the volume control and headphone jack close at handThe speakers themselves are fairly lightweight--the left speaker weighs 2.3 pounds and the right is 1.8 pounds--but there's enough heft here to give you the perception that the speakers contain some quality components. Bose has conveniently placed the volume control knob and headphone jack on the front of the right speaker.

The right speaker also houses all of the system's connectivity on its rear panel. There you'll find the power jack for the AC adapter (there's no USB option), a minijack connector for connecting the umbilical line to the left-hand speaker, and two sets of full-size stereo RCA inputs. One of the inputs, obviously, is for your PC, while the other is for any other audio source you'd like--an iPod, stereo receiver, or what have you. Bose supplies a minijack-to-RCA cable for the PC, and a standard set of stereo cables for connecting larger gear. For better or worse, the two inputs are active simultaneously, so if two sources are plugged in, you get a mixed output. We actually liked that; you can hear notification sounds from your PC even as you're listening to your music player.