Audio Ideas Guide has a roundup of near-field monitors made specifically for computer use. Near-field, for those who don't know, is what happens when you don't have a huge room to listen to your speakers in and are forced to place them on whatever surface is available, usually your desk.

The "showdown" consists of comparing speakers from $99 to $2850. And, wouldn't you know it, the more the speakers cost, the better they sound. The speakers shown above are the wild child of the bunch, the Chinese Swans T200A, priced at $379.

We predict near-field will be a huge area of growth as digital audio moves moves from MP3 to higher-res formats like Apple's Lossless Codec, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. Of course, most any 2-way speaker can easily be used for near-field, but it's interesting to see the marketing pushing specifically for desktop computer use.

AIG Loudspeaker Shootout [Audio Ideas Guide]