Speakers and Acoustic Edge 5.1

[billyboysport]

What are really good, fairly large speakers that offer really good performance that are under $30?

About the Acoustic Edge, as you may know, is the sound card that I have right now. I've never used the hardware engine that powers the mp3+, X-Gamer, and the Platinum sound cards produced by SB. What offers better performance? DVD's play fine on my computer, and the ATI Radeon supposedly has an integrated hardware mpeg-II decoder. The sound works fine, but it says that to get high quality sound, it is obligatory that you have a software decoder. Anyone know why? It says on Philips website that you can get better sound if you use a software decoder, what exactly is the difference?