Here in South-Eastern Europe, there was a really popular set of speakers by the ambiguous name of "Saturn Amplified Speaker System" that a lot of people had back in the late 90's and early 2000's. They featured a 3" (or was it 3.5"?) woofer and a 1" polypropylene tweeter - very similar setup to the Roland MA-8, but in a bit more "quirky" shape (in fact, I suspect they were made this way on purpose to look/compete with the Roland's.)
If you look up that name, you might see some results or you might not see anything, depending if they were sold in your part of Europe, I don't know.
There's not much info about them online (if any?), but they do sound pretty decent IMO. Their only problem is that they might have yellowed quite a bit and their electrolytic capacitors inside on the amp board should be changed, because they are almost always failed or starting to fail (especially the smaller ones.) That said, even if not recapped, they will still usually work OK. Last weekend, I just grabbed another pair from the local flea market - my 4th one now. 😀 I just can't allow myself to not buy them when they only cost 1-2 Euro usually... and knowing that the scrappers will beat them to pulp to get whatever little metal scrap there is inside (actually, it's not that little - they are very adequately heavy for their size.)
Speaking of Labtec, there was a pair of smaller beige speakers from them too that I didn't grab... and now in hindsight, I really think I should have, just to have something to compare to.
I also have a pair of Teac's in the basement that are awaiting a wash and testing / restoration as well (probably going to take a while to get to them... and they have had all of their cables cut of by the metal scrappers, so I need to source those too.) They don't look as good or as big as the Saturn speakers I described above, though, so might not sound as good either.
lti wrote on 2026-05-01, 01:15:
My "retro-computer" setup uses a set that I built out of scrap plywood and the buyout section of Parts Express. I could have painted those, but I found a used can of spray polyurethane.
Heh, I still remember those back when you posted pictures of them on badcaps.net. Good stuff!
It's been on my mind to build something like that for a very long time now, but I just never set aside any time for it. Otherwise, I have like at least 10 pairs of various TV speakers. Some of these are really nice and about the same size as the Roland MA-8's. They came from top-of-the-line Sony "HD" CRT TVs that I found scrapped on the side of the road / in a dumpster. Best part is they are magnetically shielded, so I can have these next to my CRT monitors and not worry.
Really ought to build them some nice boxes, and I'm sure they will sound pretty good. Might even drive them directly from an old(er) sound card with a built-in speaker output.
Well, someday anyways... 😀