Packaged inside the very nicely designed box were the flat panel speakers themselves, the subwoofer unit, 2 sets of stands for the speakers, all the cables that you'll need and a small manual booklet that I consider to be a "quick-start guide" because of how small it is. Fortunately, this small manual does its job--I was able to install the entire system in a matter of seconds.

The subwoofer had an LED to let the user know if it's powered on or off, a power switch and a bass turn-knob. The bass turn-knob proved to be useful as I was using this speaker set (more on that later).

Also included were 2 sets of stands for the flat panel speakers; one for placing the speakers on a desk or table and the other set so you can hang off the side of the monitor. Labtec made a good move in including both of these sets of stands and adds a lot of flexibility to the complete set. Also included with the set was a portable volume control. This is completely separate from the speakers and is attached through a cable to the subwoofer. I found this to be very helpful as I'm usually too lazy to even lean forward a bit to reach for those volume controls built-into most speakers these days.

Installation
Installation went very smoothly and was very straightforward. After all of the cables were plugged in, I plugged in the HUGE AC/DC power converter box into my power bar (this can be a downside for some people, but I certainly wasn't affected by it as I just plugged it into the edge-most plug on my power bar), turned on the power switch and began playing my MP3's and games.

Performance
Let me tell you, when I first turned on this system and played the first note (or shotgun shot), I could already feel the raw power in these speakers. High, treble notes were extremely clear and you can feel all of the bass.

The bass is actually the highest point of this system as I just completely fell in love with its raw power. Combined with the turn-knob for the bass level, I was able to tune it to provide the most power, yet not drowning out the high notes. For listening to MP3's (especially those techno mixes), I prefer to use this system even over my surround system because of its powerful bass.

The high notes are very crisp and clear as well. I think this is the first speaker set that I've used that I could actually hear a difference between 128kbps and 160kbps encoded MP3's! Of course, this won't be very noticeable to most people, but if you listen carefully using these speakers, you can actually hear a slight difference.

After turning up the volume to extreme levels (let's just say that the light downstairs was flickering on and off) using the detached volume control (I just love that thing!), I didn't notice any distortion in the sound.

On to: Conclusion