I have a pair of Aktimate Micros, I got them as a refurbished unit on ebay for £75 and they are amazing. I game a lot but am not so into gaming audio, I wanted a pair of top quality hi-fi to listen to music on while working and, of course, any capable speaker will be good. I'd recommend anything by Aktimate. I have been so delighted with my micros I am buying the maxis which are a lot more money. The micros are the cheapest in the aktimate range and are so divine I will probably be disappointed with the much more expensive maxi but really, these are great speakers if you look around second-hand the people who buy these tend to be discerning and look after their stuff and the build quality is astonishing. Touch wood, I get the sense that these will be like my fathers Missions still amazing after 25 years so although your outlay is a lot greater, they last a lot longer and every day amaze you with the detail and quality. I mean, when I listen to music I hear things I never heard before in tracks I've listened to for years. Voices particularly are a revelation on the Aktimates. Any blues or soul or opera sounds epiphanic, I mean, chillingly moving on them. For some reason voices are reproduced on them like no other speaker I've ever listened to (not that I ever listen to quality hi-fi so maybe this is why!) but if you want a quality pair of speakers, then aktimate are one of the best. I mean, I am replacing my creative 5.1 with the maxis and they started to distort within 4 months of purchase. The best speakers at the moment are the Bowers and Wilkins MM-1, the aktimates, the audioengine A2s have a great reputation for £125 and the A5s (now newer a5+) too. Well, have a look on Superfi.com under "speakers-active speakers" on the tab and they have some good offers from £50 to £500. They have a nice pair of roli on half price for £49 which would be a good buy.

I agree that the combat and the professions/class system is the worst part of an otherwise amazing game.  I am in wonder at the amount of labour and integration of labour around detail in the game world but having played for a couple of weeks now, I agree wholeheartedly with the initial thread.  I also feel sadly disengaged by the character-mechanics.  In other MMOs I can usually figure out a point to do something decisive maybe, taunt a mob at the last minute or lay on healing or something but in GW 2 I feel like an ant and often cannot target mobs nor really understand what I am doing.  As a player of limited inclination to develop complex skills in a form I engage with for absorption I usually just fit my main skills on my toolbar and play within the confines of that and in GW 2 I just find machine hitting the five keys as they cooldown and too often I see something and just think "there is nothing I can do about that", a feeling I too often play games to escape in relation to the real world.  I realised the weakest part of the game for me is the class design.  I just never feel engaged via a role in the game, everyone is essentially DPS and there is no way you can really even grab a particular mob as everyone just rushes around like ants trying to fulfil their particular function.  It's worth playing nevertheless for the beauty and intricacy of the world but I do agree with your points about combat and the disabsorption.  I can see why the designers have gone this way because this is how MMOs are played by the mass of players. I've played a lot of WoW, Star Wars and Rift and nobody looks to group or really associate outside of their cliques and if you play games outside of an actual real-world group who use a particular product it's actually very hard to get involved at all.  I never did in WoW, which is played in lineages of players who start around the same time and play together since they hit level-cap around the same time and so embarked on gearing-up around the same time.  I was so much looking forward to GW 2 hoping it would be a nice atmosphere but also I've learned what to expect: few people who play on-line games seem to want to play cooperatively in a relaxed and engaged atmosphere.  But a very interesting thread, well observed and accurate.  I think the labour GW 2 manifests is remarkable and the world itself is worth the box/entry price to enjoy but I do agree with your points about the game's character mechanics and combat.