I've loaded all of my music to the pc to take advantage of itunes. I was going to buy some decent computer speakers, but a good set costs $200-$300, which takes me into the price range of buying a half decent and and speakers from ebay and hooking them up to my PC
Would it be worth doing this, or would i get better sound from a set of computer specific speakers.
if so, any ideas as to amp/speaker combinations appropriate to play music from a comuter in the $300 price range.
I would look for a used older receiver that you can get cheaply. Most stuff from the 70s 80s and early 90s even you can get for a fairly cheap price and the older receivers in the 70s and early 80s are built like tanks - try an old Yamaha CA or CR series or a Marantz or something.\
Get some older speakers that work.
You've just built yourself a decent $300 system.
Also I must add - the M-Audio Audiophile soundcards are a massive improvement over any stock sound cards or anything Creative Labs has ever made. You can get a 96kHz Audiophile card for $100 or the 192kHz one for $200 but 96khz is good enough for playing stuff.
I replaced a more expensive SB Audigy with the $100 Audiophile card and it has highs and lows that the Audigy could not come close to and it's probably my best CD player.