Need advice about speaker system for my ipod

[chocorit]

I have been looking at docking stations with speakers to play music from my ipod. I am not technically savvy and need some advice. I wanted one with great sound and was somewhat portable. It will primarily be used when I am just relaxing at home but I also needed something with some kick *** sound for when I have my annual Halloween party. I wanted it to be portable so I could take it on vacation. I tested the sound quality of about 5 different ones at Best Buy and was not impressed by those or my mom's ihome alarm/speaker station. They are certainly louder than playing music from my computer but the sound quality is not much better. Then I tested some sound bars thinking I could use it for our T.V. as well as the ipod and they were okay but still nothing to write home about. The Best Buy employee suggested I try some of the multimedia speaker systems that people use for computer gaming since they are very small and come with subwoofers. I tried several and they were amazing! Since they are 3 to 5 speakers they are not as portable as other things but they are very small and can be packed in a suitcase. These speakers are a lot cheaper yet sound better than all of the docking stations and in my opinion, even better than the Bose ipod station. These are my questions. Why are they so much cheaper? Is it because they do not come with all the bells and whistles such as an alarm, ability to charge the ipod, etc.? Does anyone else use multimedia speaker systems for their ipods?