I have a pair of mini-bookshelf speakers that I want to hook up to my comuter; does anyone have a recommendation for a decent-but-reasonably-priced amp that woud work in that application?  Nothin' fancy needed, just take the 1/8 phone out & sent it to binding posts - louder.  Tone shaping a plus, but not a deal breaker.
 
Peter

HI Peter,  
 If you can find a used Crown D45/D60/D75 used On eBay or Craigslist or the such you would have a nice little 1 rack space unit with balanced input capability . Sometimes they can be had for the $75 to $200 range. You might have to use adaptors to connect from your Computer out to the amp. I like to advocate to use a PCI slot type /Firewire/USB computer Audio interface with improved audio resolution of at least 24/96 .

Go to your local thrift store and see if you can find any receivers from the 70s or 80s. There are some very nice ones that can be had for cheap. Yamaha, Sansui, Kenwood, etc. are all great options. I was using a Nakamichi for my home studio for a while and it sounded really good, clear, clean and punchy.

As Edwin suggested, I run my laptop through an aging Onkyo receiver and Polk Audio speakers.

Now why didn't I think of that?!?!?  There is, as it happens, a receiver (Kenwood, IIRC) sitting idle on a shelf in the basement.  A bit larger box than ideal, but the price is definately right.  Thanks, guys.  
 
Peter