I'm looking for a set of compact bookshelf speakers to go with an old 30w amp I have picked up. I could pick up a set 2nd hand, but I do not know what models to look for. Budget is around £50. I know that is scraping the barrel in the audio market, but hey.

At that price, march straight into Richer sounds and ask what they've got. £50 isnt going to get you much anywhere else unless you go second hand and even then……..

Bingo! These are supposed to be good

http://www.richersounds.com/product/bookshelf-speakers/q-acoustics/1010i/qaco-1010i-cherry

Seconded the Q Acoustics 1010i above – very good value.
you might also check out wharfedale diamond 9 at the same price from Richers
if you can afford a bit extra, the QAcoustics 1020i at £79 are deeper profile so will have a bit more thump about them – i would get these.

B & W secondhand?

Linn Index often come up s/h on Ebay at about the £50 mark – fantastic bargain. Not totally compact though…

As c_g says, try to find some B+W's, their speakers are stunning, and the sort of people who buy them aren't likely to abuse them, so s/h is a good way of getting quality for not a lot. Mission, Wharfedale and Kef all do excellent small speakers. If you're putting them on shelves, then putting blutac under each corner isolates them from buzzing and rattling, or get some squash balls, cut them in half and put a half under each corner. Blutac is perfect cos it reduces the chance of a speaker/floor interface if the shelf has a slight slope and the speaker vibrates off of it. Or the cat takes a walk along it.

Obvious really – but if they are going on a shelf – don't get ones with a rear bass port…

My bro' uses an old pair of Acoustic Energy speakers I bought (with my first ever pay packet, arrrhhhh…) anyway, they make plenty of noise out of an old amp and he's delighted!

Second the B&W's though, they're ace 😉

I'd def go sh, try ebay for local stuff.

There is loads of good s'h buys on ebay for audio stuff. I got a cracking B&W centre speaker last year for a quarter of what it would cost new

Look for B&W DM601's or smaller Missions and Kef's should be plenty of them around as they are popular speakers.

Not a lot can go wrong with speakers, they generally work ot they don't. Just avoid ones that have pushed in tweeter or damaged drive units

Pushed in tweeters or woofer dust caps actually have very little effect on the sound…but yes, avoid.

I got some rega kytes for £50 a while ago, tweeters were bust and seller said it must have happened in the post 🙄 he paid for the tweeters though, £50!

JBL Control 1. Tremendous sound for the money.

Yeah – I reckon 2nd hand from ads or ebay would be a good starting point.

And as already mentioned, most stuff from Wharfedale, Acoustic Energy, Kef, Mission, Mordaunt Short, Celestion would be worth a look.

There's some Kef Coda 7's on eBay cheap at the moment(I just looked). They were the dogs dingle dangles back in the day. I had the Coda 9's for a while, but they had manufacturing issues with the baffle on the 9's and I kept getting duff pairs. Ended up getting my money back and getting some RTL II's instead.

Cheers for the input guys, these are to go with a fairly basic Marantz amp or an early 80's Technics one that I have just purchased. I have a set of Eltax Monitor 3's that I bought from RicherSounds a few years ago but have never been that impressed. But they were dirt cheap.

I have toying with the idea of just sticking with the Eltax jobbies, but seeing as I spend at least an hour a day listening to them I figure I can justify the cost.