Quality 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers for your PC

Advantages: Low price, Great build quality, Sound quality, Looks stylish
Disadvantages: Not many controls, Rear speakers not loud enough, No digital-In audio

...I'm reviewing the Logitech X-530 speaker set, which is a 5.1 Surround Sound speaker set for your computer. The X-530 consists of a set of five small speakers, known as 'satellites', and subwoofer, which is the larger unit that produces the bass. This is where the term '5.1 Surround' comes from. The "5" represents the satellites and the ".1" represents the subwoofer. I've had the speakers for a month now and I think they're great. Home theatre, or home cinema, systems will usually hurt your wallet quite a bit and although the X-530 isn't really a home cinema system or even part of one, it is a good alternative for your PC. A home cinema system would usually have a Logic 3 amplifier as well as the satellite speakers and subwoofer but the X-530, being a PC speaker set, connects to your computer using analogue signals. A 'true' 5.1 sound...

Deru 11.09.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Logitech X-530

Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

Advantages: Almost everything, price, EMUK101, performance
Disadvantages: None, This card makes it not to go for any other card

...Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 I own this card, bought for connecting my Mercury 5.1 Home Theatre system. This review shares my experiences with this card. First of all let me point out important specs. I don't give full technical specifications as it is easily available in the net. Main specs These are the main specs that are to be highlighted. Patened EMUK 101 Effects Processor Separate EMUK101 Music Synthesis Engine Up to 32MB of samples into host memory for professional music reproduction. Environmental Audio and 3D Audio Technology User selectable settings, Microsoft DirectX sound support, Dolby Pro Logic And EAX support. Supports MPU-401 UART mode, supports AC97 (16 bit). 15 pin Female port for joystick connection. My Opinion This card is really a very good performer. I...

nishanthl21111987 06.11.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

Videologic ZXR 550. Big Volume, Little Speakers

Advantages: Sound clarity, BASS!!, tweeter
Disadvantages: Inverse quality/volume

...About a year ago now, I got fed up with those appalling little speakers that attatch to the sides of the monitor that comes as standard with your pc. However, i've about £65, and really cant afford Logitechs £250 speaker system with the latest what-not. SO, I found logitechs 5.1 surround setup. If im being honest, bass was my number 1 priority (being a room shaking kind of guy when i listen to music...), and so when I found the sub included with this set packed in a quality 25Watts I was pretty chuffed considering the price at the time. Boom, I ordered it, and eagerly awaited the arrival. For those who want to know all the specs: Each Speaker (2 Front, 2 Rear, 1 Centre) = 8Watts RMS Sub = 25 Watts RMS Upon arrival of the package ( a hefty 10kgs at that), I opened the box to a maze of different manuals, leads...

reviewermarc 27.08.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Videologic ZXR-550 Speakers (5.1)

MX5 1.8 Sport

Advantages: Dead easy to drop the top (and put it up again)
Disadvantages: Fuel economy coulld be better

...For the Summer I purchased a second hand MX5 1.8 Sports. It was 4 years old and had the matching hard top as well as the permanently fitted cloth soft top. I had done my home work and this was the one that every review was recommending. It is one of the limited edition Sports and as such comes with leather heated seats. First things first, off came the hard top and into storage until winter. The hard top was very simple to remove and the soft top just flips up and down. However neither my wife or I can pull the soft top up when sitting in the seats. One of us has to get out. Both the hard top and soft top have a heated rear window which is essential and in a two seater cabin. The fold up rear wind deflector is not that good so long hair still gets blown forward. Top Gear did an effective demonstration of the difference...

ForlornHope 23.07.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Mazda MX-5 1.8i

A good, cheap set of 5.1 surround sound speakers.

Advantages: Cheap, fair sound quality and build, good for gaming and films on PC
Disadvantages: Few flaws such as stand not standing up, problem with sub.

..., could be better, but you can't expect that much from 2.5" drivers. The satellites are easy to mount to the wall, you just hook them onto screw. Drill a hole in the wall, put a wall mount in, pop a screw in, hook the speaker on and your done. The only problem I had was the wire length, they give you about 3m of wire, which is no where near enough, so I just brought a extension cable, you just need a 3.5mm extension. There aren't many features as such, quite a basic system. The control box has your power on/off switch, Volume, Bass, Rear and center controls on the front, and at the back, you have 3 X 3.5mm sockets for the 5.1, 6 channel input, and another single 3.5mm socket for a stereo input, and then a little switch to turn on "Dual Stereo". This is a useful feature, which puts stereo sound into 5.1 surround sound, which is useful...

joefireline 18.02.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Sony SRS D511

Don't Tust the 5.1 on this system

Advantages: Easy setup, simple controls
Disadvantages: Very low output volume on 5.1 setup, completely unbalanced audio

...The speaker look very nice but looks mean very little on a speaker system. The system is relatively easy to setup with the usual 3 jack plugs used on most PC analogue 5.1 surround sound systems. You have the usual routing of the five speaker cables to take care of which plug into the rear of the control unit. The rear speakers have plenty of cable length to use when positioning the where desired. There is also a large, unique lead that connects the sub to the control unit which is also easily attached. The system comes with a rather bulky power supply that could have been neatly tucked away in the sub box, therefore only requiring a figure 8 power cable to do the powering up side of things but this is, after all, a budget system. The Controls on the front of the control unit are very basic and easy to get your head around but are...

Maximus_Doom 01.09.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Trust Soundforce 5.1 SP-6700T

A headset that offers true 5.1 sound.

Advantages: True 5.1 surround sound, clear quality, built in mic.
Disadvantages: Not very durable and breaks easily.

...Theres not many headsets out there that can say they have full 5.1 surround sound. The medusa 5.1 pulls this off very well and is a fantastic headset for gaming. Let me start of with the packaging. The headset is wonderfully packaged inside the box. Complete with soft lining and ribbon to finnish. A nice surprise. It comes with all the cables that you need, and more that I couldn't work out what they were for. Set up was a little tricky and the manual that it came with wasn't the most helpful. After about an hour or so of fiddling with the cables and doing sound checks I managed to get the 5.1 working, including the microhpone. The quality you get from the headphones is great. Crisp sounds and a decent level of volume. Obviously the 5.1 isn't as distinguished as a full set of surround sound speakers will ever be, but it does...

chowname 23.08.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Speed-Link SL-8796 Medusa 5.1 Home Edition Headset

Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

Advantages: Great quality sound, cheap
Disadvantages: None whatsoever

...I was in the hunt for a new sound card and picked up this Sound blaster 'Live' by Creative from PC world for just £35. The sound blaster Live is powered by the EMU10K1 digital signal processor which means you get very high sound quality without losing any of the power of your PC which other sound cards and onboard sound chips may take away as they require your PC's processor to power the sound, this ofcourse is great news for gamers who need all the spare power they can get in order to obtain maximum framerates. The Creative sound blaster Live 5.1 has the ability to connect to dolby digital and multi-channel digital speaker systems and provides an awesome quality of surround sound in all its glory through 5.1 (providing you have surround sound speakers ofcourse) so you can experience movies via your PC as tho you were in a cinema...

Rabid 12.04.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

Creative Inspire 5.1 sound system

Advantages: Quality sound for a low price
Disadvantages: Short rear speaker cables

...work, it also acts as the power switch for the system. Its a bit chunky about 9cm long, 4cm wide and stand 2.5cm tall but still looks good with a nice curved shape to match the speakers. Setup ````````` Setup is fairly easy, just plug in the cables, well not quite "easier said than done" come to mind you have 8 cables in total a power cable, 5 speakers, volume and the audio jack with 3 plugs to juggle about, the back of the subwoofer is clearly marked for which port does what so there's no need to refer to any manual... The best way to set it up is to figure out where everything is going to go then lead the cables around before plugging into the sub just to make sure all the cables reach, on the many occasions I failed to do that and had to re-adjust mainly because the rear speaker cables are too short, Another thing to keep in mind is...

JGK555 17.02.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Creative Inspire 5.1 5100

Excellent Quality, great value 5.1 speakers

Advantages: Big bass, excellent sound quality, compatible with PS2, Xbox etc
Disadvantages: cables too short, only plays as 2.1 if you want mp3 compatibility

...I brought the Logitech X-530 speakers 7 months ago and do not regret it. They look nice, they look a lot more than £40 and come to think of it, they sound more than £40 pounds as well. When I was deciding whether to get these I thought they didn't look that powerful, but I was 100% wrong I lifted the subwoofer out of the box and it looked a lot more powerful than it does in the pictures (heavy too). I set them up, booted up the pc then I put a film on. I put on a war film and it sounded great. The helicopters flying by with that boomy base vibrating things in your room, bullets being fired, I couldn't believe they were only £40 pounds. Then I tried Soldier of Fortune 2 in surround sound, it's so much easier then playing it in 2.1 you can hear people behind you shooting at you, you can then turn around and shoot them with you shotgun...

dale1499 07.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Logitech X-530