Advantages: Versatile, inexpensive, bargain offline buy.
Disadvantages: Munches batteries, small memory capacity.

...with the SWEEX PACIFIC 512MB MP3 PLAYER are bad. I didn't think reception could be worse than those included with the iPod Shuffle, but I was wrong. They are crackly to listen through, uncomfortable to wear and have a tendency to pop out of your ears if you dare do so much as sneeze. Luckily they're non-integrated and attached to the player via 3.5mm jack so you can easily replace/trade up for a better set of earphones. It eats batteries. After 18 months of saving the Earth with a rechargeable power cell I'd forgotten how mercury-hungry personal audio players can be. The SWEEX PACIFIC 512MB MP3 PLAYER takes 1x AAA battery on average every TWO hours (FOUR hours if you're using Energizer batteries) of continuous play. So, two transatlantic flights will cost you £5 in batteries alone - or £10 in batteries when you take into account waiting time... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

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... Read review

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Advantages: great price, surge protector, fast connection (USB 2.0)
Disadvantages: its pink!

...I required this product as my laptop has only two usb ports which is nowhere near enough for myself. Using usb for connectivity i have a mouse, webcam, printer, external hard drive and flash sticks. After browsing for some time, i found this for under 5 pounds which amazed me, notihng else really came close to this product in terms of its price. As it is only a hub and not a key component to my workstation, the qualoty of this product was not too important so the Sweex 4 port mini usb 2.0 hub was perfect! Anyone buying this or looking for a similar product should be sure to choose the right connection speed, 2.0 or a 1.1, if possible the 2.0 should be used as it is around ten times faster than the alternative. This product also protects your workstation from surges or malfunctions in hardware like external hard drives and the 3 L... Read review

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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... Read review

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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... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: CHEAP, great sound,
Disadvantages: big box

...I, as I seem to writing all too frequently, have just built myself a new PC! It was the first one I have ever built and the only previous experience I have had with PC Hardware was doing the odd upgrade to my old PC. It was pretty nerve reeking, but I survived and I really enjoyed it and the sound I now get out of it is great. Most people underestimate sound when it comes to computers, but I consider it as important as anything else in a PC. It is not required to have sound to make a pc work, but I couldn't live without it. I listen to music a lot and have a large music collection. I encoded these all into mp3 files on my PC. Thankfully they sound better being played on my PC than on anything else. I have the DTT2200 Home Theatre speakers with the Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Player. This is a very common combination and I... Read review

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Advantages: Price, easy instillation
Disadvantages: loose quality at high volumes, not the best lookin but are OK

...After recently getting a new laptop and finding that the inbuilt 5W speakers were absolutely awful, so i decided to connect these speakers to the laptop. Having an overall output power of 48Watt they were surely going to be better than what i had. Creative are one of the most well known makers of speaker systems and it was with this background that i bought them for around £100 a couple of years around. The setup is 5.1 surround sound (although only 2.1 works with my laptop but the whole system does work on my brothers PC). There are 5 satellite speakers, each of which are wired and have an output of 6W. For this output they are reasonably small, being only 4" tall and 3" deep. Each one supports 2.5" speakers cones and is surrounded by a black plastic casing. The 5" subwoofer is wood-encased and has an adjustable knob... Read review

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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... Read review

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Advantages: Both Television and Computer usage
Disadvantages: Some customers may find initial setup confusing

...Around March time i was looking to uprade my computer setup with 5.1 surround sound i went to what was then my local computer store and after having 1-to-1 conversations with the owners of the shop i finally decided on this set of speakers. They do exactly what they offer however i am a little dissapointed because they are not entirely what i expected. I was looking forward to hearing my music in 3D surround sound so that i could hear different instruments from different speakers, this works well with certain films, For example "The Alien Quadrilogy" In some scenes you can hear the aliens breathing from a corner and running around your room which was impressive. Unfortunately this feature does not work so well with music, sure it will work on some of your songs however I find that the center speaker is not very good (but you can... Read review

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

..., you can buy extension leads but it would have be nice if Creative just made them only a meter or two longer, this is a common problem in all surround systems I've encountered, everything else is perfect. A sound card or onboard audio with 5.1 sound option is required to take full advantage of the system but thats becoming a standard now on most devices. I use my PC for everything from movies, music, and games and I'm completely satisfied and have been for the past three years, when or if they break down then I'll upgrade. The system can be bought for about £35, they seem pretty rare now, looks like they've been replaced by newer versions. Best bet is to keep an eye out for them on ebay.... Read review

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