85
Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Audio quality Not the same mid range levels that I hear from larger speakers like the ones I've had for about 20 years with my Pioneer SX-2800.
- Design and form factor The satellites are more capable of being mounted compared to other PC speakers. The control pod looks nice which I guess is a plus.
- Durability I'm fairly cautious of keeping the volume really high and even have it in second skin mode so the volume isn't as high. But it has been 2 years and still going
Detailed review
I have had the speaker set for about 2 and a half years now. They still sound the same which is good. What I wanted most from this set was a step up from the distorted feel from my X-530's, and to have the optical and coaxial ports I could use with my Xbox 360 and PC. With those ports and the much more clean sound for the $300 I paid for the system, I am happy.
I have listened to SACDs, Blu-ray, and DVD audio discs encoded in both DTS-MA (Downscaled work with the DTS capability of the decoder because DTS does scale) and FLAC 96/24 5.1 through the analog ports. I will say it does provide pretty realistic sound from high resolution encodes. I am no audiophile I'm sure, but these speakers impressed me with the clarity at high resolutions. Pink Floyd - Time from Dark Side of The Moon specifically in the first moments of the track sound astonishingly vibrant.
The control pod does more than what the buttons present. With extra features like Diagnostic Mode which I feel should be on as default is very nice. I like seeing the bitrate and frequency of the digital encode that I am passing through the digital out on my motherboard. Boost mode sounds like it could be helpful but I can't imagine using it just to listen to things louder with the speakers being loud enough as is. Other things like volume offset in analog mode sound nice as well.
The speaker system is nice for a desktop PC. It definitely is no home theatre system in the sense that it doesn't have many inputs or the greater capabilities of HDMI audio encodes. Depending on the speaker placement and subwoofer volume, the satellites can make it sound like the crossover between highs and lows feel too spaced from each other but its definitely a step up from other cheaper sets. For what it is, it is nice. But of course the model is no longer being produced and is proceeded by the z906.
I have listened to SACDs, Blu-ray, and DVD audio discs encoded in both DTS-MA (Downscaled work with the DTS capability of the decoder because DTS does scale) and FLAC 96/24 5.1 through the analog ports. I will say it does provide pretty realistic sound from high resolution encodes. I am no audiophile I'm sure, but these speakers impressed me with the clarity at high resolutions. Pink Floyd - Time from Dark Side of The Moon specifically in the first moments of the track sound astonishingly vibrant.
The control pod does more than what the buttons present. With extra features like Diagnostic Mode which I feel should be on as default is very nice. I like seeing the bitrate and frequency of the digital encode that I am passing through the digital out on my motherboard. Boost mode sounds like it could be helpful but I can't imagine using it just to listen to things louder with the speakers being loud enough as is. Other things like volume offset in analog mode sound nice as well.
The speaker system is nice for a desktop PC. It definitely is no home theatre system in the sense that it doesn't have many inputs or the greater capabilities of HDMI audio encodes. Depending on the speaker placement and subwoofer volume, the satellites can make it sound like the crossover between highs and lows feel too spaced from each other but its definitely a step up from other cheaper sets. For what it is, it is nice. But of course the model is no longer being produced and is proceeded by the z906.
good review!
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