Speakers Reviews

These are a good deal if youre looking for speakers around 100 dollars.The only real problem is that you have usually have to crank the bass up to 10 and have the bass boost on for it to sound really good.This can be a problem if you live in an apartment and dont want to bug the person in the next room.The cds with the fine production jobs sound loud and clear but the ones with the worse production sound muddy and you have to turn the volume up to 5.Thats why Im thinking of buying newer more expensive speakers so I can get clearer bass and treble no matter what the production is like but these are a great deal if youre looking for speakers in the 100 dollar range.

These sound great for pretty much anything youre in the mood for listening but it has a lack of clear bass.You usually have to crank up the bass to 10 plus have the bass boost on for it to sound good.This can be a problem if you live in an apartment and dont want to bug the person in the other room but great if you live alone.The albums that have good production sound loud and clear but the ones with the weaker production sound pretty muddy which can be frustrating.Im thinking of getting newer more expensive speakers with more accurate bass and treble but for 100 dollars these sound very good.

These are great speakers.Theyve lasted me about 4 straight years and they still sound great.Theyre a little loud but a little volume never hurt anybody.The first thing you notice is how great the mix of treble and bass is.Another thing you notice is how clear they sound.These are great speakers for relaxing at home.Even though these are older and now out of stock I like them too much to buy new ones.I have a feeling theyll last me at least another 10 or 15 years and thats saying something.

I was looking for a pair of decently priced, higher quality bookshelf speakers to use as rear surrounds for my home stereo system, and chanced upon these. I must simply say, my expectations were exceeded by far. These could easily function as main speakers, they have plenty of power at 125 Watts, and the bass response is genuinely great. The mids and highs are crystal clear, and I could not ask for more at what I paid, low to mid hundreds. The oak veneer and black grills look great, all in all a great buy. I would definitely purchase these again if I could do it over, although my ONLY complaint is the flimsy front grill, but as that has no impact on sound quality, I rate these 5 stars.

Fine speakers for use as primary loudspeakers in a smaller room. Wharfedale instructions are true - if you place them about two feet from the wall (back surface) the bass is incredible. So, in a sense, while they'll fit on a "bookshelf", they don't perform their best on a shelf. I adjusted placement and am very pleased.

These speakers are an excellent value for the price. I was really surprised by the quality of the physical aspects of the speaker, as well as the sound, which is quite warm and true to live performances. The oak is gorgeous.

I had never heard of this company before, but I will be a lifelong purchaser of its products.

Ok, I wasn't expecting much for $33 dollars and I wasn't surprised. (I didn't get much.) I'd be hard pressed to give these speakers 5 stars like the other reviewers before me.

The satellite speakers sound very tinny at low volume levels. As you crank up the volume, the overall sound improves. Crank up the volume, move back away from the speakers (about 10 feet), and I'd rate them 4 stars (for the price). But...isn't the reason most people buy PC speakers for working at the PC (close distances) and for background music (lower volumes)? Be prepared to spend some time tinkering with the equalizer settings to get a decent sound at low volume. For that reason, I'd give them only 3 stars.

These are not top of the line audio speakers, but they don't pretend to be. The sound quality is very good. You ain't gonna find any 35 dollar speakers better than these. No headphone jack, but I can live with that. The controls are on the sub-woofer which is a minor pain, but I can live with that, too. I give 'em 5 stars.

Hi all 3 days ago i got these speakers i was playing music all night long at full valume, these are nice speakers sound is clear and loud enough for the price, they go at wallmart 34.99 belive me you wont be dissapointed they are good speakers since they are only 2.1 but you can get better if you get 5.1 version by labtec which is my next buy so go on and get these while they still available.. i give these speakers 5 stars

I have had these speakers for over four years, and they have been fine and sounded great. They can be very loud, and the wired remote for the volume is a plus. However, i must have rocked my speakers just a bit to hard, because one of the outputs on my amp/sub unit no longer functions. Kinda bizare, bacause now, i have a 3.1 system. So now, im saving my pennies for a brand new promedia 5.1 system.

I owned these speakers for about 8 months, and by the end of those 8 months, I needed new speakers.

I use my computer primarily for playing games, listening to music, and watching DVD movies, in that order. When I first got the FPS2000s, I was thrilled with their sound and ease of use. First, the pros.

These speakers are tiny, and you can put them virtually anywhere in the room. They take up little space, and pack a whollop for their size. The subwoofer is about the size of a shoebox, and fits well under a desk. The contents are packed very intuitively, with the speakers and their wires wrapped individually in the top portion of the box and the subwoofer hidden in the bottom.

Setup is more or less a snap, but it takes at least 30 minutes. You are required to label each speaker and its wires with the provided stickers. This makes it easy to identify the front and rear speakers in case you decide to move them, and makes wiring easier. The front speakers are supplied with 9 foot cords, and the rears with 16 foot cords. All attach to the back of each speaker and to the subwoofer with wire clamps.

The most convenient piece of equipment in this package is the volume control knob. It plugs separately into your subwoofer and can be attached to the side of your monitor or your desk with a sticky pad. It has a dial that turns the speaker system on and off and controls the volume, and a separate one that controls balance.

The performance of these speakers is quite impressive, given their wattage rating (a piddly 7 watts/channel for each satellite, plus a 30 watt subwoofer). Coupled with any of the Sound Blaster Live! sound cards, you have the option of digital audio, which makes connection to your soundcard much easier and provides for better sound.

For games, these speakers are pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. The sub doesn't pack enough power, so you don't "feel" the game. For music, mid-level sounds are lacking, so MP3s and even CD audio won't sound rich and deep, but rather high and almost tinny, depending on the volume. Movies sound best on this system. The surround sound really kicks in here, and when positioned properly (and provided that the room is small enough), these speakers create a wall of virtual sound. The sub fares better here, and literally shook my dorm room when I played "Saving Private Ryan."

However, after several months of use, the speakers wore down and emitted static at higher volumes when the bass became too much. The power wasn't enough for my liking, and after reading reviews of the Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 (I highly recommend those), I decided it was time to move on.

In short, these speakers are an excellent value, and sound tremendous for the price you pay. The packaging and setup is well done, and the speakers are amazingly loud for their size. However, movie buffs, gamers, and people that like their music will quickly tire of the lack of raw power. The entire system has a total of 58 watts, less than just one of my Klipsch satellites, and after a while this lack of power shows. Overall though, a solid package from Cambridge. (85/100)

4 speakers may seem like an odd array, but when you think about how computers are set up, a center speaker may just get annoying. These little cube speakers pack a lot of punch and deliver very crisp sound, especially if you can plug them into a digital jack on a Soundblast Live! card. Another cool feature is the little volume knob that you can place just about anywhere on your desk that lets you control volume and also fade from front to back. These are great speakers, I've had them for a year and a half now and they still work wonderfully. I highly recommend them!

I waited for quite awhile to pull the trigger on these because I believed that anything this size--no matter how well done-- would have limitations. I eventually bought them because they have little competition (one Sony product), I was curious, and I really needed travel speakers for my IRIVER IHP-120. The good news is that they are a noble effort in such a small package; the bad news is (with all respect to the other reviewers) they don't quite cut it if you're thinking that you can get "big" sound out of the small package. I can't quite agree that they provide "room filling" sound (and maybe expecting that is unfair). As a result, I think they'd be better priced at about $50 too.

I've spent a considerable amount of time listening to these with all different types of music and am impressed by the speakers mid and mid-high range---very clean on vocals and acoustic instruments, provided the overall sound isn't too dense. If you're into that type of music, and do not need serious volume, I think you'll like them quite a bit. Acoustic jazz also shows these little speakers to good advantage.

With a more "dense" sound, however, they become "good for their size," but IMO not as good as one might wish--even for the small size. Don't get me wrong--I will not be returning them, but I think if you listen to serious rock, funk or hip hop, their inherent size limitation *do* matter and some disortion may result at high volumes. While I respect the engineering involved and am trying to allow for their diminutive size, I think, all things being equal, Creative would not have compromised their portability and could have added to their sound by making them only slightly larger, charging a bit more, and trying for a fuller sound. As they exist, they are a very neat, compact design that I'd recommend for casual, personal listening given the lack of competition--just don't expect *too* much at higher volumes depending on your taste in music.

Amazing sound from such a small package!

I bought these because of the excellent sound they produce, even though the bass response is not thumping. And because they can be powered by 4 AAA batteries or by AC power - most other portable speakers that I could find could not be AC-powered. And the batteries last for a couple of days of lengthy sessions.

Easy to carry around - they fold up neatly and come with a handy black velvet soft carry case. They are not well-balanced when in use - they fall over rather easily. But that's the only negative that I can find with them.

Most of my friends are surprised by the quality of the sound - we've used the speakers plus my iRiver 350 CD player at picnics and BBQs with 6-8 people - as background music providers, they were great.

I have not regretted buying them for a minute, even though they are more expensive than many others around. Creative gear is generally good gear, and these are no exception to that generalisation. You won't be disappointed.

Creative products seem to be hit-or-miss. I've owned many of their speakers and other electronic items -- some of them have been spectacular and others have been mediocre. This one-speaker system is their best product, IMHO. One correction to the review above: the speaker uses 4 AAA (not AA) batteries. It makes a difference -- this speaker is so compact and light!

Bought this sytem at a great price from a local retail chain in chicago. Got it home and loved putting it together. The sound is incredible. The unit is sleek and very stylish. The remote made my friends jealous. The only complaint that I have is that the spaker wire is too short and those freaky clips at the ends make it impossible to fine replacement cable. I also wanted to find the speaker stands. Called JBL and they couldn't give me any info. I would give this sytem a 5 because it is so great but I have to give it a 4 because of that really short speaker wire, accesories being impossible to locate, and lousy JBL customer service.

I really like this set up for how inconspicuous it is. The speakers sound solid. The only problem with mine is the cd player spindle is out of alignment and some cd's will actually scrape against the player's plastic chassis as they play.

We got this for our master bedroom. To our surprise we thought we were in the entertainment room. Great sound. Easy to setup. User Friendly. The remote is credit card thin which we really like.

These speakers give a good bang for the buck. Very balanced sound, and nice power. However, the connection on the right speaker is a bit loose, and the right speaker goes out sporadically. It takes a little jiggling to fix the problem, but can be very annoying.

These speakers are excellent! I had bought them on clearance, but if I had known, I would have bought them for full price and more. The sound coming from these tiny speakers is huge. I'm a bass player, and instead of using my amp, I now actually direct input into my computer, and run my bass on these speakers for practices! That subwoofer is amazing and powerful. My only problem is that I haven't found a secure place for it, so while I'm playing or listening to music, it scoots across the slightly uneven floors in our old house. However, it sounds awesome, even if I do have to catch it once in a while. Also, the volume control and headphone jacks are easy to use, but I wish the power button was on the right satellite also. The volume control isn't very gradual though, so I had to be careful moving it more than a quarter inch or so before it's at half volume. I accidentally dropped these a few times, ok well, the cats fought the cords and tried to kill the satellites, but everything works perfectly. What else could you ask for besides great sound, great price, and excellent build products? If you want better/need new speakers for anything that requires a standard headphone jack (you can plug these into cd walkmans, small televisions, mp3 players, anything like that) then you should definitely try to get this set of speakers.

These speakers have fantastic sound for the price. After tiring of the tin-like, distorted sound of the standard speakers that came with my computer, I decided to invest in some different speakers. Though I've only had these for a day, they are already proving that they're worth the money.

The setup is easy for these speakers. The 3 wires are color-coded, and an AC adapter is included. Granted, it's easy to get all those long cords tangled, but what do you expect for speakers?

The speakers have incredible bass quality, and the subwoofer really adds to this. I have the subwoofer on a shelf close to the floor next to my computer, and it really works great! All of my music has a nice rounded bass sound now. Just as a test, I tried cranking these speakers to the maximum volume, and there was little, if any, distortion.

These speakers really pack a punch for the size, and for the price, how can you go wrong?

I was really excited to replace my Harman Kardon sub/sats that came with the Dell.... the truth is the HK's were actually really pretty darn good. But I thought I'd make the leap to something better. The Z3's came, I unpacked them, and hooked them up. The first thing you notice is that the satellites are very heavy.... ah, a good sign....??? I placed the satellites on the desk and the subwoofer on the floor under my desk. Fired up the system. Ugh. Terrible. Granted, the subwoofer has an independent volume control, but no matter where you set that, the separation from sub to sats is horrible. The sats are too treble'y, the sub is too boomy (in a bad resonant way) and so all you hear is screachy treble and this really weird crappy boomy sound from under the desk. Keep reading, it gets better... I wasn't willing to throw in the towel, so I went to Home Depot, bought some wood, and built a box, 14" high, 10" square all sides. I filled the box with sand to kill the resonance, and put the sub on the box. Now the sub sits on this box under my desk, with the sats sitting on the desk right over it.
Simply bringing that sub up to nearly the same level as the sats made a HUGE difference; I mean the critical difference. I'm sure that sitting what is basically a low-quality sub on 40 lbs of sand has helped it 1000% as well. It has made the sub very clean with none of that goofy resonant boominess left. So for the $60 + $25 other materials, I have a speaker system that was everything I hoped for!

Buy these from the computer site Newegg.com instead. They only cost $65.00, not $99.00 as they're currently listed for as I'm writing this review. I love these speakers, but I would definitely buy my electronics from somewhere other than Target because they have a tendency to overprice their stuff...

Mine have been rained on a few times and still sound great, wind will never knock them down (the footings are metal) and they just look sweet. I can't get over the sound, plenty of depth and volume. Pleasantly surprised.

If you can get this set cheap and need a subwoofer and/or rear speakers, it's worth buying for that reason alone. I bought this set because of rave reviews at amazon and have found that it is a good set, but only as a starter set or for someone on a tight budget. The subwoofer is really great. The sound quality of the 2 front speakers is good, but a bit compressed, and I don't like the center speaker at all. I've opted to keep on using my 15 year old ADS 2-ways for my front speakers, and I'm using the Onkyo front speakers as my rear speakers. I'm not using the Onkyo rear and center speakers at all. Paired with the Onkyo subwoofer, I've got pretty good sound now... I can feel the bass rumble in the floor and the couch as I watch a movie in my 12x12 room, and the rear sound is immersive. My next step will be to drop some real cash on a substantial center speaker... I've learned that skimping here is a sure and quick path to disappointment.

The ONKYO SKSHT500, or On-Key-Yo is a great speaker system for anybody who is a fan of high quality components and is looking to spruce up their HT (Home Theater). The speakers are great for movies, video games, and all sorts of music styles. I love putting in some rap and turning my receiver (Sherwood 7103) to my specialized setting for rap with the bass is all the way up. I really love going up stairs and felling it through 2 stories J The speakers are of great quality, I purchased the 16" speaker stands for the 2 front speakers (L and R). I think they deserve good-looking stands...Ive tried KLH, and for budget they are great since you can find them for [a low price] but they are not close to ONKYO, I mean you cant even touch them with a 100ft pole. I'm 17 and this is the final addition to my HT...If you need some speakers, don't sacrifice for less. And don't be played by the pictures, the 2 mains are about 16" tall!...The one and only disadvantage it that they are not even close to "compact" speakers so pick up some of those stands that they display them on...and...get the taller stands for the rear

This is the perfect gift for someone who wants theater quality sound, but who doesn't have ...[thousands] to pay for one of those trendy little satellite speaker systems, most of which only produce average sound. While this set is not advertised as compact, the speakers are good looking and unobtrusive. And do they produce sound. These speakers sound better than any of the BOSE sets I have ever heard at 10% of the price. If you are starting to set up a home theater system, dont skimp on your TV or Reciever, but if you are looking to save on your speakers, buy this Onkyo set, I swear by them.

I am very happy with the sound and the looks of the system. The remote control can come in very handy. You can also fine tune the system using both the remote and the wired controls. I have listened to many different types of music on this system and find that it performs very well across the board. Combine the looks with the sound and you have a very nice computer sound system.

I bought these speakers because I wanted something to hang on the wall and be invisible in my living room. In my family room I have a stereo system that costs nearly $5000. I was astounded at how close the sound of these amplified speakers comes to my high end system, at least in the all important midrange and treble.

The mid range and the treble (produced by the sattelites) is nearly world class. Sweet and clear, very musical and non fatiguing but with pleny of detail. For speakers hanging on the wall they image very well too. I would guess you would need to spend 5-10X the price of these to get performance to match this.

Since for your $200 you are getting both speakers and an amplifier (!!), you just need to hook them up to a decent CD, MP3 player or DVD player and have a very nice system for only around $300. Or make your computer really sing by using these instead of whatever junk it shipped with.

As others have mentioned the woofer on this system is only adequate. Keep in mind you can adjust the bass by moving it toward or away from walls and corners. If it sounds boomy, move it away from the wall (extension cables for the speakers are included so you can move them pretty far away from the woofer). The bass is OK and does have a "one-note" quality to it, but for $200 for amplified speakers, are you kidding - the overall sound from these is amazing, even at several times the price.

The speaker connections to the woofer are proprietary so you cannot upgrade the woofer. I hope Altec Lansing considers selling the sattelites with a more worthy woofer or selling the sattelites separately to pair with a woofer of your choice. The sattelites are really something speacial - I would say revolutionary at this price point - and deserve to be marketed in as many ways possible.

If your definition of good sound is overexaggerated, teeth jarring bass, you should probably look elsewhere. If you are looking for clear, sweet, balanced, accurate music, pair these with a $100 CD player and you have a system that rivals some costing several thousand dollars. Very highly recommended.

Advice for previous reviewer:
If you get a rattling in the sub, the troubleshooting guidebook says one of the screws is probably loose on the back --- just tighten it up.

For everyone:
You can plug three different sound sources into this unit easily --- dvd/ps2 rca stereo input, computer single line input, and an auxillary input on the control pod for your tape player/mp3 player/ etc.

There is some static in the gaps of music (which I have come to expect from speakers at the volume I use them). Other than that, the sound is loud - crisp and undistorted even at ear shattering volumes.

Electronic/percussion/r&b/beat driven --- astounding.
Ambient -- gets me high.
Piano -- sounds right in front of you save for slight static in the gaps.
Rock/Pop/Jazz -- clear, all instruments are easily differentiated.
Spoken -- no distortion, some static.
Strings -- powerfully intense, some static in the gaps.

Note -- these speakers are very responsive to your software equalizer and to the control pod's bass/treble levels. What sounds good for one CD won't sound as good on the next. For someone like myself that listens to music from dawn til' dusk and back again, I love getting the feel for each instrument in a mix and trying to adjust the levels accordingly. For others, it might be a deterrence.

PS - REMOTE CONTROL!