Well-priced 5.1 Speaker System

This is an analog speaker system with support for Dolby 5.1 surround sound. The system, with the sound card and DVD playback software, is meant for a home-theater environment. 

Specs



It is a 5.1 speaker system–four front satellites (two front and two rear), one center satellite and a sub-woofer. Each of the satellites is rated at 16 W RMS and the sub-woofer at 20 W RMS. This puts the total system wattage at 100 W RMS. All of the satellites are meant for desktop placement, which is slightly surprising because we would like at least the rear satellites to have a provision for wall mounting. All the satellites have the same drivers, while we would prefer to have a non-directional center speaker for center channel. 

Physicals 



The rear satellites come with long cables and cover the area around the listener sufficiently. However, the front satellites and the center speaker have a little shorter cables than necessary. We had some trouble placing the sub-woofer on the ground and wiring the front satellites with sufficient separation. The controls are on the sub-woofer and are for bass, front volume and rear/center volume. The sub-woofer is built in a space-saving design and even though the size is not that big, the sound reproduction is excellent. A power LED on the sub-woofer cabinet indicates power status. 

The sub-woofer housing has all the connectors: front, rear and center analog inputs and connectors for the five satellites. Power supply is built-in and the power cord directly plugs into a 220V AC outlet. There’s also a handy power switch at the back of the cabinet. A missing feature is a headphone socket for private listening. 

Performance



The speaker system can reproduce full 5.1 channel sound provided, if your sound card supports it. In our tests with various types of audio, which included MP3 and CD music, DVDs and games, we got excellent performance. The small but powerful sub-woofer aptly reproduces the bass frequencies. The satellite drivers deliver crystal clear shrill frequencies. In checking for the frequency response of the system, we found it capable of as low as 20 Hz (against a claimed of 30Hz) and 18 KHz at the higher end. However, there was noticeable distortion of sound at high volumes. You might need to adjust the volumes for pleasant listening and your ambient environment. 

The Bottom Line: At Rs 5,400, considering that the system is 5.1 and has a good performance over the frequency range, it is a worthwhile buy.

Ashish Sharma at PCQ Labs