Too Much For PC: Too Cheap For Cinema: Where Does It Go?
Written: May 25 '02 (Updated May 25 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Good Sound Quality; Well Built; Solid Control and Interface; Good for DD and DTS
Cons: Average Music Replay; not enough connections
The Bottom Line: The Inspire is neither for the living room or computer room; it’s more of a console match.
|
|
|
| MichaelHatton's Full Review: Creative Labs 51000000AA122 INSPIRE 5.1 DIGITAL 57... |
You can find an image of this package in the following link:
http://0100010-cr.cjb.net/
This package called the Inspire 5.1 by Creative Labs, costing £280 is marketed at the high-tech computer. It is also made to be compatible with compact home cinema. With a set of five mini satellites a compact subwoofer and a small receiver, it looks very neat and tidy for a package of this type. The Package is designed to fit in the smallest of rooms, and probably for the computer mostly. However it has a set of decoders, like Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 which allow you to connect it to a DVD player and experience immediate surround sound. The reason it is made for both formats, PC and the lounge/bedroom, is that many people are finding surround sound to be expensive, this combined unit makes such systems like the Sony DAV-S500 slightly better, as this package only combines a receiver and speaker set, while the Sony package combines a DVD player in the mix for an added £220 on top of the Cambridge’s price. You might say that is the cost of the DVD player unit, but the Sony is probably ten times better looking than the Cambridge.
Set in a very shiny black matt, the entire system combines a mix of hard wood, for the subwoofer and hard ABS plastic for the satellites. The grills, which are available in different colours by the way, are made slightly larger than the front of the satellite cabinet, making them appear to be designed to fit in little holes in the wall for example.
Satellite Speakers
Each satellite speaker is mounted on its own little arc stand. The four satellite speakers are small at about 112x92x92mm (HWD), and offer a sealed cabinet which hold a small 2.1” cone, pretty much the smallest unit you could use without the speakers sounding a tad bright and harsh. The cabinets are solidly built, and inside you will find a bung of foam, and no crossover. Typically the crossover would be done in the main control box anyway. The drivers are magnetically shielded, another trait of computer speakers. Each satellite speaker is rated at 10w, but no sensitivity is given.
Centre Speaker
The centre channel is a lot larger than the satellite speakers, it measures 108x166x89mm (HWD), this added space is obviously occupied with a larger driver. A 2.5” unit. This is typical, especially in computer systems, that the centre channel is larger than the satellites. The reason? Well if you take the satellites in the system, run a CD recorded voice through, they will, when compared to the centre, sound a little bit weaker. Since most of the voice portion is presented through the centre in DVD’s you have to make the vocal speaker a little bigger to make the vocals sound “full bodied”. This speaker is a half moon, meaning it has a very curved front, at either side of the driver, there are small ports – which the grill goes into. This speaker is rated at 12w, again sensitivity is not given, so you can’t tell the “power” of the speakers.
The Subwoofer
This was a surprise. Here for a £280 system you get a subwoofer, complete with a very respectable 8” (20cm) woofer. This sort of size is something found on some Yamaha subwoofers at the £400 price mark. However the first time you pick it up, you’ll say “this is quite light”. The cabinet measuring 264x284x262mm, and made from pretty thick MDF (12mm), should be reasonably massed with a big woofer. If you open up the subwoofer by removing the 8” woofer, which by the way should be very heavy, you’ll first notice the very light feel of this woofer, when you take it out it comes as a surprise as it has no magnet structure or the wires. Then it hits you, it’s a “passive radiator”. Passive radiators are used when you want to utilize a port but have a controlled output, they are usually attached to the side or back of speakers and replicate a port by using the air pressure inside to vibrate its surface. What the one on the Inspire subwoofer is use the forward output of a smaller woofer. In this case a smaller 5.5” woofer, which uses half of the subwoofer cabinet separated with a board.
What this design is, to Creative LABS is “Creative SLAM™ (Symmetrically Loaded Acoustic Module)”, pretty much the technical analysis of this design. However it is a bit of a con, as you might be buying the sub on its big woofer. However what this design does show is that you should get a very tight output, as long as the seal is very airtight. And the power rating on the driver is 20w.
Quotes
We are quoted this output power:
Subwoofer: 30w
Centre Channel: 21w
Satellite: 7w
In fact you get this actual rating on each speaker:
Subwoofer: 20w
Centre: 12w
Satellite: 10w
Control Box
This little box is very nicely designed. You can mount horizontal position – but the US version has a different mount so it can be stood in vertical position. Ideally the vertical position can be done on the UK model, but all the text is along the front, the US is all across and I don’t think it can be stood horizontally. It comes with a small remote. On the main interface, you can adjust the output of each type of speaker individually, select the input source, and select a type of effect like for music or movie. You can also select the decoder to use, and it shows it can decode Pro Logic at this point. The volume control for each type of speaker is all done manually – not available from the remote.
The connections of the control box, are not really full up, the rear panel is neatly laid out and there is an subwoofer output though is line level. Including a set of digital connections – one of coaxial and one of optical, a set of 1 Digital DIN (Naim stuff) and a 3.5mm mini jack. The real downfall of the connections is the fact there are no analogue sockets, sure they may not be used with computer set-ups but those with CD players still can benefit from Dolby Pro Logic and the same for VCD users. The mini jacks – two sets (front and rear) don’t quite allow proper surround sound, there is no centre channel, so the main unit must decode the stereo input to Dolby Pro Logic, or use the four point sound, probably the latter with the right sound card.
Other Stuff
There is a 15v AC Adapter, and plenty of speaker cable – about a room’s length.
The speaker connections are “RCA” phono jacks – the same that you use for Coaxial and Analogue stereo input/outputs, so whatever you do – don’t accidentally connect a coaxial lead to the amplifier outputs, this would damage the DAC. It also makes it hard to connect better speakers – however unadvised it is – it’s still an option people should have.
Competition
What else costs this much and is the same system? There are so many variations you can try, the most simple is a receiver and speaker separate system – clearly a lot better but a lot bigger; you could go for a Kenwood KRF-V5050, a set of four Mission m71 speakers and a centre channel, for around £520. Obviously a higher price but so much better.
For much more affordable systems you could go for one of the following systems in the same category.
§ Akai DV-R2100SS - £300 –w/DVD player
§ Klegg m5-5.01 - £399 “egg speakers”
§ Samsung HT-DL100 - £399 – w/DVD player
Setting Up
You can obviously use this in two ways. One way is to use a DVD player and TV, a home cinema option. IN this way you can use the Digital output on the DVD player to connect to the Inspire unit with either the Optical or Coaxial connection. The problem is that you can’t connect an analogue source like a VCR, Cable/Satellite box – so Pro Logic broadcasts are out of the question.
The second option is that you can use a Computer, with a better sound card, which can output Digital – i.e. in either Coaxial or Optical, so you can use a DVD player in the computer to watch movies with. Although it might be a better idea buying a TV-Out card so you can watch it on a larger screen.
You won’t have a problem situating the speakers near the TV or monitor because they are magnetically shielded. For this review, I used them with the first option.
The TV – Sanyo 21” Nicam Set
The DVD player – A PlayStation 2.
I thought this pretty setup would be suitable for both games and DVD’s. Many buyers would be using a similar setup, so this is the perfect environment for entertainment. I also hooked a Sony CDP-XB930 to the spare Coaxial input to listen to music.
Sound
The first moment of playing a film, you’ll realise the adequate power of the sound presentation, from the vocals to the bass, the sound is always controlled and presented with pace and presence. With such hard soundtracks it can lead to distortion, but since the subwoofer is massed in so much suspension, it’s almost impossible to hear the subwoofer struggling beneath all that wood and foam. The speed of the subwoofer is perfectly adequate; it manages to follow hard blasts and booms of typical movie misadventures.
The same can be said about the sound with Games. With pretty simple sounds, games are often filled with surround moments, from the Dolby Digital feed from games like Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, and Pro Logic from Metal Gear Solid 2. With many times you’ll be hearing things which make the game much better altogether. Small details like water splashes and effects tend to be hidden behind the major noises, even the music in Gran Turismo seems a little faded behind engine noises. Vocals from most of the games I used were adequately projected through the centre channel. And the subwoofer managed to stay controlled and within the bounds of the satellites lower reach.
With music the story is a little different. While the presentation is full of loudness and sharpness, it comes down to resolution and imaging. Creative mention their curved baffles widen dispersion; if anything curves lower diffraction – you’re better off with sharp corners. The resolution is not great, missing out on small details like the lining of heavy music like the position of cymbals or the start-stop timing of Hi-hats. The bass is a little slow too, such as the following of complex Radiohead bass notes, which tend become blurry. IN respects of limitations and the respect that there are a set of five speakers – and only using two – and you get a load of features the speakers would be about £25 each.
Compare this to something like that Sony DAV-S500, which has larger speakers, and it can be seen that there is a slight difference, like the S500 has a better detail and better dispersion, but it does cost more after all.
Conclusion
Let’s summarize. The package comes at £280, not a bad price for such a system. You can connect a fair amount of equipment from computers and DVD players, and it can perform similar to other systems and sounds perfectly well. It features an easy to use main box a remote and small speakers and a subwoofer. You can’t quite get this sort of system in separates, but other brands do offer the same sort of system except without a receiver – for separates. This system is not exactly for the computer, but then again not exactly made for the main home cinema. In retrospect this is mainly for the gamer who owns a PS2 or another console with a Digital out, and who wants to experience the entertainment of surround sound. You can get worse systems for this area, but you can get better too. The Creative Labs Inspire 5.1 (UK name) or Inspire 5.1 5700 (US name), is a well rounded package, you can’t go wrong if you only need to connect a console to it. But the fact you can’t connect analogue sources without a Mini-Jack adapter, and some will that feel it is underpowered, which really lets it down.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
MichaelHatton
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Location: Darlington, England
Reviews written: 192
Trusted by: 59 members
About Me:
Retired
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.