Creative Labs Inspire 2.1 Slim 2600 Speaker
Written: Jul 13 '02 (Updated Jul 13 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great bass and compact size, affordable
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Excellent bass sound and I would recommend these speakers to everyone.
|
|
|
| opinionated3's Full Review: Creative Technology Inspire Slim 2600 2 Speakers |
A couple weeks ago my wife asked me if was going to replace her old speakers. I upgraded her old PC back in January and the only thing I didn't replace was the speakers. After researching the different choices of speakers that were available and reading a lot of reviews here on Epinions I decided to stick with a brand name that I trusted.
I have always used Creative Lab Soundblaster sound cards in all of the PC's that I have built over the years and I trust the Creative brand. So when it came to buying a nice set of speakers for my wifes PC it was a no brainer. The only thing left was to chose which model to buy. I went back to Epinions and read through the reviews on the Creative Labs speakers that Epinions had listed.
I chose the Creative Labs Inspire 2.1 Slim 2600 Speaker . My next stop was at my local CompUSA and a test drive.
When I arrived at the store I found the wall that they had all the speakers setup on and checked to see if they had the speakers I was looking for. I spotted the Inspire 2.1 Slim 2600 speakers and they we setup so I could listen to the sound. I was treated to a very nice sound coming out of the powerful subwoofer. The highs coming out of two slimline satellites accented the heavy bass that came from the subwoofer.
The old speaker system that my wife was using was a three speaker system, but the subwoofer was made from plastic and it sounded very hollow. It sounded better than a two speaker system but, no where near what I heard coming from this system I was listening to.
I was so impressed with the sound I just had to bring them home and show them to my wife. She loves to listen to audio CD' s on the PC while she is surfing the web and while read and rating here on Epinions. As soon as I got home I just had to hook these speakers up and see the look on her face as she popped in her favorite Ozzy CD and turned it on. She was absolutely blown away by the sound that came from these speakers.
Installation
I unpacked the speaker's and pulled out everything that came in the box. That included the subwoofer and two slim satellites with removable stands. The package also includes a wired remote volume control and installation guide.
Once I had everything out of the box, it was really easy to hook up all the wires. All the wires plugged into the back of the subwoofer and then plugged into the connectors on your sound card or onboard sound connectors. Once this was done, I turned the bass adjustment knob on the back of the subwoofer. With this adjustment knob I was able to set the bass level to the perfect setting.
Size
The size of these speakers was the second reason why I chose these speakers. We have a limited amount of space to place these speaker on our desk. So I had to make sure that the subwoofer was small enough that it would fit on the desk and the satellite speakers fit on top of the hutch. The nice thing about these satellites besides being slim as the name implies, but they are also magnetically shielded so they can sit close to the monitor without distorting the picture. In the early days of computers they didn't take this magnetic distortion into consideration and most speakers were not shielded. Now most every speaker system that are designed to be placed near monitors or TV's are shielded.
Ease of Operation
Once the speakers are connected to your PC, there is no special drivers or setting on the computer. It comes with a remote volume control and it is very easy to use. It is a light weight switch that has a big knob on top that you turn side to side to raise or lower the volume. The bad thing about this remote control, it gives my three year another toy for him to go after and play with. We had a fun time getting him to quit playing with the optical mouse. Then he saw the little remote control and he went wild with that.
A little about the speakers
A few things that help these speakers create the great sound that comes out of them. A combination of heavily reinforced subwoofer in a cubed design helps to create that deep booming bass. The two satellites speakers use a contoured driver rim to achieve optimum sound dispersion and precise sonic imaging.
Due to the slim design of the satellite speakers they make a perfect fit with a LCD Flat panel display or as optional speakers for a laptop computer. Another nice feature that these satellites have is the detachable base, this will allow them to be mounted on the wall if you chose to.
I don't know how the power rating compare with other speakers available on the market. The power rating of the subwoofer is 19 watts RMS and each of the satellites are rated at 6 watts RMS. That makes a total of 31 watts RMS and with all that power is why the sound is so nice.
Likes and Dislikes
My wife and I have been enjoying these speaker since we first hooked them up and I don't see any reason for that to change any time soon. I like the compact size of the subwoofer, that allows us to fit it on our desk top instead of having to place it under the desk. The neat satellites speakers are perfect fit on top of the hutch. The satellites have a detachable front grill cover and you can purchase optional blue and maroon covers. I haven't tried to detach the bases and mount them on the wall so I can't speak of the ease at which they mount on the wall. We have not found anything to dislike about these speakers .
I would recommend these speakers to everyone that needs a great sounding speakers to listen to Audio CD's, MP3 files or video games.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.