Meh.
Written: Jul 07 '03 (Updated Nov 27 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great highs, small speakers
Cons: horribly overpowering, poorly balanced bass
The Bottom Line: For something as important as my speakers, I demand higher quality. The overpowering, poorly toned bass ruins these for me. Save your money, and buy a better set of speakers.
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| zoogelsnof's Full Review: Creative Technology Inspire 4400 4 Speakers |
Overview
If you’re buying a pair of headphones, $50 is a good price to pay, I agree. However, if you’re buying 4.1 audio speakers, even from a name as good as Creative, do you honestly expect that much for $50? I’m going to fly in the face of the current reviews on this product and say these speakers are nothing hot, they’re strictly acceptable. Sure, they’re great for $50, but if you are buying a set of speakers that you will be listening to, day in and day out, for years (if they last right?) then why would you go so cheap?
If you’re a teenager, and it took you a year to save this much money, then go ahead and buy them, and good job. If you’re an adult with a decent job, then save up for another month or so, and buy a set of either 5.1 digitals (or the THX if your adventurous…and rich), or the Mega Works 2.1 THX systems. Surround sound isn’t necessarily the be all and end all, and too many people discount the value of an amazing set of 2.1 speakers. For a piece of equipment as critical as my speakers, I don’t want to go on the cheap.
This also, by the way, works the other way. If you don’t spend hours a day listening to MP3’s and playing games, then this system is too powerful for you. If you just want to hear AIM go, “ding” when you get a new message, you can spend $20 and get a system that will be fine for you.
Sound Quality
Overall the sound is simply acceptable. It's very fake. I’m not fooled into thinking I’m really hearing someone sing live, or that a car is really exploding with me in it. It’s strongest on songs/notes that require no bass. The speakers themselves are not bad, but the bass ruins everything for me.
The bass is stringy, and far too strong. It’s easily the weakest part of the system. The bass balances very poorly with the rest of the system, I found myself adjusting the bass individually with every song to get the balance right. It’s far too strong for these speakers. There is a difference between strength in bass, and tone. This subwoofer has tons of strength, but very little tone.
The mid range is pretty good, once again, when the bass does not overpower them. They’re, surprisingly, not the strongest part of the system. They play second fiddle to the highs.
The highs behave strangely. They’re weak at low volumes, they have a good sound to them, but there’s not enough power behind them. The weird part is the highs actually get significantly better at high volumes. Most systems deteriorate as the volume gets higher, but these get the force that they’re missing at low volumes when you turn them up, without loosing their tone at the same time. They sound pretty good, even by my standards, at high volumes.
The surround works well, but that’s more a function of the sound card then the speakers. (For reference, I’m running a sound blaster live! Platinum on this machine.)
Aesthetic
They look pretty good. Unfortunately creative had dropped its cage design for these, and they have a soft face. The soft face makes them much more damage prone if dropped/knocked off the table/whatever. Creative used to use a full cage design that the speaker would be encompassed in which made them very damage-proof short of playing soccer with them.
They’re very small, which is nice. And they have built in wall mounts, another good touch that wins some brownie points. The cords are permanently attached, for which they loose some big points. Two speakers come with 3 foot cords, and two with 6 foot cords, and that simply wasn’t long enough for my needs. In the past I’ve been able to simply plug in a new cord. This time I had to go get an extension cord to attach to them.
The volume controller, unlike on most creative products that have a volume control, doesn’t let the user balance the front and the back. Granted it’s not a big deal to do it through software, but it’s just a little touch they used to have and no longer do.
Installation
Installation was a snap. It’s very simple and intuitive, a clear game of, “this plug goes in the hole labeled for this thing.”
Bottom Line
Sound Quality w/sub: C
Sound Quality w/o sub:A-
Ease of Install:A
Physical Look: A-
Reviewer Tilt:C /B-
Overall: B
warrenty:12 months, limited. They have pretty good service in my experiance.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
zoogelsnof
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Member: Zac Cramer
Location: Boston, Mass.
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 17 members
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