Great sound and attractive design, but there is a potential problem...
Written: Aug 16 '05 (Updated Sep 04 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Sounds and looks great, appears to be sturdy. Wired remote is convenient.
Cons: Seems to be a fixable problem, but mine had volume intermittancy issues.
The Bottom Line: A great system for the price in almost every way, it did contract a pretty serious problem that seems to have been fixable. Thus, I recommend this set with reservations.
|
|
|
| gamercubed's Full Review: Creative Technology Inspire™ T5400 5 Speakers |
UPDATE 9-4-05:
It's been a couple months since I cleaned out the volume control contacts on my Inspire. The volume problem that my set began to have a while ago seems to have been largely fixed by this, at least for a time. I initially thought it continued to fluctuate even after cleaning, but lately it's been very good. Thus, I've decided to change my previous conclusion by saying that although these speakers did contract a pretty significant problem, it seems to have been fixable by cleaning the inside of the wired remote. So, taking into consideration the great sound for the price, I'm upgrading my previous rating of 3/5 to 4/5. It's still not perfect, but since the Inspire's main problem seems to be fixable, I think I can recommend this set after all. Just realize before buying that you may have to do some cleaning after the first 6mo to a year of having this set.
-----------------------
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Before I bought the Inspire T5400, I had the Altec Lansing ATP3 2.1 system. The ATP3 sounds fantastic for what I paid, but it was only stereo and it had a problem where the volume would fluctuate on its own every now and then. I decided I needed a 5.1 setup since I would be moving to a dorm and would be watching movies primarily on my PC. After some research, I decided to get this Creative set. I've generally been satisfied with Creative's products in the past, so I was hopeful that I would be satisfied with the speakers. I've had them for a year now and am happy except for one major complaint...
The speakers themselves are attractive. They are sturdy and made of black plastic mounted on aluminum feet. They also have places for a hook to hold them on a wall. The speakers are surrounded by a silver plastic plate and are partially visible through a stylish fabric screen. The three front speakers have one mid-range speaker and one tweeter each. These speakers have a sufficiently long wire permanently attached to them which runs to the subwoofer. The two rear ones only have a single mid-range speaker in them and connect to long wires which are bare at one end (they can be easily removed from the speakers and shortened if convenient). The subwoofer is made of particle board, is sturdy, and is where all the various cables attach. There is also a handy wired remote that controls volume, bass level and has a headphone jack that automatically turns of the speakers. As should be expected from the price, this is an analog set – not digital, so you have three connectors for your sound card (front, back and bass). Power is supplied by a somewhat bulky adapter that has one cord that plugs into the subwoofer and another that plugs in the wall.
After hooking everything up as per the clear labels on the subwoofer to my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 sound card, I made sure my sound driver was set to 5.1 mode and started playing music, movies and games on the setup. For a relatively cheap system, these speakers are great. They get very loud (at least for a dorm room) and produce clear, dynamic sound. They don't have the fullness or range of a larger, more expensive set, but the quality of the sound produced is excellent for a sub-$100 set. I had no complaints in this area. The bass is also good and can be infinitely adjusted from inaudible to overpoweringly-loud. I usually have it set somewhere in the middle of its range. The 5.1 separation is clear and noticeable on movies, games and DVD-A music. In short, for a $70 set, I'm very happy with the sound quality.
I do have one pretty major complaint, however. This may or may not be a problem for others as it is something that developed over time for me and depending on use may not happen to most people. However, after about 6 months of use, my system began having similar issues to those that my previous system had. Every now and then, the volume would drop down significantly without me touching anything. I could move the wires around near the subwoofer to bring the volume back somewhat, but the problem would come back. I did a little reading online and found that at least some other people had the same problems with similar speaker systems. They remedied the issue by cleaning with alcohol the volume control contacts. Since my problem seemed to be near the subwoofer, I didn't expect this to help but I opened up the remote, removed the plastic protectors over the volume contacts and wiped them with a Q-tip dipped in alcohol. I did the same to the bass control just in case a problem were to develop there. I also unscrewed and pried off the plastic plate on the subwoofer, exposed the electronic board and looked for any signs of dirt buildup or loose contacts at the connectors. Everything looked good, so I put it all back together. So far, I'd say the problem has lessened, though I still notice it periodically. Intermittant problems like this are always hard to troubleshoot, and it could be a problem somewhere in the remote's wire, too. Anyway, I've decided to live with it for now and see if the problem worsens again, and then I'll have to decide whether to try harder to track the problem down or to just upgrade to a higher-end setup. Like I said, you may never encounter this problem, but then again you may. I really didn't abuse my set at all, so it doesn't appear to have been preventable in my case.
Maybe these kinds of problems are par for the course with lower-end speaker systems (since my previous set had similar issues). I have a friend who's low-end 5.1 set (different brand) has a dead rear speaker, so it may just be an example of poor construction standards by all brands in this price range. At least in my case the problem does seem to be fixable (possibly by replacing the remote's wire). Still, on the chance that it's a design flaw with the T5400, I'd have to recommend either going for a higher-end system that is hopefully better-made, or at least trying to find another similar system that has a lot of happy owners. I hate to not recommend this system as it otherwise appears well-made and it sounds and looks great. But on the chance that yours develops the volume problem mine has, I'd have to suggest looking at others.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
gamercubed
|
|
Location: Frisco, TX
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I love movies, music and technology, so that's what I usually review!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.