Note : This review is for the BA7500G's - not the BA7500's. I will detail the differences in the review, but -please- keep this in mind.

While perusing the papers in Australia I noticed Gateway was selling off their gear extremely cheaply. So cheap in fact, the top of the line Boston Acoustic BA7500G's were going for 60% off! Normally they're about $300 US, but with the special, I purchased them for $100. Awesome!

After making the prerequisite arrangements for them to be billed and shipped, I eagerly awaited their arrival. When they did arrive I got stuck into it straight away, who can blame me? :)

What you get is a surprisingly light ported subwoofer which contains the digital circuitry and subwoofer driver, four 3cm thin satellites, and four stands to keep the sats up and tilt them back a bit. One of the stands also includes the controls for easy access. You also get cables that wire right up to the satellites, and cannot be removed. Note you get pretty good cable (20' for the rears) which should be more than adequate. You also curiously get a wall-wart power supply, but this is really not an issue unless you prefer inbuilt psups.

Since I got the BA7500G's, you don't get the manual (except for a cheap 'plug this stuff up' guide, prevalent in most computer goods these days), or rear stands. Most importantly, you don't get any front/rear analog inputs - only digital.

After wiring everything up, I puzzled over the mini-jack digital input. This is not a standard coaxial input which you can hook SP/DIF up, but in reality it's a AES/EBU connection for PCM/AC-3 digital signals. If you have a sound card that doesn't have the prerequisite output, beware!

Sound cards that should work are the newer SBLive cards with the '5th' jack, or older ones with a Hoontech SB DB I/O III (like me) which lets you hook it up. Since the BA7500G's have no analog input, most other cards won't work. The 'true' BA7500's will however, so you don't need to worry, and also have a coaxial SP/DIF input, providing greater flexibility over the BA7500G's.

After finally getting it all set up and in the right order (it's confusing, but the BA7500's have a test setting on the controls which rotates pink noise to all the speakers so you can position them properly) it's time to crank them up and give them a go.

Going through the controls in order (Volume, Surround, Surround Balance, Subwoofer) gives my basic impressions below. Fortunately these controls are all digitally driven (esp volume) - cheaper speaker systems have noticeable 'crackle' when adjusting volume in particular, so you're getting a good set - however the knobs do feel a bit cheap if you don't know what's going on in the back.

Popping a CD and cranking the volume up results in anything beyond half way being unbearable. They certainly crank out the volume without distorting, which is the main thing. In fact, only about 1/4 way is good enough for most listening. You can go a -lot- louder, if you want the police turning up via a call from irate neighbours :)

However, just listening without surround is missing most of the fun for just stereo, as the rear sats don't engage. Turning on surround engages this mode and adds body and depth to the audio with the rear sats and more pronounced bass from the subwoofer - after a while, just plain stereo sounds tinny and flat, although still quite good. You can vary the amount, but not by much. Surround balance doesn't seem to do much, so I've not much use for it.

The last control is for subwoofer, which determines how much bass oomph is put into your music. Depending on how you like your music this could be maxed out, or barely halfway. I'm pleased to say the subwoofer can add considerable bass and body to your music and is definitely not a slouch at putting it out. Again, the neighbours will notice it which means it's doing its job.

After throwing some typical mixed music (orchestral, modern to test the bass) I'm definitely pleased with the results. They've coped with pretty much everything I've tossed at it without a problem, and with more than adequate response and volume. To the average person these are more than adequate.

Anyhow, testing out the AC-3 (Dolby Digital 5.1) playback worked great. For the first time I could actually hear vaguely why people like AC-3, since I've lacked a decoder. Since I'm no expert I can't comment on how great it is, but it certainly does the job as best it can. (I've always found it confusing and difficult to determine due to rapid camera angle changes to fully appreciate). Perhaps another reviewer could fill this in.

That pretty much wraps up the good. All systems have their issues, and the BA7500G's are no exception, but in the majority of the cases it's probably the sound card and related issues to getting digital working 100%

For instance my older SBLive seems to be inable to output true 4 channel PCM via the Hoontech I/O card, which means for games it's not outputting true 4 channel sound - a annoyance, which I hope to resolve since the system can do it for DVD. If I had analog outputs, this would not be a problem, naturally. BA7500 owners via analog should have no issues whatsoever (unless they're digital purists).

In addition, the processor seems to trip up on DVD playback switching from surround to AC-3 to stereo by exhibiting crackling in the satellites. This becomes extremely noticeable once you get through the start of a DVD where changes are prominient from one format to another. I suspect this again is the sound card and how you connect your AC-3 via the digital link and which software you use. Again, 4 channel sound will have no problems, or a dedicated AC-3 connection which is what the true BA7500's will have, not the BA7500G's. Perhaps the new SBLive's have fixed this, but I'd need to test more.

One common problem with all speakers is ambient hiss. You can always hear a hiss in the background - barely. I was hoping for the digital connection to clear this up, but apparently it's more the connection from the sub to the sats that have this issue - I guess you can't really remove it save a fully digital connection to the sats or high quality shielding and twisted pair cable.

I've also seen some people criticise the BA7500G's for no central channel. To be honest, they are meant for the PC - the closeness of the L-R means any real 'power' of a central channel would be lost pretty much among the L-R audio, or at least that's my opinion. If you spread the L-R out, you may have issues, but that's only if you're using them instead of a real 5.1 channel setup.

I'd like to also interject a quick comparison to the Klipsch ProMedia v2.400's - the BA's compare nicely but can't compete bass-wise to the twin driver design, but more than make up for better clarity (the newer ProMedia's clean this up) and will handle just as well as the ProMedias in most situations.

With the superior digital connection and digital processing of the BA7500G's I'd have to say they're better and more stylish (unless you like having the Black Klipsch ProMedias of +3 Intimidation and Awe) over the Klipsch analog preamp and 4 sat setup.

However, audio is very subjective, and I recommend listening to all systems you're interested in to get a fair feel for how they perform and weigh your options up. If clarity and digital AC-3 decoding is you thing, the BA7500G's are the way to go. If you want max power output, perhaps go for Klipsch or another brand.

However, for a mere $100 US my set was definitely a bargain, and I don't regret buying it for 1 second (when my credit card bill comes in I will! :) Even for $300, they are exceptionally good value and worth looking at.

Recommended: Yes