A compliment to my soundcard!
Written: Jan 17 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Sound, Easy to place, mounting slots, excellent bass, headphone jack in front speakers.
Cons: Length of cords to rear speakers, 5 cords (annoying, messy).
The Bottom Line: Great for games, Great for mp3s! Lacking absolutely nothing.
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| arthurmccaine's Full Review: Labtec Arenaâ„¢ 530 4 Speakers |
First off let me begin by saying these are the first and only speakers I have ever bought for a computer. So my opinion is a little bias based on me falling in love with these bad boys.
I bought these speakers basically to listen to Mp3s and play games! I bought my computer with a Soundblaster 5.1 LiVE soundcard so naturally I needed a good speaker set to take advantage of this hardware. I was told by a few close friends to get nothing less then a 4 speaker set if I had a Soundblaster LiVE. Because if I did I mind as well have onboard sound, because I wasn’t doing the card any justice!
After careful consideration I purchased these speakers over about 4 other sets. I have given myself a pat on the back every single time I pump the music through them, because they have glorious sound! Now I’m not really sure which is responsible for perfect sound… the speakers or the sound card. I’m sure they both play an equal and important role in the sound quality so keep that in mind when reading this review.
The price I paid is an absolute guess, although I know these were less then the majority of the other brands available. I chose this set over the others for the price and the trusted Labtec name for computer products.
There are 4 ‘tweeter’ type speakers and 1 large bass box that comes with this set. One cord for each the front and back speakers. This cord then splits into two separate cords that go into each speaker. Two cords going from the bass box to the sound card, and finally a power cord. These cords are probably about 15-18 ft long, although this may seem long it isn’t. My computer is in a small room and I had to maneuver my furniture to accommodate this speaker set. All cords plug into the bass box which is very convenient because until I bought this set (and read the manual) I didn’t realize the bass box can be placed in any position in the room. By this I mean, it doesn’t matter where you place the bass box your ears cannot tell where the bass is coming from. I’m being 100% honest about this! I have my bass box on the floor and it actually sounds like the bass is pounding out of the little speakers! Quite handy because this way you can keep all the cords tucked away neatly out of the way.
The design of the little speakers is definitely a selling feature. The speakers can swivel on their stands to the direction that you want them to face. They don’t rotate all the way around but they do rotate just in case you need to plant them elsewhere. Not only that but each has a wall mounting slot so you can pound a nail into the wall and place them on it. I have one of my speakers on the wall and it works excellent. On the front right speaker there is a headphone jack, which is handy because I’m sure we all know how annoying it would be to have to bend down unplug the speakers and then plug in the headphones to the soundcard each time we wanted to use headphones. I am curious if this jack would work with a headphone/microphone set. I doubt it, but wouldn’t it be handy if it did?
The sound quality at louder volumes isn’t the greatest but trust me by the time you hit that point the sound is more the loud enough! This is the only time I have noticed any sort of distortion. It is pretty amazing how much sound these little speakers put out. Being relatively small speakers they don’t take up a lot of space, but the sound isn’t sacrificed.
No software, no messy packaging, no extra parts. What you see is what you get! I do recommend you have a decent sound card to take advantage of these speakers and a tolerant neighbor because once you play your music loud you’ll always want too!
Recommended:
Yes
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arthurmccaine
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Reviews written: 4
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