The Paradox: Decent Small Computer Speakers
Written: Nov 08 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice little speakers with a stack of inputs and decent output, on the cheap.
Cons: Only if you can find a pair.
The Bottom Line: Cheap well built speakers that sound good and get the job done.
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| zero_'s Full Review: Koss HD 50 |
In the computer world, the definition of the term "speaker" is a rather sketchy one. Most of the ones you find attached to computers, well, suck. Chances are the set that came with your PC have terrible output, flaky volume controls, and the headphone jack on them (if they even have one) buzzes like all get out, even when there isn't any sound playing through it.
Your sound card deserves better. Of course, you can always drop 150 dollars on a nice set of Monsoons, but for the more budget minded amongst us options are disappointingly limited.
Fortunately, Koss has figured out how to do things right.
The HD-50s are nice speakers. Koss quotes them as being capable of 5.5 watts of output, which is plausible. Most speaker manufacturers quote utterly ridiculous outputs, sometimes on the thick end of 200 watts, and expect gullible consumers to buy the speakers by virtue of this marketing propaganda alone. These ratings use what is officially called the "Peak Music Power Output" scale, which is essentially bunk. There is no set standard for measuring it, as there is no set standard for what kind of sound the end user will be delivering to the speakers. Thus, the companies get to make up a nice sounding number and print it on the back of the box, since there's really no way to challenge it. The HD-50s need to pull none of these tricks. The 5.5 watt rating is simply the maximum continuous input that the speakers can handle without blasting their coils across the room. They could handle more, but only for very short amounts of time- We're talking fractions of seconds here. There's no need, though. 5.5 watts is plenty for most stereo setups, especially computer speaker systems.
At 5.5 watts, these things are bloody LOUD. I can get the windows of my house rattling with these things, which is very impressive given their size. I haven't taken the time or risk of tearing my pair apart, but I'd venture a guess that they contain about a 3 to 3 1/2 inch driver, which is fairly respectable- Most computer subwoofers only have a four inch driver.
They sound good, too. The onboard amplifiers distort the signal severely after you crank the volume to about one third of the maximum. Note that one third of the maximum is about good enough to remove the hair from your scalp if you stand too close to these things, so I wouldn't imagine that you expect to be able to discern that the they're actually producing music at that volume level anyway. For desktop speakers the bass response is also very good, reproducing any music you throw at them with more than tolerable accuracy. You won't be using these things with your DJ rig at the local dance club, but for general listening and gaming they are more than sufficient.
The speakers feature a volume knob, bass and trebble boost buttons, an input selector button (which toggles the input from the standard to CDROM jacks), two microphone jacks, a headphone jack, and a power switch. The input selector is handy, because you can plug in any of your portable music gizmoes and listen at your desk, without having to fumble around behind your computer. This input is line level only, though- While the main input to the speakers can handle a moderate amount of amplification, plugging a preamped signal into the secondary input will make the speakers fuzz out and eventually power themselves down to keep from setting your hardware on fire. Pressing the input selector button switches between the inputs, and pressing it without a secondary input effectively mutes the speakers. As far as I can tell both microphone jacks behave the same way, mixing whatever you yell into the mike with whatever the computer is sending down the main input. The headphone jack mutes the speakers automatically when you plug into it, and provides a good static and distortion free output. Well, at sane volume levels, anyway. It distorts just like the speakers themselves to at insane volumes. All of this hardware, as well as the amplifier circuitry itself, resides in the right speaker. The left speaker gets its input and power from the right one.
Oddly enough, both speakers feature battery bays. This unusual feature allows you to unteather your speakers from the power cord and take your music on the go with three C size batteries per speaker.
The Koss HD-50s come in any color you want, so long as that color is beige (or you're packing a can of spraypaint). Stuffed in the box with them you will also find an unusually large brick type plugpack as well as three 1/8" male to male audio cables, presumably for use with the speakers' secondary (and tertiary) inputs. Spiffy.
All in all these are solid, quality, and inexpensive speakers. I haven't seen any in stores recently, though I hear you can still buy them straight from Koss if you call them up. I found mine in the bargain bin at the local Radio Shack, before they branded all of their name brand audio gear with the "Optimus" title.
Recommended.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
zero_
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Member: Robert "Zero" Drendall
Location: Claymont, DE, United States
Reviews written: 99
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Providing your semi-regular dose of extreme verbosity since somewhere around the turn of the century.
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