All Speakers Feeds

Razer Mako 2.1 THX Speakers

James Rivington — 1210677635

The Razer Mako 2.1 speaker set is absolutely phenomenal.

Without a shadow of a doubt, it's the best looking and best sounding 2.1 desktop system we've ever come across.

And that's high praise indeed, because there are some pretty damn good PC speaker systems out there.

Best speakers ever?

"Imagine the best orgasm you've ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near it," - Irvine Welsh used that phrase to describe the pleasures of heroin.

But actually, he's got the Razer Mako speakers pretty much nailed, too.

The system comes packing a whopping 300W of total system power, so between the two satellite speakers and the weighty sub, it's an exceptionally potent set-up (the fantastic Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1 set is only 90W). It also costs an eye-watering £300, so while you're getting a lot of bang for your buck, it's a hell of a lot of money to spend on a 2.1 system.

That price is likely to be the sticking point for a lot of people. But it completely depends on how much you value high-end audio and whether you think it's worth paying extra for.

This product is not for you if you can listen to a small 5W FM radio in your kitchen without feeling the burn of low fidelity. Nor is it for you if you've already got a powerful hi-fi and amplifier system in the room you're planning on putting it in.

Very pricey

So what is it exactly that makes this system so sexy?

With most desktop speakers, the sound gets slightly distorted and muffled because some of the sound waves travel straight to your ears, while other waves bounce off your desk (and other objects) and then hit your eardrums.

The Razer Makos address these desk-bounce and comb-filtering issues by using THX's innovative 'Ground Plane' and 'Slot Speaker' technologies.

THX Ground Plane works by facing the speaker downward and firing sound directly, and exclusively, onto the desk surface. This controls reflections and distributes crisp, room-filling sound with minimal interference from the desktop.

Room to move

This means that to use them properly, each satellite needs some clearance space all the way round. Busy, cluttered desks do not lend themselves at all well to that. But if you clear a space, you'll soon notice the difference.

At the same time, THX's Slot Speaker design is very different from most other speakers out there. Like the name implies, THX Slot Speakers distribute sound from a very narrow opening. This supposedly allows for better control and directionality of the sound image - creating wide, spacious sound stages.

It works too. Because the round nature of the speakers, and the fact that sound comes out all the way round, means no matter where you are in the room, the audio is fantastic. There's none of the 'spot lighting' that you get with most other 2.1 sets.

Bye bye spot-lighting

What this all results in is an incredibly bassy, crisp sound that doesn't degrade as you move around the room - not even behind the speakers themselves. The sub is reassuringly heavy and the overall audio performance is nothing short of fantastic.

As you'd expect from a 300W system, the volume can be cranked up to ear-burstingly loud volumes. And crucially, there's not a hint of distortion to be heard until you really do reach peek (absolutely deafening) volume.

And music isn't only what the Razer Mako speakers are good at. We played a selection of games including Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on the PC, and GTA IV on the PS3. The sound was fantastic and enhanced the gaming experience no end.

Gorgeous control pod

The control pod is also a marvel to behold. It's puck-shaped and curiously connects to the subwoofer using a serial port.

The great thing about it is that it's touch-sensitive, so you glide your finger over its surface to control volume, bass and to switch between two different audio inputs. Levels are displayed using neon-style LEDs on the puck, which looks incredibly cool on your desktop

Final verdict

The verdict here is that this is a breathtakingly brilliant speaker system. Razer's audio scientists co-developed this system with the masterminds at THX. And what they've produced is extraordinary.

The price is steep, yes. But with the extra money, you get extra power and extra quality. And for people who don't have room for a full-blown hi-fi set-up, this offers a perfect, compact option.

The sound these speakers create is smooth, creamy and incredibly hypnotic. For that reason, you've got to hear them to believe it. And if you buy them, there's no way you'll ever want to give them back.

Parrot DS1120 Bluetooth Speakers

James Rivington — 1210074894

It’s sometimes very hard to review a pair of low-end speakers. Weighing functionality against audio fidelity is an almost impossible task. And yet that’s what we’re having to do with the Parrot DS1120s.

On the one hand you’ve got a pair of speakers that barely scrape together 30W of power between them. On the other, you’ve got the convenience of being able to synchronize them with any Bluetooth media player in order to playback music. It’s a hard call to make.

So let’s get this out of the way right off the bat - the Parrot DS1120 speakers don’t sound great. If you’re used to a 500W hi-fi set-up in your living room, these are going to sound absolutely terrible. However, it’s all relative. And so if you’re more used to the small speakers on your digital radio or the stereo in the kitchen, these will sound pretty cool.

Swings and roundabouts

So now we’ve got that cleared up, we can move on to the DS1120’s main functionality – Bluetooth streaming. You can pair them with your phone, or your PC or even your MP3 player as long as it’s got built-in Bluetooth connectivity.

And as you’d expect from a Parrot product, it works pretty well, too. To test we used a Sony Ericsson K850i mobile phone. We tapped the Bluetooth button on the side of one of the speakers, and then ran a search on the phone, and the Parrot speakers appeared immediately. A quick tap of the ‘pair’ button later and the devices were all synched up and ready to go.

From then on, any music played on the phone is streamed directly to the speakers. And considering the small size and the low-power of the speakers, they don’t sound too bad. It’s all squashed into the midrange, there’s not much bass and the high-range cymbals are severely blunted, but in general the audio is clear and undistorted at low volumes.

Freedom of movement

One of the cool things about these speakers is that they aren’t tied together. You can plug them into different power sockets at different ends of the room and yet they’ll still synch up with each other and your device. That way you can create a bigger soundstage than your radio ever could.

The set also has a 3.5mm line-in port so you can plug a device directly into them (like your TV for instance) if your audio device doesn’t have Bluetooth.

So we’ve covered quality. And we’ve done functionality. So what about price? The price is where it all comes tumbling down, unfortunately. Because while these speakers are pretty cool, the £160 asking price seems rather steep.

Very expensive

For instance, you could buy a set of the brilliant Acoustic Energy Aego-M 2.1 speakers for £120. Those speakers leave the Parrots trailing far behind in the dust in terms of audio fidelity, and also have a total output (including subwoofer) of 90W – that’s three times the power of the Parrot DS1120.

So really, these speakers are only for you if Bluetooth compatibility is what you need as a primary concern. If you’ve got loads of music on your phone and you’d like to be able to listen in the kitchen without plugging anything in, these are for you.

However, if you’ve got a good ear and can tell when music is sounding a bit rubbish, and if Bluetooth isn’t the main concern, you should navigate a wide berth and go for something else (those Aego-M’s are highly recommended).

All in all then, not a bad product. But the price will keep these speakers from going mass market. Especially considering the fact that as audio devices, they’re pretty poor.

Saitek 3D 380 2.1 Speakers

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This mid-price speaker set from Saitek, just misses out on the 'quality' sector.

Despite having a fairly impressive sub-woofer the satellite speakers of the Saitek 3D 380 are a bit of a disappointment. They aren't particularly stable sat up on their end and get in the way when laid down on their bellies.

Compared to the solid feel of the sub they feel very much the budget speaker - quite plasticky and a little flimsy.

Punchy sound

Still, sound-wise they do cut it; giving a beefy punch of bass when needed with clear mid-range and top audio to boot.

Having the bass controller on the satellite speakers, rather than actually on the sub itself is also a plus; so when the missus is in bed, she won't be woken by the thrum of gunfire reverberating through the floor...

The Saitek 3D 380 2.1 speakers are by no means the best or cheapest 2.1 speaker set out there, and while they are evidently capable it's still worth shopping around.

LaCie FireWire Speakers

tech.co.uk staff — 1204479150

LaCie, like Apple, puts a premium on good design.

You don't have to look further than LaCie's Porsche-designed hard drives to see this in action. So when LaCie set about making these FireWire desktop speakers, it should come as no surprise that design luminary Neil Poulton was called in to do the job.

Poulton won last year's RedDot Design Award and has a history of acclaimed product designs going back decades.

The result is this rather industrial looking set of speakers, not a million miles away from a pair of ship's funnels perhaps. We found that the white and black form sits very well next to a Mac, particularly our iMacs, and that was enough to win us over design-wise.

But these speakers also stand out because they draw power via a FireWire 400 cable (included), which is very rare. The speakers can also run off a power adaptor, but this doesn't come in the box and needs to be bought separately.

The big bonus of this kind of set-up is that you end up with fewer cables on your desk. This clutter reduction is further aided by the fact that underneath each speaker there is a spool so you can wrap the cable around the base and avoid those trailing wires.

Because FireWire is the primary energy source, a bit of installation is required. One quirk is that music from older PowerPCs will be speeded up and garbled if you don't adjust the Audio Midi Setup first.

This is a simple enough task; under Utilities select Audio Midi Setup, select the LaCie speakers and change the Audio Output Format to 44100Hz using the pull-down menu. A step-by-step guide is available in a PDF document on LaCie's website.

When you have the speakers up and running we think you'll like the sound quality, particularly if you like playing detailed acoustic music. The sound is crisp, without becoming too bright.

This is a set of speakers that should appeal to people looking for a decent sound and not the bombastic drive that some other speakers can provide. A teenager hoping to terrify the neighbours might feel short changed.

The upward leaning angle of the speaker drivers means you get the best results if they are placed on the desktop right in front of you. This is the short range that the speakers were designed for. From the other side of the room, however, they can come across as much less detailed compared with bigger systems.

At this price, with this kind of performance, you are clearly paying a premium for the designer label.

Creative Xmod Wireless

tech.co.uk staff — 1204477458

There seems to be a modern obsession for enjoying media as far from the source as possible.

Slingboxes enable us to watch television from a Web café in Phuket and Orb gives us access to our MP3 files from darkest Siberia.

While the ambition of Creative's X-Mod Wireless doesn't stretch to trotting the globe, the ability to enjoy MP3s with the same polish on your living room sound system as on your PC's tinny tweeters is a noble-enough endeavour.

A tale of two parts

The Xmod Wireless comes with two parts. The transmitter acts as a USB soundcard, applying the X-Fi treatment to any sound that passes through it - compressed audio is upscaled to 24-bit and surround sound effects are added.

The improvement is most noticeable through headphones. The other half is the receiver, enabling you to listen at the other end of your house. Each comes with a separate remote and there's even an analogue input to accommodate an MP3 player.

The X-Fi effect adds a lot to compressed music. Furthermore, the ability to beam that wirelessly to your home entertainment system and still skip tracks, pause and so on is a boon for audiophiles. While raw digital recordings won't be lossless when broadcast, the Xmod wireless is the best option for quality and fidelity when streaming your PC's collection around the house.

The X-Fi's two units are both small and attractive too: the shiny outer shell and chunky volume knob shouldn't be an eyesore next to even the most Swedish of stereos.

Gripes are few. The price is perhaps a little steep and it'd be great to have a small display listing the track name on the receiver unit to aid the blind browsing.

Otherwise, the unique combination of a driverless X-Fi USB soundcard and high-quality streaming device is an excellent way to introduce your PC to your home entertainment kit.

Creative Gigaworks T40

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We're big fans of the Gigaworks T20 speaker set, and very familiar with it, so it was amusing when the T40 arrived having sprouted an extra midrange cone on each speaker, like some kind of sonic mutant.

And, as with the T20, the midrange is definitely where this set excels. General sound quality is excellent and music sounds rich and warm.

Doesn't pack enough punch

Unfortunately, the T40's problems are twofold.

First, even at the knock-down price of £75, you could get yourself a reasonable 2.1 (or even an average 5.1) set-up, which would add the much-needed bass punch that's missing from this kit. If you're a gamer, you'll definitely be hankering for a bit more rumble to those CoD4 explosions.

Second, there's simply not that much of a noticeable difference in aural quality between this pair and its less deformed, and cheaper, older brother.

For those two reasons, while this is a formidable stereo set and arguably the best of the 2.0 bunch, it's difficult to recommend a purchase.

Creative Gigaworks HD50

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Small and compact, these Creative Gigaworks HD50 speakers have a minimalist look.

Finished in white gloss with detachable black grills, they consist of the standard two satellites, one being an active terminal feeding sound across a cable to the dumb terminal.

In terms of connectivity, you can add a Creative docking station, while for other devices, including your laptop, there is a standard audio jack.

Decent sound quality

Other than the volume dial there are no controls, so if you want to alter the sound quality you'll have to use your laptop's software controls.

When it comes to sound quality we found them perfectly acceptable but, with no dedicated subwoofer, you'll notice the lack of bass, especially at high volume.

We tested them when watching a DVD and the sound quality was more than acceptable. However, for music playback they won't replace the speakers on your stereo any time soon.

Micropod SE Active

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Are you in the market for some speakers to bring all that fantastic Mac media potential up a notch? Then you might as well get a pair that look as good as these. Fun is the order of the day here with these retro-looking boxes from Scandya. They come in a range of primary colours and can be bought alone or added to other pairs and a Scandya bass bin to create a surround sound system.

These speakers have their own volume control and will take a signal directly from an iPod without you having to run that feed through a stereo amp. Whenever you see the word 'active' in a speaker's name that just means that they have an amplifier built in. We used them to boost the signal from a Mac and an iPod using the 3.5mm input jack.

High adrenalin sound

Over a recent holiday break we digitised a boatload of vinyl records onto a home network drive and used these speakers to monitor the results. A great deal of music went through them, as well as a wide range of mastering techniques. They also saw action as a part of a home video set-up, where they had to deal with the varying textures of film soundtracks, not least those tricky silent parts where any ghosts in the drivers are exposed.

Overall we liked them, particularly during Hollywood action scenes where everything is blowing up and exciting beats fill the score: they're pretty good at displaying this kind of adrenalin sound. Each unit sits on three alloy legs, so nothing is reverberated into the shelf or desk, which keeps things lively. Students into funky looks and bright, fast music will be happy with the overall package.

They are less good with more tender moments, and during silent bits they have an ever-so-slight background hum, barely audible but still present. Classical guitar, piano solos and other more refined sounds can sound a bit forced, when you really just want neutrality. Perhaps the red plastic shell, which is thin and two parts clipped together, reduces the speakers' refinement where a more thickly moulded single piece might have been better. Sound engineering is an art, but that would be our guess.

The reassuring weight and quality of the connection components, plus the decent delivery of bright music does provide some value. For the price tag, though, we would have liked to see a more rounded performance. Also on the downside, there's no remote and the volume doesn't go very loud at only 10W per channel. Perhaps best leave this set for the kids and get something more neutral for yourself.

Yamaha NX-U10 speakers

tech.co.uk staff — 1202135423

Laptop speakers are poor substitutes for external separates, so there is a growing market for small portable units, of which the Yamaha NX-U10 is the latest and most impressive.

With two 10-watt speakers, controlled by what Yamaha calls its 'Charged Capacitor Amplifier', the speakers are up to 10 times louder and clearer than standard speakers of this size. Equally, Yamaha's SR-Bass technology reproduces 'the deepest bass ever' in relation to the size of speaker.

You can choose whether to run it using four AAA batteries, or you can opt for external power via USB or mains power.

At £150 (inc. VAT), these are far from an everyday set of speakers, but the overall sound quality is better than anything we've heard before. You could even use them with any MP3 player.