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The
Amp :::...
A
bank of six ST Micro 18watt TDA2030A amps drive the speakers.
These have a maximum output of around 20watts under certain
conditions giving a total of around 120watts, suggesting
the rating of 90watts total for the system may be accurate
but is more likely to be slightly less.
Here
you can see how free and unrestrained the wiring is. Even
a cable tie would help here!
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The
Subwoofer - Internal Electronics
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The
Subwoofer - Internal Electronics
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The
Subwoofer - Internal Electronics
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The
transformer looks reasonable meaty but unless I'm reading
it wrong it says 12 volts at 2/2.5 amps which means a maximum
system power of just 30 watts total?
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The
Subwoofer - Transformer
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In
Use:::...
Connecting
everything up was the same as you'll encounter with pretty
much any multiple speaker system. Ample wire is supplied
for the two rear satellites making placement simpler. The
three supplied stereo jack to dual phono cables are used
to connect the front, surround and centre/bass channels.
There are no phono-phono cables so you'll need to acquire
these for connection to most DVD players.
For
some reason I had to reverse the center and Sub channels
from my motherboard but that might be a peculiarity of the
chip used.
I
listened to a variety of music, played several games from
Doom3 and Far Cry to the 3DMark05 demo and watched portions
of various film genres and to be honest these little speakers
performed admirably well. They're in no way suitable for
home theater use in anything other than a small room or
bedsit, and compared to their much more expensive brethren
they have a quite feeble upper volume level, but with a
little twiddling of the volume and tone knobs you can actually
coax them to let go a rather full and rich sound.
Bass
levels were good up to about quarter power though, as I
suspected, there was definite vibration from the cabinet,
shortly followed by distortion as the level hit the half
way mark, but slap it in a corner or near a wall and it
does rather well with its weedy 5" cone with some fairly
tight bass that's actually worth having. The problem with
having controls on the Sub is that it makes this kind of
placement inconvenient though.
Turn
the bass volume and you realise how limited the satellites
are in the lower-mid frequencies which very badly need the
sub for support.
The
satellites were capable of good volume but had a very compressed
frequency range and really needed the wadding to kill resonance
but in tandem with the Sub the overall effect was quite
pleasing and what they lack individually they scrape back
by being fairly well balanced as a system.
Conclusion
The
3DVelocity 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After discussing
this concept with users as well as companies and vendors
we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that where necessary
we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions Concept'
to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware we
review. As the needs of the more experienced users and enthusiasts
have increased, it has become more difficult to factor in
all the aspects that such a user would find important, while
also being fair to products that may lack these high end
"bonus" capabilities but which still represent
a very good buy for the more traditional and more prevalent
mainstream user. The two catergories we've used are:
The
Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put
price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or
warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates
beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may
be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their
needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast,
in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently
and reliably within their advertised parameters.
The
Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things
that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely
to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange
for some measure of performance or functionality beyond
its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard
may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of
overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large
heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered
acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in
return.
The
Mainstream User ~
Here's
where it gets difficult! Having recently used Creative's
GigaWorks speakers and owning a set of Logitech Z560s, the
limitations of these speakers is glaringly obvious, but
that's not the comparison I need to make. The bottom line
is that these sound every bit as good as anything I've listened
to at a similar price but offer generally better looks and
good quality.
If
you don't have such a highly trained musical ear that you
can listen to a clarinet solo and know what the player had
for dinner, and you're not someone who wants complaints
from your neighbours over the volume, despite the fact you
live in a detached house in its own grounds, these are a
worthy choice.
The
Enthusiast ~
If
your criteria is for a compact speaker set with a compact
sound for a compact space these are certainly worth a look.
They're stylish, well
made and inexpensive, and with a a little effort and not
too much cash many of the minor glitches could be rectified.
They're
not going to set your pulse racing or put your ornaments
in mortal danger of rattling off shelves but they are surprisingly
rich and mellow and capable of pleasing results with careful
placement and a little knob-twiddling.
Good
all-round speakers at a good all-round price.
We're
always looking for ways to make our reviews fairer. A Right
To Reply gives the manufacturer or supplier of the product
being reviewed a chance to make public comments on what
we've said. They can explain perhaps why they've done the
things we were unhappy with or blow their own trumpet over
the things we loved. It's easy for us to pick a product
apart but sometimes things are done a certain way for very
specific reasons.
Should
Mercury decide to exercise their "Right To Reply",
we'll publish their comments below:
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