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Creative Inspire 4.1 4400
by alexandjef
When me and my girlfriend moved in together I was quick to discover she was almost allergic to computers. She'd gone 26 years without really using one, had no real intention of using one and wasn't really bothered. I was pretty surprised then when she unpacked a box with a computer in and various bits of computer paraphernalia - ... including these speakers. Apparently it was left to her by someone and she never used it, just had it boxed up for years - and I mean years. I've not looked inside it, but I'm fairly its innards are comprised of cogs and pistons. Anyway, the speakers were a pretty nice find so after about an hour of unravelling the various wires I plugged them in - and I've been using them ever since
Creative create PC audio equipment and have for years. 1981 to be precise, so they are not new to the market, and these speakers and others I've used are testament to the fact they know their craft.
Soundwise, there is a lot to shout about. They are 4.1 meaning they are capable of 4 channels - but you need to be using a compatible product. An audio compatible product such as a soundcard that is capable or output on a TV or cinema system is what this sort of speaker set up designed for. You will get sound from it if you plug them into anything, an MP3 player, Phone - it will work, but not make use of the separate channels.
I've used this on both compatible and non compatible products and the sound is just excellent - with the boon to these being the volume and real weight being the bass. The set up has 4 small PC speakers, a Subwoofer and a small volume control that also doubles as an on/off switch. When I first set these up it was to simply have some speakers in my kitchen with the audio source being my phone, and they worked great as they are loud. Super loud. Its almost a little shocking how much the tiny speakers, that will fit comfortable in your hand, will kick out. When you have all 4 speakers at once its capable of being unnecessarily loud. At about 1/2 volume is getting read to go out volume, 2/3 is house party territory and full will no doubt be the first step to an ASBO.
I like bass too. I listen to a lot of dance music of various types and a good bass output is important. Something you can feel as well as hear - but not distorted. You don't get distortion with this sub - it pumps out a heart warm bass that doesn't crunch over the treble. What even better is the sub has an independent control on the back to turn up or down to suit what your listening too. I like to crank the bass up for dub and reggae - as there isn't not much else in the mix, and turn it down a little for drum and bass and house when there is much more in the mix.
You can hear everything in the mix with these and its a clear and clean sound - sounding great with whatever your listening too. Be it music, TV or games - they sound good even at increased volumes not suffering any distortion. I've only had them at full whack a few times just to test how loud they go, and only just long enough to tell if they sounded fine or not - which they did.
I've mentioned the bass control - it also has a volume control that is connected via a separate wire to the speakers meaning you can set the speakers up and control for a distance. Its a little bit of a pain them being wired, as everything is wireless these days but these were made in 2003, so I'll forgive that. One issue I have with the volume control however is just how sensitive it is. Knock it a tiny bit and it goes up a lot. I was using these speakers while watching films in bed, and I'd often turn it up a little to much - no doubt annoying the neighbors. What is handy though is these have a small green light on to indicate on or off - and when you turn the volume right down it clicks off.
Using it with a TV or PC is really nice, as you can take advantage of the 4.1 - and gives gaming a lot of extra ooomph, as well as bringing films to life a little more. Its everything you'd expect from separate speakers, giving you a little of that home cinema experience.
A little downside with these though is the masses and masses of wires. I've moved them around a lot and its a lot of unplugging and plugging back in and tangling up and lots of things in knots. The wires are quite long which is good for setting them up at a distance, but a bit of a chore setting them up non-the-less.
These are an old product, and as such they are scarce in terms of both features and how available they are. As I mentioned they are not wireless and also have a very analogue feel to them with some clunky buttons and dials. This though hints to why I like them - they just feel sturdy. They are robust and feel tough, in build and design. They are not that nice to look at but have lasted through lots of use in the past year and are nearly ten years old. Plus, they do their job and still sound great.
I like things that do their job and last - and would thoroughly recommend these, but thats easier said than done. Being 10 years old they are not readily available with a few kicking about on ebay and quite a few on second hand sites online. At the time of writing there were non available on Amazon, but some on Gumtree and Ebay going for as little as....FREE!
This is a product you are likely to come across if your looking around some second hand shops of perusing the internet, rather than seek out - but are worth picking up when you do - if an extra pair of speakers if something you are looking for or to replace a bog standard pair of PC speakers with something much more powerful, especially if they keep their minimal price. I say if you see them, snap them up
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Trust 2.1 Speaker Set SP-3150
by PlaysNicely
This review is on the speaker set which we have in our living room. To get this review in the right context, you need to know that we don't have a TV so all of our entertainment (DVDs, music etc) is played on the laptop, with the sound being played through this speaker system. Therefore, we not only rely on this set for improved sound ... quality of our audio / visual (as everyone knows that laptop speakers are not the best) but we also give this speaker set very regular use - daily in most instances I should say.
This set is my husband's set (my own Logitech speaker set is in the dining room) and this Trust set came to us because he purchased it for his eldest daughter when she went off to uni. Interestingly, she did not get on with it - could not get it to work properly with her laptop set up. As a gift, he swapped it for something else for her, but he kept this set to use with his PC and since we've been together we have used it with our laptop, as described above and it has it worked fine for us, so this review is on how we have found this set in daily use.
*** What it is ***
This is a three item set:
* A wooden sub-woofer, HWD: 19.5; 16; 18.5 cm (approx) which houses all of the controls. Power output 15 watts.
* Two speakers, HWD: 9; 8;8 cm (approx) - slightly abstract cubes!
* The usual input / output wires are attached to the wooden control box
* All items are black and all speakers / box have four little rubber feet at their bases to help stability and to avoid marks on your furniture.
* All items could be wall mounted if needed and the whole thing is very quick to set up and start using!
*** How we have found it ***
* Overall this has been a very useful and functional speaker set. Sound quality is good and the volume control (at the front of the control box) has a wide range which, when cranking it up, is surprisingly powerful without too much compromise on quality. The volume is easy to adjust, as the control works on a rotation, you can adjust it with just one finger if you wish and still with some surprising precision once you become familiar with the levels of sound output that work for your room!
* The set could easily be used as part of a desktop arrangement with PC / laptop as the speakers themselves are small but powerful and quite easy to hide away amongst shelves or a desk area. However, the control box is obviously more chunky and not so easy to stow away. However, this chunky aspect does have the advantage of making the unit feel substantial and stable and therefore quite durable. We keep the control box on a bookshelf where it works fine and appears quite discreet ... until you need to turn it all on, then it becomes a bit of a pain. Whilst the volume control is placed at the front of the box, for easy change of volume, and there's a blue LED light at the front of the box to indicate that the set is switched on, the actual on / off switch is at the back of the box. This means that you have to pull it forwards each time to turn it on / off. There's probably a design reason for this, but really it would be much better if the on / off switch was at the front of the box - even more so if you were using this speaker set for a desktop PC, where space is usually even more limited and you want to be able to tuck things away without pulling them out again each time you want to switch on!
* One more little foible with this set is that I find that it hums continually when plugged in and the power's on - even if the control box itself is switched off. Due to having ear troubles, I find this hum quite loud and irritating, so I have to keep the unit unplugged if I'm in the room and not using the speakers. Overall, turning it off at the plug is a better process for us anyway as switching it on / off at the plug is easier than switching it on / off at the box (see above) but if you're wanting to use this speaker set around your PC and your plugs are fairly inaccessible once set up, then you might want to bear this in mind.
* I do like the fact that all wires are black and we have minimal intrusion from wires with this set - in that respect, as well as sound quality, this speaker set is highly recommendable. However, do bear in mind that we have this set on shelves where the wires can be tucked away behind books etc - I'm not so sure the hidden wire look would be so easy to achieve if you wall-mounted this set, which the blurb that comes with it suggests you can!
Although I do prefer our other set of speakers, I would still recommend this Trust speaker set because it is currently available for around £12, which is great value for the quality of the system itself as well as the sound quality that you get from it - even if it does hum to itself when you're not using it! The reason I've deducted a star in my rating is because of the inconvenient location of the on / off switch, rather than anything to do with the quality of the output, which I guess is the main reason you'd want to buy a set of speakers!
Finally, my husband paid a bit more than £12 for this set because it was purchased more than four years ago, but given the use that this set has had since it's been with us (we've been married two years come Valentine's!), we have had brilliant value for money from it on a cost-per-use basis!
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