Get Dolby Surround Sound on your desktop! (Creative Desktop Theatre DTT2200)

Member Name: charliebrown

Product:	Creative Desktop Theatre DTT2200
Date:	24/08/01 (2206 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great value for a 6 speaker system, Wonderful sound, Good build quality and oodles of cabling

Disadvantages: Subwoofer a little keen - drowns out other speakers if not careful, Need a good soundcard which can deliver 6 channels of sound

Brought to you by Creative, the makers of soundcards and other computer equipment, and in collaboration with Cambridge Soundworks, the Desktop Theatre DTT2200 is just what it says: a set of speakers to recreate cinema sound from your computer. You get a set of 5 speakers, and a subwoofer which provides amplification for all the other speakers. The speakers come in black finish and are very compact on your desktop, being a cube shape and around 2 1/2 inches square in size. But are these speakers any good at creating cinema sound from your computer?

Well, the short answer is yes ... if ...! And the ifs are as follows:
These speakers will produce cinema sound if:
1. You sit close to the speakers, as you would sit close to the monitor. Don’t expect to put a DVD on the computer, sit well back at the other end of the room and expect these speakers to project loud enough for that! But given most monitors are 17" anyway, you will want to sit fairly close to the monitor anyway.
2. You have a DVD player which will decode the Dolby Digital soundtrack from a DVD player into the separate channels, and a soundcard that supports 6 channels of sound. Alternatively, you can purchase a soundcard, such as Creative Live Player 5.1, which will do the decoding for you.
3. You have a DVD player, as Video CDs do not contain the information required for Dolby Digital.

The 6 speakers provided act as the front left and right, rear left and right, and centre channel (which sits in the middle of your desktop and handles most of the dialogue in a soundtrack) and a subwoofer, which is a big black box ideally sitting on the floor in a corner. This may not be practical, as the subwoofer also acts as the amplifier for the other speakers. However, one great advantage of this speaker set is the ease of setting up.

Each of the three front speakers (centre, front left and front right) come with 3m of speaker cable to attach to the subwoofer, thus all
owing placement at quite a distance from each other. The rear two speakers come with 5m of cabling, which is generous. The advantage is, of course, you can spread the speakers around the room, forming a square with the front left and right, and rear left and right, thus allowing more spacious sound. The disadvantage is that most people will sit at their computer desks, and need the speakers quite close to them, thus leaving you with masses of unwanted cabling under the desk! Given that the speakers are only tiny and generate only 5watts per channel, there is little point in spreading the speakers too far away.

The speakers come with natty little stands which slide into the speaker, and have padded feet making them stable and well angled for most tables. You also get a monitor stand if you wish to balance the centre speaker on the top of your monitor, but given that the best sound comes from having the front three speakers on a level with each other, you will probably find it better to place the centre on the desk in front of the monitor. You even get little stickers to stick onto the back of the speakers, and onto the cabling identifying which speaker it is, so you will make no mistakes in plugging your speakers in.

Then it is a simple case of plugging the (huge!) power supply into the subwoofer, and using the cable provided to plug the subwoofer into the soundcard of your computer. You can use the cable to create 2-channel, 4-channel, or 5.1 channels, depending on your card, but there is little point buying this speaker set if you have anything less than 4-channel output form your soundcard.

Now for the sound… bloody good! For the size of the speakers that is! The speakers do an excellent job of producing clear sound, both from games and films and music, and the sound is clear, smooth and not at all tinny or over-trebled. The sound is great given the size and limitations of the speakers. But remember, they are only 5watts (the subw
oofer is 17 watts), so you aren’t going to blast the neighbours out of bed. But, if like me you have your computer in a small room, and you have positioned the speakers close to you, it is definitely loud enough! And the positioning of sound effects in a DVD film is absolutely spot on, better than the full size Dolby Digital set-up downstairs!! The only disadvantage is a tendency for the subwoofer to drown out the clarity of the other speakers, but there is a dial to adjust the bass output from the subwoofer, so just make sure you have this not past half way!

And if all this wasn’t enough to liven up your computer experience, you get a rather natty remote control to sit on your desk and control it all from! I would certainly recommend this speaker system as a great way of bringing surround sound, for both games, music and movies, into your office. Like a breath of fresh air for your computer!

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