Dad, can you turn the music down please? (Creative Gigaworks T20)

Member Name: paulhanton

Product:	Creative Gigaworks T20
Date:	29/12/08 (275 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great sound, great looking.

Disadvantages: First set were faulty.

Creative GigaWorks T20

PC/MP3 Speaker System

I really, really needed a new pair of speakers for my iTunes computer, yes, I have a PC just for iTunes. The old speakers that I had were really not up to the job anymore and I did not want a large set of speakers as I have some Mission speakers in the living room. I wanted a decent set of PC speakers, under £100 that look good and sound great in a reasonably small room.

So, off to PC World I went after spending some time on the website I hasten to add, as well as looking at reviews of various speakers.

Anyway, I parted with my £48 which I thought was quite reasonable and rushed home with the rather heavy small box (it was heavy as the plug and mains adapter are heavy, the speakers are okay in weight).


~~~Looks~~~

The picture pretty much shows the looks which I think are pretty damn cool. It does not show the black cloth/mesh speaker covers that are detachable from the front which means you can have the speakers showing or not, I choose not too, as it saves on cleaning, lol).

The gun metal grey style facia is understated as are the brushed aluminium switches for volume, bass and treble control.

Theses speakers are sleek and unobtrusive, they look like they are more expensive than they are, my only (picky) complaint is that the blue 'on' light is blindingly bright and does not 'fit' with the colour scheme, I would have preferred a yellow or red light.


~~~Features~~~

As well as having a headset/earplugs socket on the front of the speakers there is also a nifty little socket to plug in (the adapter wire comes in the box) and MP3 player or iPod, so actually you can plug these speakers into ay plug, not just a PC, and use the iPod with them.

There is no subwoofer and apparently it isn't needed as there is a BasXPort (don't ask me) which really does kick out some bass, though I rarely use it, I'm not a big bass fan. The 'output' is 14Watts per channel (two channels = 28watts), which means in a small to medium size room.....boom, boom, shake the room.

There is also a TV adapter so you could, if wanted, set these speakers up with a TV, good for gaming methinks, though I have not used this option.

Oh, and a two year warranty.


~~~Set up and ease of use~~~

Here lies a tale of woe, for after setting them up on my PC....nothing.....now I am not dim when it comes to computers, however, thinking it may have been me, I unconnected the speakers and rushed downstairs to try them on another PC.......nothing. From this I concluded that the speakers and not I nor my PC's were faulty, and drove back to PC World, receipt in hand.

After queuing to see someone, I was sent to the 'tech desk' to another queue, where a rather unhelpful guy asked me questions like:

"Did you plug them in?"

"Did you put the green adaptor in the green adapter socket on the back of your PC?"

After asking me about 20 such daft questions he decided he would 'test' the speakers to show me that they were fine.....oops, egg on face moment coming or so I thought......well it was, only, not for me....hah....they were faulty....Mr Tech Guy expressed surprise, and I really helped matters by saying:

"Doh, and I thought it was me being thick.....guess I was right after all, but hey, please don't apologise, we can all get it wrong sometimes"

So after offering me a refund or another set of speakers, which I took, I journeyed the three miles back home and set about setting them up again.

Bingo!!


~~~Once working~~~

The sound is pretty spectacular in a small room I must say. I mean, my teenage son came upstairs and told me to turn them down or close the door...how's that for irony?

Seriously, I spent a lot of time, hours actually, trying different genres of music, different equalizer settings on iTunes and different speaker positions, as well as room settings (not the speakers, but the audio manager system I have on my PC).

At the lower volume end of things they are sprightly and crisp sounding, absolutely no background noise and I have played really quiet classical pieces to detect any noise which you often get with speakers, a kind of low level buzz....nothing.

At the top end of the volume settings, I played some Public Enemy, Linkin Park, Clash and System of a Down.....perfect, no distortion, every note and every noise very clear, very loud and very listenable.


~~~Finally~~~

Creative, along with Logitech are fast becoming 'The' names in PC accessories and it is easy to see why.

* Sub £50

* Lots of useful Features

* Good looking

* Great sound

Not much more one could ask for, I will put it down to bad luck, or shoddy handling that the first pair were faulty, I have no complaints with these once working, at all.

I cannot comment on reliabilty at this stage as they are too new, though I will update this review in a few months, the fact that they have a two year warranty suggests that they will be fine.

Summary: Creative PC Speakers.

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