I think I bought these speakers primarily to use with my laptop, however, having also bought a television beforehand, I ended up connecting and positioning them to be used with the telly. I have also connected an MP3 player to them from time to time and even my radio. I fancied the idea of better quality sound as my laptop volume and sound quality wasn't the best.

I got these for £35 on Amazon, which to me now is a heck of a lot of money, but as usual I paid with my gift vouchers so didn't really feel it. I've had them for around two years now with a reasonable enough amount of use now to talk about them.

Size and appearance

There are three speakers, the left, right and a slightly larger bass booster (subwoofer). Conveniently these fitted well within the slightly-oversized-for-a-bedroom TV unit I'd nabbed from the garage. Originally I'd hoped to spread them out more but even though the wires are long they are not that long and I'd really need to think about putting them under the floors or something. As they are in three parts with wires, these speakers are not designed to be portable and I don't look forward to moving them. However, I only use them in my room and I can just move the device I want to connect to it instead, so for me this is not a problem. It surprises me to look again at the box they came in, which actually looks rather small!

The speakers do look pretty much like you would expect from the pictures, all black, sleek and modern. I'm still not sure if I like the shape of the smaller speakers or the glossy fronts, but the bass looks very good and I like the weight of it. The smaller ones are lighter, partly due to size but also different materials - the bass has some kind of chip wood while the speakers are made of lighter plastic materials. My room is terribly dusty at the moment however, due to moving stuff, and the dust shows up quite obviously, particularly on the shiny surfaces of the two smaller speakers. I have to clean them very regularly and there are always specks to be seen.

Manual?

I really don't think a manual is needed for these speakers as to me they are pretty self-explanatory, although I realise we take some technical knowledge for granted. There is a quick start guide that can be used as a good reference for the most common things you would need to know and as it is very user friendly, with decent pictures and clear headings, it is easy to get to the information you need.

Putting it together

There are quite a few wires with these speakers and those will need to be tidied up. Obviously with so many wires it can get a little tricky but I did set these up by myself. What goes where is colour-coded, hence I didn't really need the manual to get it set up, but if in doubt I'd recommend double checking.

The power cord connects to the bass, which was a little annoying for me as this is put away in a lower (backless) cupboard and I have to clamber around it to check if it is connected properly. More my fault is the fact I have the TV wire and DVD player wires coming out the back and I'm not always sure whether I've plugged the right one in! I don't recommend you do this as it is not safe obviously so it is worth using ties or something and making sure the area is well vented, although these speakers don't really give off a noticeable amount of heat if combined with other devices it could get hot.

Connecting devices

It's already clear that these speakers can be used with a variety of devices and that is the beauty of them for me. The main way I connect them is with the wire, which is an old style auxiliary, rather than USB. To be honest I prefer this as it doesn't end up taking up a USB port, I still think more devices have auxiliary inputs and to be honest I'm not the biggest fans of the USB. It was designed very badly.

You can also plug an auxiliary input into the speakers via a connection on the side of one of the small speakers. I wonder if this would be useful for a bit of the old karaoke, but I don't own a microphone and am trying not to get evicted.

I don't really get why, but there is a connection for you to plug your headphones into the speakers. I've never used this and I can't see a situation where I would.

Sound Quality

There are separate volume dials on the bass and one of the smaller speakers. I like to adjust both slightly depending on what I'm doing, but usually I keep the bass a little low to avoid upsetting anyone. The quality on reasonable volumes is fantastic, and about as good on higher volumes (rarely used); I don't get that horrible scratchy sound of a speaker that's taking more noise than it can handle, which you would with smaller speakers. The sound can go a lot higher than I put it, but I'm respectful of neighbours and frankly I don't think a speaker should be that loud. It's bad for your health and other people's.

The bass gives the sound more depth and you can actually feel it when you turn it up a little. My storage cupboard for the bass has glass doors and I always make sure they are open first! If you like your music, these are probably a reasonably priced option and would be a house party hit, but again, think of the neighbours!

The clarity is not quite as good as I've heard on other speakers and can seem muffled, especially combined with bass, but in comparison to what I did have, it is brilliant and I'm happy with it. If you turn the bass right down and just use the speakers it is even better. I sometimes use them to help with watching television if there are worthwhile sound effects but the quality is even better for music.

Durability

These speakers are still doing well for me today. Apart from dust and the smaller ones being knocked off the table by accident, however, they haven't exactly had to handle much. Really, they shouldn't. Take good care of them and they will last. The left speaker has been banged about a bit and this makes cringe-worthy noises, but so far it has remained intact. There are no scratches or surface cracks either.

Warranty

The warranty for this product is two years. I've never had any problems with it so have not needed to get in touch. That period has, of course, just run out for me, so if they suddenly die in the next couple of months I will be back to this review! (I'm a little cynical these days)

Conclusion

I do think the price I paid for these speakers was a bit on the high side, however I've had two good years of quality sound out of them and they are still working as well as they did when I first bought them. They were physically a little tricky to set up but perhaps that's the fun in it too. They do need a lot of cleaning for the dust-conscious, but apart from that, once you have them nicely set up they work great. The sound quality is very good and they can be used on most devices, so for this they get my vote.