GigaWorks T40 Series II 2.0 Multimedia Speaker System with BasXPort Technology, Black

My wife needed PC speakers that were clear so she could understand people in Zoom conference calls. She has some hearing loss and needs to accentuate certain frequencies. Her Win11 laptop speakers were anemic, as were her monitor speakers and several older pc speakers I had. She needed a set that was extremely frugal with her limited desktop real estate. She also needed at least a tone control. I could not believe how few pc speakers have tone controls these days. And navigating down multiple menu levels within the O/S to adjust tone is very inconvenient. Most speakers I found with a tone control were absolute pigs for the footprint they grabbed on the desktop. It was sticker shock when I found these speakers, but they ticked all the boxes, had good reviews, and I've been happy with Creative products in the past. These do a great job and she can understand everyone clearly. The two niggles I have with these speakers are: 1. After they power down (or sleep) after no audio for ten minutes, it takes several seconds for them to power back up after audio is detected. In my opinion, they should power up almost instantly. Due to the delay, she often misses the first few seconds of audio when she reviews a video or performs other tasks, and that frustrates her. The manual says you can just turn the off and on every time, but that requires quite a reach in her case and brings me to the next niggle. 2. To turn them off, on, adjust volume, and adjust tone controls, you must somehow grasp completely smooth knobs that are recessed so low into the front that there is hardly any of the knob to grasp. It is very uncomfortable to adjust the knobs. It's not a big deal because these are something you usually just set-and-forget. But, if you want to flip them off and on real quick to wake them up, you must deal with these almost ungraspable knobs. Overall, these are fantastic speakers. I am not deducting stars for these niggles. They have great fidelity, plenty of power, they are easy to set up, take up as little desktop space as possible, and they are good-looking. I would not hesitate to get them again.

I bought these speakers back in 2020, when they were ~$100 (oof). These speakers are still going strong and incredible for my needs. The sound quality is great and it has adjustable bass and treble. It is boomy - which I like but the sound is still very clear. I have an NYC unit thus can't have real subwoofers. These speakers provide ample loudness and even solid vibrations without it being a nuisance to neighbors. I highly recommend this for most people in tight spaces/apartments, especially if you want some surround sound without an actual bass. It also does get loud if you want but very adjustible. It was a fantastic value for the money when I bought it and its still going.

If half-stars were available, I would have rated this product 4 and a half stars. <EDIT> The review below is 3 years old now, and it still stands, but here is an update. For some reason the bass now sounds better. My best guess would be that through use (cone excursion) possibly the glue loosened up, an the cones are traveling much truer than they were when I got them, or at least it sounds that way. IOW, a break-in period. Kind of a long one, they didn't really sound better until after a year or so. But I made another improvement, which is I connected a subwoofer I had laying around. I had put this off because I could not find a practical way to do this, but I found a box that works as a crossover from Rolls (SX45, about $90) that made this work pretty well. I roll the Creatives off at 150 Hz, and the sub back in at 150 Hz, and it sounds much, much better, because now the Creatives are not trying to do all of that work in the lower octaves that they are probably too small to do efficiently. As I originally stated, sub-200 Hz is where the Creatives fall down, while above 200 Hz they sound really good. But the combination of this and the sub really works well. The Creatives by themselves sound OK when the volume is low, but now I can listen at a reasonable level and still get good bass response. <END EDIT> The box says "Premium, home theatre sound with booming bass". If you qualify that, it is exactly correct. And here's what I mean by "qualify": The word "premium" applies if you are comparing this system to conventional computer speaker systems (it is the best I've come across in that regard). The term "home theatre sound" applies if you are comparing this to a low-cost "home theatre in a box" system, usually costing much more. This system ranks high in that category sound-wise (although it is a 2.0 system and HTIB is usually 5.1), but of course it can't begin to compare to a conventional high-dollar home theatre system. Booming bass? You betcha, although that might not be what we have in mind. "Premium, home theatre sound" is rarely accompanied by "booming bass", simply because "booming" bass is not ever really high in quality, so there is a bit of a dichotomy there. But if booming bass is what you are after, this system has it in spades, even though the goals for bass response in home theatre are usually quite different. Read on for a further explanation. The Good: If we consider just frequencies above 200 Hz, these speakers perform as well as many expensive bookshelf speakers. That's right, they really do. The dome tweeter (big fan of those) creates very clear and detailed highs, and mid-highs. Mids and mid-lows are equally good. In fact, I can't recommend them any more enthusiastically because of how well they perform in this range above 200 Hz; they are on par with hifi speakers or even prosumer desktop recording studio speakers costing many times more than this. There is also a lot of headroom; you could really rock the house, sheer volume-wise. And again, Amazon beat everyone else on price, which is reasonable for what you get. The Not-So-Good: As we get into lower frequencies, the farther below 200 Hz we go, the worse these speakers perform. This is also a function of volume; at low volumes the bass is not half-bad, and better than what one might expect from computer speakers. But as the volume is raised to a conservative listening level, the bass becomes muddy, poorly imaged, and with distortion that almost makes turning down the bass until there is an absence of bass, the better choice. Again, there is plenty of headroom, at least as far as the amp is concerned, but the bass elements just can't keep up with it, and they start to double the frequency and become very unlistenable. Kick drums (the bass drum in a trap set) are not all that bad; there is a solid kick reproduction although it feels a bit squeezed and missing its natural lower frequencies. What is disappointing is how poorly bass guitar sounds. And that is pretty ugly, although most computer-class speakers do just as poor a job, if not worse. Being an Audio Engineer for a very long time, with a history of building, rebuilding, and doing sound reinforcement with speakers of all kinds, my best guess is that this poor imaging and muddiness is a product of porting the speakers, which works well with large speakers, not so much with tiny speakers (although comparatively speaking, these guys are gargantuan next to most computer speakers). This porting technique gives an efficiency that doubles the lower-frequency volume (for the same amount of amp)and extends the bass response about a half octave lower, but the cost is cone hangover and associated muddiness and imaging issues. As a matter of fact, you can cover the port with your hand, and while the bass level then drops about 3 dB, the bass quality increases dramatically. I cut some styrofoam "corks" and plugged the ports, and turned the bass up a notch, and under those conditions the bass was also greatly improved, so that means the "corks" will be permanent in my setup. This essentially turns the speakers into more of a bookshelf speaker as far as bass response is concerned, meaning that the bass is more "tight", and imaging improves and muddiness disappears. But not completely. You can't expect miracles or 2.1 bass response out of a computer-class 2.0 system regardless who makes it, simply because the physics of that precludes it. But corking the ports makes them sound much more reasonable, and less like listening to that moron with the raised-up pickup truck sitting next to you at the stoplight booming rap music until your iPhone vibrates out of its holster. Bottom line: So it is easy to see why the gentleman who favors classical music rated these speakers so poorly. These are the wrong speakers for critical hifi listening to classical, even though the response is very flat and musical in frequencies above 200 Hz. But if you are primarily a gamer, or you want good quality for common computer speaker tasks, these speakers are ideal. Perfect for background music. Maybe not so perfect for watching Transformers III at home theatre levels, or for full volume music listening, but that is not what they are designed as, and is really not to be their expected performance level. Still, they are absolutely keepers. They should perform better in smaller rooms, too (I auditioned them in a room that was 20x24x9). I may add a 3rd-party sub, which would very likely compensate nicely in the lower frequencies. I'll amend my review when I do, but my prediction is that adding a complementary sub would make these speakers pretty hard to beat, even in categories above computer speakers.

Dual base . Amazing sound clarity for this little speaker. Even though price is little high it’s worth every paise.. better than 2.1 speakers as it has dual base and we can hear mid tones clearly

A little background: I have gone through a lot of speakers over the years for various reasons (upgrades, speakers stop working, damaged drivers). Once I got my first 2.1 set I knew I always wanted a sub-woofer in all my speaker sets. But as I upgraded into larger speakers over the years, my taste in music changed to those tunes that employed heavy bass and beats. Now that I listen to these speakers, I sort of realize why. Most 2.1 PC speakers are enjoyable for many types of music, movies and games (explosions). But, if you want to enjoy an immersive audio experience, you need to turn the volume up. At which point the bass becomes overpowering and disturbing to (neighbours or other people living in the house). REASON for 2.0: The fact that I enjoy loud music and the general lack of space in my room pushed me into looking for quality 2.0 speakers. I had heard a Bose audio dock and couple of other (premium) smallish speakers without subs throw a descent amount of bass. So I figured why not? After a little research, I picked these up. Research: [...] BUILD: Awesome. PROS : They are heavy for just satellites. So there seems to be a good amp(s) and quality drivers in there. The controls are just perfect (although a little smooth to grip properly). Bass, Treble and volume - Brilliant classic controls. The speakers themselves don't take a lot of space on the table. There is a snug-fitting grill on the front that is easily removable. Those orangish-yellow cones look even better in real. There is a power adapter with a reasonable length cable on it. The cable connecting the two speakers are long enough for two wide screen monitors. Overall build feels a thousand bucks. :) CONS (Not really): These are quite tall (you may read that mentioned often). Its not tall in a bad way, just oddly tall :P AUDIO: immersive and full-bodied PROS: The speakers have a very flat response and most music sounds quite natural. I wouldn't really consider them studio monitors but they come close. The mid's and treble's are especially detailed. I'm just amazed at the clarity the speakers provide. I was able to enjoy songs I hadn't heard in a long time and could hear nuances and instruments in the background. You know you have good speakers when you enjoy music like that. At 32 Watts the speakers aren't exceptionally loud. However, they are loud enough to fill a room and more than loud enough if you are sitting in front of them. Even at the max volume, there is surprisingly minimal distortion. The specs mention a frequency response starting at 50HZ. Not so sure about that, but it can deliver good audible bass (100Hz) with a little tweaking. Using the sound-card's EQ settings, I increase the bass at around 100HZ mark by a few decibels. The bass/treble controls on the speakers have a broader range and aren't as specific as a proper equalizer. However, they still do a great job and I use them on the fly when required. Also to note the, volume/bass/treble controls apply to headphones connected to the speakers as well (which is rare and awesome) CONS : If you have used 2.1's before, you will definitely find the earth shaking bass missing. There is no sub! If you want to shake the floor, get something else. SUMMARY: I bought them at $109 on sale and I feel like that was a steal ! I have had 200 Watt 2.1 systems which I enjoyed for other reasons (parties). This speaker however, I have been enjoying it personally ! If you are looking for 2.0 systems, i think they are good buy no matter what.

Bocinas de un tamaño considerable, pero debido a sus 2 driver por bocinas se pueden lograr una sonido fuerte y sin mucha distorción. Los bajos se perciben mas profundo gracias al diseño de las mismas bocinas sin embargo los medios se llegan a perder un poco, sin embargo esto no supone un problema para disfrutar de la musica o sonido a un muy buen nivel de volumen, ademas debido a su control de bajos y tremble se puede regular para tener un sonido nitido la mayoria de las veces Su nivel de volumen bastante aceptable, lo destacable es su desempeño con un DAC son capaces de soportar salidas altas y amplificadas aunque de esta manera se puede acentuar el problema en los medios, la potencia y claridad que ofrecen son muy buenas sorprendetemente los bajos no distorcionan mucho con el sonido amplificado por el DAC

gr8 speakers and sound is perfect for the PC

Sinceramente, no me ha convencido el sonido. Lo siento