[quote]@ Frag, I have never cared for Creative's speakers either. They're not as atrocious as their sound cards but they still leave a lot to be desired to me. Trust me, I've done a blind comparison with an audiophile friend of mine and he thinks the Z-5500s sound great.
I'm with you on anything they make other than the original (S700/S750)) Gigaworks or Gigaworks 2.0 T series, which some here have and swear by, but the S7## I did compare in the same store alongside the Z5500s and the S7## is not only better sounding to me, but has more appropriate wattage and longer lasting controls.
To a large degree speakers are personal preference of course, those not liking Ti tweets are probably not going to like them. They don't have an overly bright sound though because the domes are surrounded well with damping material. The main thing that sold me though was the noticeably tighter and more accurate bass.
I've also noticed the Z5500s have a bit of hiss in the center channel. Another thing some don't realize about the Creative Gigaworks, esp the S7## series, is they get better with age. There is a bit of a break in period where they become a bit more natural sounding. When it comes right down to it, you can't build a speaker set at lower price point with more features (hardware decoding) and have it be as good in sound quality. There's going to be some shortcuts somewhere, namely lack of tweeters and skimping on sub wattage, which can make them boomy and short in lifespan.
I don't think you've done much comparing concerning the Z5500 and S7## Gigaworks if you think they don't have that much wattage to the 8" sub. Anyone that knows quality subs knows you're far more likely to hurt them with a lack of proper wattage than too much. The Z5500's 188 watts to their 10" sub is part of the reason I'm sure that they aren't as tight sounding, though I doubt the speaker magnet, voice coil, or cabinet is as robust either considering what they charge for the features they include.
I have my PC in my living room, which is connected via an open wall to my kitchen and entry way of my apartment. There's no way I'm going to use a sub that isn't the tightest I can find in my price range with that much space for the bass frequencies to fill. That would be asking for premature failure.
Here's where you really get off track though. Just because you picked out an Energy sub doesn't mean it's going to be built with as much wattage nor does wattage itself tell the whole story of a sub. Energy is also not as audiophile a brand as you make it out to be. They were common in Good Guys stores, a chain that had abysmal sales staff that liked to exaggerate heavily to make a sale. Many of their stores have gone out of business. In fact I'm not sure they're even around at all anymore.
I understand that some are going to have their preferences, but for you to mock the facts I've given about the Gigaworks as if fallacy clearly indicates you are labeling everything Creative makes as bad merely for their sound card reputation and that you haven't in fact done much research on the speakers I'm referring to. In fact they aren't even made by Creative, they're made for them by Cambridge SoundWorks, and that's where the specs come from.
If you're good with yours fine, but I think you need to do more digging before you assume the S700s are advertised fraudulently. Besides that, there's a lot more to a sub's low frequency output than merely it's cone size as well. Much of the low frequency a sub puts out is via a well made tuned port if they're engineered efficiently as most PC speaker sets at a price point need to be.
Okay, you're making up shit about my speakers. Tell me how I'm supposed to not take offense to that. It's like someone who's never seen my car or anything is saying "Hey, your car runs like shit and it's no good and my car is much better" all based on some poor misinformed bullshit you found on some forum or made up. That's all it is, complete 100% bullshit. My analog knob works fine, my speakers have no hiss, there is no hum, they are not flawed, there is NOTHING wrong with them. Stop making up this crock of shit that you seem to be finding all this stuff from - Logitech made better speakers than Creative. Maybe you don't want to believe it but don't make up shit about the thing you don't like because you don't like it.
I dislike Bose due to their characteristic sounds, but I'm not going to say stuff like "Bose speakers hum when you aren't playing sounds because they use low quality components that allow AC hum to get in and that makes them bad". I just made that up, but you get my point. This is what you're doing, or what the people you heard it from are doing. The same way people who love the 360/PS3 will make up shit about the other because they like what they have better. I don't like the sound produced by Bose speakers but one flaw I will say is factual in base is the fact their DVD Lifestyle systems regularly have problems with the DVD drive on them not working. That's it though, nothing else other than lower quality sound I don't like. You're not just saying my speakers sound lower quality, you're saying they're built like shit and use cheap components and are worthless (Whether you intend to or not, that's how I'm perceiving it).
You're sure the subwoofer isn't as tight sounding even though you haven't personally heard it? Okay, in the audio world you can't say SHIT about ANYTHING you haven't heard in person. Credibility thrown out the window with that statement. Obviously you don't have high demand for quality bass if an 8" sub satisfies you in a larger room. Unless you're using that sub I can't remember the name of, it's not gonna happen.
And Energy isn't a "good enough" brand for you? Come on, you telling me Energy isn't so great is like someone with a Toyota telling the guy with his BMW his car isn't as good as his Toyota. Energy is an audiophile brand. If I come up to random strangers and say "Hey, have you heard of Energy?" most aren't going to know what it is. Generally audiophile equipment is less well known unless it's something like Denon, H/K, etc. with mass market.
You have the biggest error in perception of how I judge those speakers. I have heard Creative speakers. No, not those and I'm not judging the quality of their sound - that I don't know of. It might be fine. All I know is all the Creative products I HAVE heard have sounded pretty cheap and low quality (even the more expensive stuff). I make a generalized assumption based on this. I suppose Creative could make a freak good set of speakers but they haven't done it in multiple tries previously which leads me to doubt their ability to do it at all. My father has a set of Cambridge Soundworks on his computer and while acceptable for average listening, they are not the highest quality speakers and certainly not comparable to the Z-5500s.
I'm telling you, any company that claims so much power out of something SO tiny makes me VERY suspicious. You're going to tell me your all-in-one Creative system which includes speakers and a sub (invariably similar to a Home theater in a box), which cost something like $400-500 new from what I recollect is better than a DCM TB-1212 subwoofer? The DCM TB-1212 is a 12" subwoofer and it is 150 watts. It goes for $500. You're telling me you think your subwoofer is comparable to something like an SVS PB10-NSD subwoofer - a 10" driver subwoofer with 300 watts for $429? Uh uh. I don't think so. Creative is lying and you're eating it up. No way that chincey little bitty sub made by a comparably no name brand (put next to DCM and SVS) is going to be better or even close. It's a nice idea, but you listen in person to either subwoofer and you'll notice the quality difference.
The crossover in that Creative can't be anything at all. How much does it weigh? Subwoofer alone, let me know what it weighs? Additionally, I'm curious to hear your opinon on 5.1 vs 7.1. This will tell me more than you can imagine, so please do let me know what you think.
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