High-End PC Speakers: Which Are Worth Your Dollars?

Creative GigaWorks S750: Gigantic, Continued

The filter on the rear panel is a true acoustic speaker one with a low-pass cell for the midrange using a hub-mounted induction coil, two capacitors and a low-pass cell with an attenuation element, an induction coil on air and a special capacitor for audio applications. The speakers have a stand and rear screw hole for wall mounting. The front center speaker has rubber pads to set it on a flat surface or on the monitor with a sort of foot at the back to tilt it in the direction you want.

The subwoofer uses the same techniques as earlier Creative ones. It has a floor ward-directed 20cm boomer, working with a ventilated magnetic system, and is mounted on feet to leave a space between it and the floor. This is a kind of acoustic load found on many subwoofers. The rear load is a bass-reflex with a port outlet on the left. At the rear is a solid metal heat sink to dissipate the heat given off by the strong power amplification. It connects to the satellites by Cinch sockets and to the sound card by 3-pin 3.5mm jacks. Its cable has three 3.5mm jacks, which of course, fit Creative sound cards. Needless to say, this connection system is compatible with 6.1 and 5.1 sound cards.

The controls are all on a wired remote which also has an M-Port (USB socket for an MP3 player), a line input and a headphone output with 3.5mm stereo jack sockets. The controls themselves work by a set of little electric keys with parameter setting selection and level display on a scale of seven diodes. We must say we were not happy with this: it is not so convenient or precise as dial controls. But the GigaWorks has something else up its sleeve: an infrared remote so you can still control it when you move away (the receiver is on the control box). This is very useful in a system powerful enough to fill a whole room with sound and not confined to close listening. The remote is classically designed with controls that are easy to find and a mute key to kill the sound immediately without having to change any settings.