What I'm going to be looking at today is the new Creative Inspire 5700 speaker set. This gorgeous setup offers true surround sound straight out of your PC, DVD, or games console (or all 3 if you want!) Lemme just give you the a few tech specs direct from the manufacturer...
The subwoofer runs at an astonishing 30watts RMS. The centre speaker runs at 21 and the satellites at 7. Now, I'm not sure what exactly that means in hi-fi terms, but I can tell you these: these babies are L-O-U-D. I mean, we're talking ear-shattering, neighbour-complaining, police-inviting loud. Of course, this is a good thing. At the top volume levels, there is some noticeable hissing, but at anything below 'insane', the audio fidelity stays top-notch. The setup processors EAX sound, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Pro Logic, and, best of all DTS, for drastically top-end 5.1 sound :D So, without further ado, onto the goods...
Inside, amongst other things, is a big ol' box of hardware. The 5 satellites, mains adaptor and stands/cables/accessories are in here. It looks tasty :)
Pulling the decoder out of the box (yes, this thing has a separate, dedicated decoder/amp), it looks damn stylish. All its silvery goodness, and a plethora of LEDs...there are options for selecting the speaker Effect (including a some fantastic upmix options that encode stereo into surround, options for selecting one of the digital or audio inputs, status displays for surround sound type, power button, and, best of all...
Yes, you are seeing correctly!!! Creative have installed a whacking great bl00 LED in the volume control knob!!! So, not only can you see where your volume is at in the dark, you can see it in a funky BiT-stylee :D There are separate volume controls for the subwoofer, centre and surround speakers.
Turning to the back of the decoder, there is a myriad of I/O. The AC Adaptor in is on the left, followed by the 6 outputs for the speakers, and a line-out for a dedicated subwoofer. At the top, there are both coaxial and optical digital ins, for maximum connectability. This is a nifty option, since it means I can connect my DVD player and Xbox at the same time :D Next to that is a Digital DIN port. This is a proprietory Creative connection, used for hooking up to 5.1 or Audigy cards. More on this in a min...Next to that are connectors for front and rear analogue in. All in all, more connection options than you can shake a very large keyboard at.
Here's the pack of accessories you get...AC adaptor at the top, a little packet of stickers for labelling your speakers cables, SBLive->DIN connector, DIN, RCA, Front/Rear Analogue, Subwoofer cable, Remote (and complimentary batteries :D), Optical. The inclusion of an optical cable is a nice touch, since they can be damn expensive on their own.
Whilst basic, the remote is cute and tiny, and contains all the functions you need. You can adjust the volume up and down (which actually turns the volume knob on the unit! w00t!!), mute, change the effect or the input, and turn the unit on and off. There's also a button (not replicatedo n the decoder) to send a test signal around the speakers, so you can check your volume levels...couldn't really ask for much more.
This is the cable I used to use to hook up my SBLive to my 2500 speaker system...it takes the Creative digital out and splits it into DIN for normal sound, and RCA for 5.1.
In the new system, the only cable needed is Digital to DIN, since the new decoder unit is capable of processing a 5.1 signal through the DIN connection, which frees up another input and saves switching between the two.