Top Seven 5.1 PC Speaker Comparison

We asked all the players in the market to send us their latest 5.1 packages, and received cooperation from Artis, Logitech, Creative, Zebronics, Philips, Altec lansing and Tech-com. We have quite a varied sample of the available options, and now we are going to take them all on an audio road trip with loads of audio material, and play army PT instructor…

The Test process
So what does one exactly look for in a speaker? Our test process is straight forward, and covers all the basics, and a few advances. First and foremost, we look at aesthetics, which is the simplest method of actually putting the speakers in your face, and seeing if it can fit in any decor and also whether the design is wacky enough or too wacky, as there is a thin line between futuristic cool, and just plain over-the-top tacky. Aesthetics go hand in hand with build quality. Thus plasticky edges and boring finishes are frowned upon.

This area is of course subjective, as you can never please everyone but more or less, a good level of innovation in design never goes unnoticed. The weight of the system is a factor, and from the weight comes portability and ease of positioning. Since there will be five speakers, not two, one pair will have to be kept at the back. Thus stuff like wire length and their arrangement are taken into consideration. This is mainly because in a 5.1 system one is dealing with amounts of wire enough to hassle you beyond imagination. Color coded wires are given preference, as that adds to the ease of set up and use.

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Then comes the features and connectivity options. Generally the subwoofer is the house of the amplifier for the system, and all connections need to be made to it. Any product with a remote gets extra points, and Dolby or even DTS decoding is an added plus. Thus these can be connected without the help of a 5 channel soundcard - remember here we are not using an AV receiver. Thus the decoding has to be done either by your soundcard, or by the speaker system itself. The accessibility to volume knobs, design of the control pod etc. are looked at, this is especially important for those systems without remote.

After the physical test finish, we move on to audio performance tests, and this is a whole ball game totally. We have created tones, plus the trusted test CDs from Sheffield, and pristine recordings of Chesky. Our attention goes initially to the bass response, and immediately full frequency response. For this a sine tone sweep is launched and checked for inconsistencies in level, off course we already negated our room effects. Lower limits of bass response are checked by audibly checking how low our tones reach. Then we play transients like a drum beat and bass guitar sounds to check timing and accuracy of the bass. Any boominess in the output is caught red handed here in this test. Since we are dealing with surround, we check a full 5.1 surround sound AC3 file that pans around, exerting each speaker.

Pure loudness I gauged separately with both highly compressed recordings and also open live recordings of classical music, to see how the speakers handle output at highest volume level. Here there should be no distortion, as that would be the weakness of the speaker. It should not fart in heavy bass thuds and intense parts in movies.

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Creative T6160 speakers
Rs. 4,999

This is Creative’s heavily flaunted offering to the market, a reasonably priced yet full fledged surround sound system. The aesthetics are simple and subdued, but not boring looking, due to the metallic flare surrounding the rims of the drivers, and smooth black finish for the cabinets. The structure is straight up from the typical satellite speaker brethren. Each speaker is perched on an L-shaped stand and metallic mesh grille covering the facades. A small control pod is wired to the powered sub, which contains a green LED and a single volume pot on the side, which is also the on/off switch for the system.

Performance wise, the main thing I noticed about this system is the bumpy crossover point, basically the bass gets boomy at the frequency point between the sats and subwoofer. At about 120 hz to 140 Hz there is an audible increase in level, as tested by our sine sweeps. It’s not too much of a problem when auditioning a movie. The highs are decent for the price, they don’t sound edgy and definitely don’t cause ear fatigue. Overall loudness-wise there is room for more, but the power is enough for a regular-sized bedroom, about 120 square feet. We could not detect any serious distortion at higher levels, so that too is a plus point.

Good: decent build, doesn’t distort at high levels, reasonable price
Bad: bass is not so tight, a bit boomy sounding.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Specs

• Speaker power:6 Watts RMS(5 channels), 20 Watts RMS Sub
• Frequency response:40Hz ~ 20kHz
• SNR:>75dB
• Dimensions:Speaker (150 x 75 x 90) mm, Subwoofer (260 x 160 x 190) mm

Philips MMS460 speakers
Rs.7,990

Philips is not a regular in the PC speaker market, but nonetheless, the brand is respectable in all their endeavors, thus we gladly accepted this model of theirs for scrutiny. It’s clearly the most uniquely designed piece out of the bunch. The 5 satellites are globular, like half ellipsoid, with the driver pumping outwards of the cross section. This view looks like the thrust nozzle of a spaceship. The silver accented drivers are 4 inches in diameter, and no tweeter in the system at all. The sub is medium sized with slightly more depth than usual, with connectors at the back. The unique thing about this system is that the fronts and surround speaker have a common connector, thus no mixing up can happen.

The center speaker also acts as a control pod, with buttons on top, and a Mini Din connector rather than regular EP. Once on, we figured out that the bass is there but not the most powerful in the group. It extends low too, but it lacks that thumping quality. The response of the system is more refined rather throughout the spectrum, with no real spiky levels poking out at you in any frequency range. The highs are clean and clear, and have a good amount of “air”. The loudness of the system is decent, it does not distort at high levels, but at the same time it’s not all super loud for a hall.

Good: very good looks, doesn’t distort at high levels, good HF response, very even
Bad: bass is not powerful enough, it lacks the authority.
Rating: 3 out of 5

Specs

• Speaker power: 5 Watts RMS per channel (5 channels), 30 Watts RMS subwoofer
• Frequency response:20 - 20000 Hz
• Dimensions:Speaker (90 x 60 x 90) mm, Subwoofer (145 x 240 x 143) mm

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Tech-com SD4201R
Rs. 3,199

This humble brand is actually gaining popularity in the super budget category, and they have not necessarily disappointed in the past. The aesthetics are cute with a black and white driver, the dustcap and surround being black, that too glossy. The front panel is also glossy black, while the rest of the rectangular body is regular black painted MDF. Each speakers comes with attached RCA plugs that go into the sub, the latter also being a looker. The fa