Creative Inspire M5300

In the previous Logitech 5.1 speaker review, we had promised more options for surround sound multimedia. Thus this week those AC3 files will be having a blast, getting all this attention. This time we have one by Creative — the Creative Inspire M5300, the 5.1 speaker set from their Inspire series; sort of a mid-range series in Creative’s line-up.

Design and Features
The M5300 comes nicely packed in a highly illustrated, cubical cardboard box. The first thing we removed was the subwoofer, a small sized (comparatively) unit with a side facing driver, measuring about 5.5 inches, covered by quite a weird looking silver grille. The front face has the reflex port, positioned towards the top end. The back panel has inputs for the five speakers (RCA ins) and a bass volume knob. There is a pre-attached wire that ends out in EP connectors for input to the soundcard.

The satellite speakers are quite slim, with a centrally located driver measuring 2.5 inches. These are rimmed in shiny metallic silver, with a black protective grille. The speaker can be placed on detachable stands, all packed in separately in the box. Without the stands, there is also an option to wall mount them. The speaker and subwoofer are both very light and create a small footprint, thus this unit can work where there are space constraints. On the flip side, these speakers are light enough to easily fly away by an accidental swoosh of the hand. The finish and build is not that bad though, it’s just light weighted.

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Last but not the least, there is a wired remote unit, which is a small little black pod, that has a volume dial on the side panel. This connects to the subwoofer’s back panel. The output of the speakers is 6 watts RMS each, while the sub outputs 17 watts RMS. The rated frequency response is 40 Hz- 20kHz.

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Performance
Before playing the Inspire M5300, let me state that opening it up was task, due to this irritatingly tight tape on the wires of the satellites. Once that was done, the setup was easy: we had to plug in the three color coded connectors coming out of the sub, to the orange green and black inputs at the back of our SoundBlaster 5.1 card

So first we played some AC3 test files, and cranked up the volume to see how these speakers handle powers sent out by the sub. The bad news is that at highest levels we heard distortion, and it was quite discernible. Thus naturally the levels had to be turned down from the control pod. The volume level was not too loud, just enough for a small– medium sized room. The bass from the sub woofer can easily overpower the frequency response, thus it is recommended to keep that volume also at around 50-70 % max, or it will start sounding muddy.

We saw Hulk and Animatrix (an all time favorite of mine), to check for sound effects. The quality of sound is much better, once levels are set. Only the loudest level seemed unsatisfactory. The highs and mids are neutral and quite well behaved — not all over the place. There is clarity in the sound and slight touch of sheen in the high end, this is good. Bass quality is not as good as the upper frequencies, its just satisfactory. It can handle rumbling and roaring in movies that we saw, but does not give out the killer thump. But once again, this is a budget system, and hi-fi quality cannot be expected.

Conclusion
Thus, at a street price of Rs. 4,399, I can say that this is definitely one of the more reasonable offerings out there for PC surround speakers. I was disappointed by the distortion at loud levels, which is only major complaint I have. Otherwise the sound quality is more or less decent. Bass is not the best; it’s the highs and mids that offer quality here. Those looking for a starter-level 5.1 speakers should check this out.