Vox D5500A 5.1 Speaker System

PC peripherals are all about choices, and considerably new market entrants like Vox are good at providing a second or a third choice. These products cannot be overlooked as a surprisingly good performance is not uncommon, though something like that can only be stated after the review. We have a PC 5.1 speaker system by VOX, called D5500 A, so lets get to it…

Design and features
Being a 5.1, the D5500 system is a PC speaker unit with 5 small satellites and a medium sized subwoofer. The cabinets of the sats are black, and of the hard plastic material. They are not straight up rectangular but rather have a curved back, curving inwards at the top panel. This gives a nice smooth look to the sats, while the sub has a deep body, but not too much height. The finish on the sub is different; it has wooden grain finish. The weight of the sub and sats both are quite less. The front panel of the sub has an aluminum plate with a huge volume knob on the top half, and smooth black finish for the bottom. The latter surface has the reflex port. The Satellites have metallic grilles.

The back panel of the sub has the i/o, which is arranged in a vertical column towards the left edge. For inputs we have a Stereo RCA pair called ‘VCD’, and another set positioned below called ‘DVD’, which is basically 5.1 analog input set. The outputs too are RCA outs, labeled clearly for each speaker. This unit accepts only analog 5.1, and has no decoder inbuilt, thus if you’re using these with a PC then your soundcard must have surround sound decoding and output, or you can use the unit with regular DVD players. When I tried to visit the Vox website to get the specs info, I could not find any. There was no mention of tech specs in the manual too. Strange.

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Performance
So we plugged the speakers in, and started basic test audio tracks to see how low and high the speakers could output. We have no specs in hand, so our aim is to give a basic idea. The bass goes down to about 40 Hz, and highs upto 18 kHz, but not too smooth a response. The mids are a bit too much, though bass response is alright. There is clarity in the sound, and overall loudness is good. It is satisfactory for a small-medium sized room. There is no real distortion, and that is a plus point, as cheaper systems by more reputed brands distort badly at high volume levels.

We played MP3s and watched DivX files of Iron Man with AC3 surround file. The audio in surround sound is not bad; it works well for a single user in a desktop environment. The bass does not boom and that’s good, though mid frequencies are too forward for my taste.

Conclusion
For Rs. 3790, this might be one of the cheapest 5.1 systems. It’s a typical no frills piece and should do for those on a shoe string budget. The bass is fine and volume is decent enough for both movies and music. The sound quality is of course a far cry from refined or accurate, but for the price it’s OK.