Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System

I bought these speakers to improve the quality of sound from my MacBook. I live in a small dorm room and use my computer for listening to music and watching movies. For the price, these speakers provide a clear listening experience while punching out enough bass. I listen to a lot of soundtracks and so appreciate hearing clarity on instrumental parts and also being able to feel bass in the loud dramatic portions. The speakers are so much better than my tinny laptop speakers. In listening to a Christopher Parkening CD, I could hear depth in the sound of the acoustic guitar that did not come through from those speakers. Sure, these aren’t audiophile quality, but for the price they provide great sound for the average listener who wants to improve his computer sound. They don’t take up much space; I have them set up on my small dorm room desk with the sub on a shelf above. The volume control is on a convenient small wired remote that lets you power on and off the speakers.

Cons: the audio cables could be longer from the speakers to the sub. I would have liked to set the sub on the floor instead of a shelf, but the length of the cables did not allow for this to happen comfortably the way my room is set up. There is no headphone jack (many comparably priced speaker systems offer one). The bass control is on the back of the sub and can be annoying to adjust depending on how you have them set up.

Honestly, these are minor issues for me, especially for the price. I’d recommend these to anyone on a budget.

Update: had to return these because of static coming from the left speaker
Rating: 4 / 5

I did not have room for my old speakers at the sides of my new 25.5 inch monitor, so I bought these. The side speakers are small enough to lie horizontally under my monitor, and the woofer (sub-woofer is a ridiculous term for something this size) fits right behind the monitor. Since the speaker in the woofer cube is downward-firing, and the sound relatively omni-directional at these frequencies, it has no problem getting out from behind my monitor.

The sound is relatively wide-ranging and sounds quite good for my purposes, which is just as a PC monitor and watching a few TV shows, but it is not meant to be any sort of a major entertainment center. For that, it works quite well. But I improved the flatness of the frequency response by running the equalizer that is built in to Vista. First, plug in a microphone into the Mic input on your sound card, and place it on top of the chair in your normal listening position. I used a microphone that came with my stereo receiver, but had to boost the level by 20 dB in order to get enough output from the mike (choose the “Recording Devices” from the speaker icon in the tray for this). Be sure the microphone input is enabled also (no red icon in the “Microphone Properties/Levels” tab). Then, open “Playback Devices” from the speaker icon in the tray, highlight “Speakers”, and select “Properties”. Then select the “Enhancements” tab, and check the box for “Room correction”. Finally, select “Settings”, and it will output calibration tones to correct for the speaker and room acoustics. It works for me, and you get decent sound for a very cheap price.
Rating: 5 / 5

Customers who are considering buying this item should be aware of the fact that Creative Labs does not sell replacement parts. If the product fails after the warranty period and you need a part, you can’t get it from Creative Labs. Quoting from their e-mail: “I’m sorry to inform you that we do not sell spare parts separately. Therefore we are not able to sell a replacement volume control to you. Thank you for your kind understanding.” I suppose I really understand only one thing: I’ve bought my last Creative Labs product.

Rating: 1 / 5

I had previously owned creative products and was happy with those previous purchases. First off, if you are looking to crank your music I would not suggest these speakers but if you are looking to just enjoy your music with a little extra kick and quality these speakers are for you. The lows, mids, and highs are all pretty equal and all pretty good sounding. The base is great for being a few feet from you, its really all you need. The styling is very nice and has a “simple and clean” look. Setup was simple and having only the volume and base adjustment makes for simple sound tuning. The only downside if you can call it one is the speaker wires. They seem to be very thin and weak and I would suggest making sure to not leave anything heavy on them but really its expected for a $40 system. Overall 9/10 and yes I would buy again.
Rating: 5 / 5

I don’t know why, but on my Mac G5 most songs sound fuzzy at some point in the song. Some songs sound fuzzy all the way through. I thought Creative Labs were experts in the area of computer audio. I’ll go with Altec-Lansing or Sony next time.
Rating: 2 / 5