Bose MediaMate - PC multimedia speakers - graphite Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought these speakers to replace some Harmon Kardons that died on me. I wanted something with good sound since I listen to a lot of music while I am working. (Programming can get REALLY boring...)
These speakers are all I could have wanted and more. The sound is clear as a bell and the speakers do not distort even at high volumes. Highs are clear and these two little speakers can put out some wicked thumping bass. Everyone in the office popped in to my cube to find out where that great sound was coming from.
I have home theater system that does not even come close to sounding as good as these two little speakers! It is making me seriously consider buying a new home theatre system from Bose, or at least building one from Bose components. My Boston Acoustics computer sound system at home (a good system) can't hold a candle to this product either.
Bose is bottom line the best audio equipment in the world, and these speakers are no exception to that rule. If you want to sample Bose quality at a lower price, buy these speakers. If you want great sound but don't want to have one of those computer speaker systems with the huge woofer and all those tiny speakers, buy these Bose speakers!
This product will probably sound better than that stuff anyway.
The speakers have a headphone jack in the front, and are also capable of dual input sound. I don't have a need for dual input but it is nice to know that the capability is there.
My only wish is that these speakers were about 30 bucks cheaper. Can't have it all...

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Connect the Bose MediaMate® speakers to your computer or personal player to enjoy quality stereo sound from your CDs, streaming audio, MP3s, and DVDs. These small, sleek speakers incorporate Bose digital signal processing technology to convey a surprisingly wide soundstage, even when closely spaced, as on either side of a computer keyboard.Dual audio inputs let you connect a second media player, while a control dial on the face of the speaker lets you adjust the balance of sound between the computer and your second listening source. You can listen to music from the computer, switch to the second source, or even mix the two together.The speakers' 2.5-inch, Stereo Targeting® drivers produce the kind of rich sound you might not expect from such small speakers. And the MediaMate speakers can also help when others around you need quiet. They include a convenient volume control to adjust the sound and a .125-inch headphone jack for times when you'd rather listen privately (headphones not included).Magnetic shielding protects your monitor from interference, even with the speakers placed directly against your computer. Patented Bose signal-processing technology ensures full, rich sound at low volumes and when using headphones. The spaciousness enhancer actually improves the sound from mono sources.What's in the Box One powered speaker, an accessory speaker, speaker cable (attached to the accessory speaker), an audio input cable with RCA plugs, an audio input cable with stereo mini plug, a detachable AC power pack, 10 adhesive-backed rubber feet, a user's manual, and warranty information.

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Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Internal Sound Card Review

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(More customer reviews)This is going to be a long review because I just purchased this and I want to answer some questions that I couldn't find answers to before I purchased it. If you want the 1 word summary, it's "INCREADIBLE"!!
I was upgrading from a Fortissimo 1 sound card. I understand that this is not a great card, however I was using the optical out to connect to a DTS receiver. Essentially the sound card was doing nothing but transferring data and my nice receiver was doing all of the work. This made me apprehensive about upgrading to the Audigy 2 because I wasn't sure if I would notice a difference from my optical card. (pause for a quick side note) You can NOT hook this card up digitally to a receiver. I LOVE this card, but I feel this is important for customers to understand this fact, and very deceiving from Creative. The digital output on the card uses a proprietary digital signal. For the techs out there, a normal (electrical not optical) digital signal is a sine wave. The crest of the wave registers as "on" and the bottom of the wave registers as "off". The creative digital-out uses 8 points on the sine wave to create the signal. 1 point for each audio channel. This will only work with computer speaker sets designed for this type of proprietary signal. It will not work with home theatre receivers because it is not a standard digital signal. (now back to my review) With the Audigy 2 ZS I would need to hook everything up using analog THX certified monster cables. Essentially it boils down to weather my receiver will sound better decoding the digital signal (old card), or if the Audigy 2 ZS will sound better decoding the signal and then passing it to the receiver for amplification. I honestly could not be happier with the results. The Audigy 2 ZS sounds 10 times better than my old setup. Everything is MUCH more crisp and well defined, and the low end sounds AMAZING. I'm not talking loud bass, I'm just talking really really tight and smooth. I could not recommend this card more. It is THE BEST upgrade I have made to my PC in years.
I also wanted to touch a bit on the setup, because I couldn't find any reviews anywhere that explained how to hook up the analog outs to a home theatre receiver, and Creative made it a little tricky. First, the 8 channels use only 3 mini plugs as connectors. How you ask? The first connector is an easy to find cable. It's a mini -> 2 RCA. This is the same cable you use to hook a Discman up to your receiver. The other 2 are weird. They are mini -> 3 RCA. The only use I've ever seen for a cable like this is hooking up a DV camcorder to a TV. If you are using monster it is called a CAMAV cable. The first plug feeds your front right and front left speakers. The second plug feeds you rear left, rear right, and side left speakers. The third plug feeds your side right, center, and sub speakers. I could not find that info anywhere before buying and experimenting. I use a double receiver setup with two 5.1 receivers. The second receiver has some unused channels, so later I can expand as far as 10.2. I highly recommend this setup.
I also HIGHLY recommend this card. Like I said before, I am blown away by the sound quality. I've never heard a computer sound so good.

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The THX certified Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS delivers 24-bit ADVANCED HD? audio, 108dB SNR clarity across 8 channels.

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ASUS A8N-SLI Premium - Motherboard - ATX - Socket 939 - nForce4 SLI - FireWire - 2 x Gigabit Ethernet - 8-channel audio Review

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(More customer reviews)This motherboard comes with twice the cables that you will need to set up a computer, so you will always have a handy replacement box full of parts in case something goes wrong (not very often) or you decide to upgrade. The northbridge has a passive cooler, which greatly reduces the noise of the computer. BIOS settings are decent and if you know what you are doing, you should have no problem with it. It also offers a program that will automatically overclock your rig. I haven't tried it, I could never bring myself to trust a program to play god with my $500 processor, but for those of you with regular Athlon 64s, set it and go.
My computer:
this mobo
Athlon 64 X2 4400+
WD SE16 250GB SATA HDD
XFX 7800GT
Zalman cooling
Antec TruePower 2.0 550W PSU (HUGE cables, BTW)

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Asus (A8N-SLIPREMIUM) ATX nforce4 SLI 939 Dual Chann

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Creative Labs 5300 Inspire 5.1 Computer Speakers Review

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(More customer reviews)I have an Audigy and Klipsch Promedia 4.1 speakers. I thought that getting these Creative 5.1 speakers for their cost would give me more enjoyable game and music atmosphere because of the big buzz about EAX and 5.1 surround sound.
When there is no music/sound piping through the speakers, turning the volume up more than 1/4 of the total causes some very noticeable hissing noise. Once music/sound is going however, the hissing disappears and these speakers do provide good sound even at the 1/4 setting. But I had to turn up the subwoofer bass to almost 75% of its capacity before noticing anything from the subwoofer.
So while I agree the sound can be good, I tried it out with my music CDs and on the Dungeon Seige game. I now had an Audigy, Inspire 5.1, and a game that all supported EAX. I played for about 2 hours, but did not notice anything differently than with my other speakers.
I finally came to the conclusion that this extra center speaker isn't going to get used unless there is this 5.1 sound decoding available in the source media (ie, from DVDs). Other than that, you are getting just 4 speakers + subwoofer in use, and EAX sound didn't use this center speaker and didn't sound any different than on my Klipsch.
The Audigy manual says there is a way to use that extra center speaker with regular music but doesn't go into details and the clues it gave didn't help.
So I recommend these speakers as an inexpensive choice if you dont already have 4.1 or 5.1 speakers. If you want more power, consider the Logitech Z560 or even more power, then try the Klipsch Promedia 4.1. But if you are just considering upgrading from some other 4.1 speakers for gaming, it's probably not necessary. For watching DVDs on your PC? Maybe you can also if you really plan to watch enough DVDs on your PC to make it worthwhile...just remember to make sure your sound card can support the Dolby Digital 5.1 format.
Tip: If you have the Audigy card (and probably others too) but only 4.1 speakers, you can achieve this "5.1" speaker setting by plugging in another comparable speaker to that "center speaker" port on the card..that's basically what the Creative Inspire 5.1 set does. Then change your software setting to 5.1.

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