Great for a Cheap Home Theatre System
Written: May 13 '02 (Updated Jul 12 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to set up, cheap home theater system
Cons: Two failed remote controls; non-standard speaker connections
The Bottom Line: I used it as a compact, cheap home theater system and for this it has proved great!
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| adamhems's Full Review: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy Sound Card |
I wanted this thing for one reason only - to plug my Home DVD player in to it and listen to movies on my TV in Dolby Surround!
I bought the Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 speakers with it; this turned out to be a good idea as they came with all the cables as the Extigy does not use standard speaker connections - they are 3.5mm efforts, like headphone jacks. No doubt you could get the right cables but I didn't try - I knew these would work! And they did. They just plugged straight in. This is a down-side - what if you already have speakers or want better speakers than Creative offer? Then life gets tricky, which is what Creative want I guess but this is a definite down-side as a consumer. However the Creative speakers were all I needed; they didn't need to be powerful and they DID need to be small.
So I plugged the Extigy in to the mains, plugged the speakers in with the color-coordinated cables they came with, plugged the optical out of my GE DVD player in to the front of the thing and WHAM! full-on surround. Makes audio CD's, played off of the DVD player, sound great too. I plugged the analogue out from my satellite receiver in to it too and get great stereo. I have one jack left now - digital coax in, at the back. So if you have lots of things to plug in, this is not the right choice! I, however, have only my DVD player and my satellite receiver so am happy.
I have never used it with my computer (though I have one of course) - and never plan to. I have not installed any of the software so cannot speak for that. This is home hi-fi only as I did not have one at all. (No amp, speakers - nothing.)
As another member of epinions pointed out to me, I could have got a cheap DTS receiver for only a little more than I paid - I see Best Buy are doing one for $179.99 at the time of typing - but I was particularly after SMALL SIZE which this unit offers - I stand it on it's side with the feet it comes with and takes up the space of a video-cassette box (plus an inch or so for the feet). This, combined with the small size of the speakers, mean I have a low cost, quiet surround sound system in a small space which is exactly what I was after.
The only problem I have had is that after a week or so the remote control packed up - I replaced one and the second one just failed. I am now on my third which has not failed yet.
This might not be an issue for many who use it for their PC but as it supplements my TV/DVD set up obviously the remote is vital! Annoying but there you go. I am glad for this reason that I bought the thing at Circuit City where they just replaced it, no questions asked, rather than the hassle of having saved a few bucks from an online retailer.
The sound quality seems fine - I am no audiophile but it sounds good enough to me; a whole lot better than my Sony TV sounded on it's own anyway! I also only had a portable stereo for playing CD's with and now the DVD player will do that so that's much better for me too.
All in all if you are after a compact surround system and do not need to plug a whole lot in then I recommend this unit for that purpose - it has made my TV-viewing and CD-listening a great deal more pleasurable!
Update June 12: The THIRD Remote control failed again. Failed in the same way, too - the unit just stopped listening and changing batteries didn't help! All three of the remote controls I have had for this unit have failed, one after another. I changed the base unit once but didn't need too. This time I changed JUST the remote control and it works perfectly, AGAIN. The rest of the system continues to be great, however and I am still very pleased with it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 132
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Epinions.com ID:
adamhems
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Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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