Creative Labs MegaWorks Speakers 510D ROCK!
Written: Aug 19 '02 (Updated Jan 30 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 500 watts of 5.1 sound for analog and digital setups!
Cons: No headphone jack and bad placement of the subwoofer control.
The Bottom Line: This is the best 5.1 speaker system I have seen for the computer!
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Creative Technology MegaWorks 510D 5 Speakers |
Creative Labs has done their homework with the MegaWorks Speakers 510D. This system is identical to the Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 510D, Cambridge makes the speakers but Creative Labs owns Cambridge.
This system should work with any computer but it is designed for the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1, Sound Blaster Audigy, and Sound Blaster Extigy sound cards. This system is also made to hookup to a stereo unit.
Total system power is 500 watts with a Signal-to-Noise Ratio of 95dB (Digital Inputs) to give you great clarity in the sound and 93dB for the analog inputs.
The Satellite speakers
There are five satellite speakers, three for the front and two for the rear. They use a single 3.5-inch driver in each speaker pushing out 70 watts RMS power. The speakers use plastic stands that can sit in a place or mounted on the wall.
The dimensions without stands are 4 3/8 inches high by 4 ¼ inches wide and 4 7/8 inches deep.
With desktop stands they measure 6 ¼ inches in height by 4 1/4 inches wide and 5 1/2 inches deep.
The weight per speaker is 7 ounces without stands and 9 ounces with the stands.
Satellite Frequency Response is 150Hz - 18 kHz +/- 3dB
THD is 0.3% at 1 kHz / 70 Watts RMS
The Subwoofer
This is an extremely large subwoofer made for the computer. With 150 watts of RMS power the subwoofer weighs in at 20 pounds, it is heavy! The subwoofer dimensions are 12 7/8 inches in height by 11 7/16 inches in width and 12 inches deep.
The Subwoofer Frequency Response is 32Hz - 150Hz +/- 3dB.
THD is 0.5% at 40 Hz / 150 Watts RMS
The subwoofer has an 8-inch driver mounted under the subwoofer sitting about 2 inches off the ground by four legs on the bottom of the subwoofer. The legs are made out of a rubber to help absorb some of the vibrations so the subwoofer isn’t bouncing around on you.
The back of the subwoofer has all of your connections, this is the hookup center for the speaker system. There is a knob in the back of the subwoofer to add or take away bass to your desired needs.
What you get!
This is a very large box when you start to unpack it and very heavy. Here is what was in the box!
Five satellites
Five desktop stands
Adjustable monitor stand for center speaker
Subwoofer
A wired volume control
Three 9ft. cables for front and center satellites speakers
Two 16ft. cables for rear satellite speakers
One 5.1 digital cable
Analog audio triple cable with three stereo mini-plugs
AC power cable
A user manual
Installation
The instructions are pretty good showing you various ways to install and setup the speaker system. You can connect to your computer using either an analogue or a digital connection. I recommend the digital connection if you have the proper sound card.
The five satellite speakers are connected by 5 RCA inputs on the subwoofer easily marked. There is a wired volume control to plug in the back of the subwoofer and placement of the volume control is for your best preference. Then the connections you make to your sound card will depend on what type of connection is needed.
Setting it up was rather easy, routing the speaker wires took some time.
The Sound
The sound is very impressive shaking the walls while playing Star Wars episode I on the DVD-ROM. I pumped the volume up to ¾ and found that was way too loud for my small room and the whole time I heard no distortion. The satellite speakers put out a crystal clear treble sound with the subwoofer pumping in the rich low end sounds.
As far as games I tried out NASCAR 4 and the cars rumbled like I was sitting in one. On Red Alert 2 the music in the background was beautiful with the action sounds being very explosive.
Music CDs sound great, listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is very impressive. Mp3’s that I have downloaded also produced a clear rich sound.
My Final Thoughts
The Creative Labs MegaWorks Speakers 510D list for $349 which isn’t bad considering that this is a 500 watt system.
The only flaws I seen are there is no headphone jack and that the Subwoofer control should have been on the wired volume remote. I have a tendency of adjusting the subwoofer to different types of music and games, so now I have to bend over to make the adjustments on the back of the subwoofer.
This speaker system has more power than a lot of people have on their home stereo system.
I am very impressed with the Creative Labs MegaWorks Speakers 510D and highly recommend it.
Check out these great speakers!
Logitech Z-680 5.1 Sound Speaker System
Logitech Z 640 PC multimedia speaker system
Recommended:
Yes
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surferdude7
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