KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
Audio reviews are subjective, as everyone has different expectations of what justifies ‘great sound quality'.
Today I will be concentrating on comparing these speakers with similar desktop speakers, rather than aiming for the ultra high end market. For instance, I have the Antec Soundscience Rockus 3D 2.1 speakers as well as my lovely old Logitech Z3 2.1 speakers and I will be using both of these speakers to gauge the quality and performance of the Microlab FC360 2.1 Speakers.
I must also note that for these tests unless otherwise stated we were using a Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI sound card, to ensure high quality sound reproduction.
Setting up the speakers was straightforward and the cables did stretch far enough for good stereo imaging, although I could envisage that the bass cable could be too short for some environments.
Before starting the review procedure I always like to acquire a general overview of the sound quality to get an idea of what these speakers are like before bedding in completely. Firstly, I played Radio 1 from the live stream at a fairly low volume, and I was initially very impressed with how well these speakers reproduced speech, the enunciation of voices was extremely focused. At this low volume there was certainly no additional noise produced from the speakers and the balance was great for positioning.
The first track we tested with was Magnetic Man – Perfect Stranger (Ft. Katy B) and the impact was insightful and weighty. The bass has a tight and punchy sound, and if turned up it certainly has the ability to vibrate and shake the floor and desk.
On a very positive note, if you configure the settings correctly, the bass won't over shadow or overthrow the performance of the satellite speakers, which in themselves seem to have a broad frequency response.
Negatively, the sound staging is a little weaker than a few competing products. The satellite speakers can exhibit a ‘distant‘ feel, and when turning the bass down to its lowest setting we feel that the sound stage was thrown backwards. It is almost as if you are hearing the sound through a tunnel rather than a broad, wider soundstage space.
We then proceeded to test these speakers with a range of music, including high-quality recorded classical music, including some live professionally recorded orchestral works. We were pleasantly surprised because, firstly, there is plenty of depth to the sound that these speakers produce. When tuned correctly, the bass is subtle, but definite in its approach, and reproduced a fantastic double bass sound. If you like a strong bass presentation then these speakers will surely appeal.
Next, we tested the speakers within a gaming environment, primarily Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. While the width of the soundstage still seemed to be fairly narrow, the sound quality and subsequent ‘realism' was impressive. The bass has a punch that really did help to get the pulse beating fast but it needs to be configured fairly high.
Over the course of our testing we did also watch several films, notably Avatar and Taken, both in Blu-Ray format. The speakers did come alive with the quality of both of these, and there is plenty of spare volume in the amplifier which keeps you feeling fully-immersed in the sound, without losing any quality. Overall, they produced a very intimate and close-up soundstage during the films, but lack the width and depth that larger and more expensive 2.1 systems can produce.
In summary, these speakers are fantastic value for money. They are certainly not the best 2.1 system on the market but they have a quality and presence about them that lends well to intimate recordings. We were especially impressed with the bass reproduction … this did produce a good gaming atmosphere.
