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Corsair SP2500 Speaker System

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Legit Reviews took Corsair's SP2500 speakers around the block a few times and came away rather impressed with the sound quality even though it was a 2.1 system. You know what? The SP2500 speakers impressed us too.

When the Corsair SP2500 2.1 PC speaker system showed up in the test lab we hooked it up and were shocked to hear our music. We were able to hear details in the audio that we weren't able to make out on our old speaker system. The satellite speakers on the SP2500 are amazing and the midrange audio is crystal clear. Most audiophiles talk about sound separation and having bass that overpowers vocals and we finally get what they were talking about.
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Steve said:
came away rather impressed with the sound quality even though it was a 2.1 system.
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Even though it was a 2.1....Really? People should know by now that just because you add more spears it doesn't increase sound quality.
 
Seems alot of companies are coming out with PC speakers too. Antec even made some that are pretty decent, and for roughly the same cost as the Corsair ones.
 
corsair seems to be making everything needed for a complete system pc.

waiting for them to be a pc company like dell
 
I'm not surprised consumers keep snatching up these fancy PC sound systems ~ fancy LCD for volume control! I'm done with "computer speakers" for the time being though :)
 
I ordered mine today, the AV40 set sounds alright but without a sub these speakers sound like they are just trying to push more than they can and it just sounds like garbage. My wife made a comment that they sound like cheap speakers cranked up really loud.

I will say when I was playing Rift and I had the in-game sound on it was fantastic but anything that requires a decent mid-bass just sounds meh. Not to mention I have a 4 year old and a 6 month old and the back of the left speaker on the M-Audio set the amp gets VERY VERY warm and not exactly safe if they touch it.
 
I wonder how they compare to my 10+ year klipsch 4.1 speakers... I do have those logitech 5300 on another system and they sound like crap compared to my klipsch, so it isn't much what they're comparing it to.

Maybe I'll just get some HS1 headphones, it sucks keeping the bass down all the time in apartments.
 
Dextar said:
I ordered mine today, the AV40 set sounds alright but without a sub these speakers sound like they are just trying to push more than they can and it just sounds like garbage. My wife made a comment that they sound like cheap speakers cranked up really loud.

I will say when I was playing Rift and I had the in-game sound on it was fantastic but anything that requires a decent mid-bass just sounds meh. Not to mention I have a 4 year old and a 6 month old and the back of the left speaker on the M-Audio set the amp gets VERY VERY warm and not exactly safe if they touch it.
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How do they sound like garbage when cranked up loud? Is the sound distorted? If so then you might have a faulty AV40. I remember the AV40 sounding clear whether at low or high volumes; never any distortions.

The lack of a sub is one thing I mentioned about the AV40. The beauty is that you can always add a sub when you have more money which is what most AV40 owners should be doing unless their music tastes doesnt demand the low freqs.

You are right about the hot amp though. It is one of the down-sides of them. They are meant to run hot though, just like i7 chips.
 
ThumperSD said:
How do they sound like garbage when cranked up loud? Is the sound distorted? If so then you might have a faulty AV40. I remember the AV40 sounding clear whether at low or high volumes; never any distortions.

The lack of a sub is one thing I mentioned about the AV40. The beauty is that you can always add a sub when you have more money which is what most AV40 owners should be doing unless their music tastes doesnt demand the low freqs.

You are right about the hot amp though. It is one of the down-sides of them. They are meant to run hot though, just like i7 chips.
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I guess I shouldn't say garbage but it sounds as if it's pushing the limits of the speakers at about 65-70% of the knob turned up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx2yQejrrUE 1080p + 50% YT volume and 50% PC volume. That's with the EQ set to powerful. If I don't have it set to powerful everything just sounds.. muffled.
 
Dextar said:
I ordered mine today, the AV40 set sounds alright but without a sub these speakers sound like they are just trying to push more than they can and it just sounds like garbage. My wife made a comment that they sound like cheap speakers cranked up really loud.

I will say when I was playing Rift and I had the in-game sound on it was fantastic but anything that requires a decent mid-bass just sounds meh. Not to mention I have a 4 year old and a 6 month old and the back of the left speaker on the M-Audio set the amp gets VERY VERY warm and not exactly safe if they touch it.
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Dextar when you have decided to get the SP2500, do all of us a little favor by writing your own review and posting in this forum. I bet the review will be much more detailed & provide a more clearer picture than mine.

AV30 & AV40 are good upto 60% volume. I found the amplifier used in AV40 are bog standard & components used are cheap.

One my friend bought the AV30 and this is what he posted in one forum:"I had some M-Audio AV30s for about a week. Honestly, I was extremely pleased with the audio. They were clear and had plenty of bass for 2.0 speakers. They also were capable of getting much, much louder than I'd ever care to have them.

Well, after a few days, I noticed my left speaker developing a slight rattle. Since they were purchased locally, I decided to just exchange them. However, as I removed them from my desk, I could hear the rattle was actually something loose inside. Curiosity got the better of me so I popped them open.

1zqzpxf.jpg


I'd call that two bad caps And this is after ONE WEEK of fairly light use."
 
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Steve said:
Legit Reviews took Corsair's SP2500 speakers around the block a few times and came away rather impressed with the sound quality even though it was a 2.1 system. You know what? The SP2500 speakers impressed us too.
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Hope you are right Steve. I read the review at legitreviews.com. The review is what I call JUST OK. They are not even HardOCP standards, let alone Tom'sHarware. The truth is until now no body except Tom's were able to do an subjective + objective review of SP2500. None of them have the tools to do so.

Reviewers are evaluating this product by "listening to their ears" which are subjective and varies from person to person. There is nothing wrong in that, but according to me subjective + objective gives the complete picture.

Also do not get me wrong, I have a strong feeling in that: "SOMEBODY IS PUSHING THIS PRODUCT". I may be completely wrong though.

MaximumPC also said they are good but in comments section I found the views are not completely in favor of SP2500.

But I will look at all this events more positively & hope that SP2500 set new standards in PC speaker segment.

All the best to Corsair :)
 
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Dextar said:
I ordered mine today, the AV40 set sounds alright but without a sub these speakers sound like they are just trying to push more than they can and it just sounds like garbage. My wife made a comment that they sound like cheap speakers cranked up really loud.

I will say when I was playing Rift and I had the in-game sound on it was fantastic but anything that requires a decent mid-bass just sounds meh. Not to mention I have a 4 year old and a 6 month old and the back of the left speaker on the M-Audio set the amp gets VERY VERY warm and not exactly safe if they touch it.
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M-Audio AV-40 is what I will call JUST OK monitors. M-Audio charges a lot than it is really worth of ($150).
 
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I wanted to do a quick review of the SP2500 system and I'd like to note that I am NOT an audiophile I'm a gamer who listens to quite a bit of current and older popular music via 256 mp3 files. I ordered the M-Audio AV40 after recommendation from people on the boards and I wasn't happy with them as they needed the addition of a sub for the lows and at that point I was spending the same if not more than the Corsair system so I ordered that. I did not get any pictures of the AV40 satellites and the Corsair satellites together but the AV40's are significantly larger and heavier than the Corsairs.
This is my current setup(all images can be clicked to see a bigger photo if you want, sorry about the image clarity as I took them with my iPhone):

The speakers don't have a very large footprint but still put out big big sound. The major complaint I would have about them is the included cords are just too short. The left speaker is fine but the one that needs to be further away from the sub doesn't have much slack and as you can see it's not very far away from the sub on my desk. I think switching the cords to 7-10ft would be the best option. They have amazing highs and sound almost identical to the AV40's in terms of highs but the mid-bass is obviously not as pronounced as the AV40 but that's due to a 1" driver difference. The stands that are included do have the entire bottom of them covered in anti-slip material so they won't slide around and help with aiming the speakers up for us taller users.

I played Batman:AA, BF:BC2 and HL2 for games and while not as good as 5.1 on my headphones you can still tell this is an awesome system for games, explosions in BC2 were awesome and you could still hear the voices crystal clear.

I was expecting the sub to be bigger as people made it seem like it was huge but it's actually not that bad but this thing POUNDS and it's a clean tight bass unlike the Logitech systems. It's quite a bit stronger than the Klipsch 2.1 system but to be fair I did not listen to the Klipsch system at home it was hooked up to my iPhone. I have the sub set to one bar in the light blue on the controller and it's quite enough bass. Pictures below show the sub next to my HAF 932 case, which is quite a large case. The material the sub box is made out of feels sturdy and the rubber feet are nice and the amp does get warm but nothing near the AV40 built in amp. Not to mention the amp is inside the sub not the satellites so no fear of children burning their fingers, yay!


Overall I'm extremely pleased with this system, I wish the price would have been about $50 cheaper BUT because I purchased from Newegg I got free shipping and didn't have to pay sales tax. The few complaints I have about the system are mainly about the controller, it needs to have bigger anti-slip feet, the viewing angle isn't the best and I wish the control knob had a bit more of a tactile feel when you are turning it (more like a mouse wheel where you know it's going up or down). The volume on the system is awesome and it gets very very loud when cranked up but the darker blue bars are basically worthless as you can't hear it until about 9 bars in and that's if the house is silent but by about 13-15 bars it's easy to hear and would be a light volume setting. Hands down if you are looking to replace your computer speakers you will be EXTREMELY pleased with these, they are now active on the Best Buy website and should be in stores soon hopefully for more people to try. The price is hard to take I know but if you figure but for something you'll keep for quite a long time it's worth it.

Corsair, take this note and add a microphone port and possibly even a USB port (full size) on the controller for the HS1 and HS1A but in the end it's not a big deal for me because my Blackwidow Ultimate has both on the side of the keyboard but it would help with overall flow of your higher end audio components.

Both the AV40 AND the Corsair system sound leaps and bounds above the Logitech Z2300 in terms of clarity and the Corsair SP2500 stomps on the muddy bass produced by the Logitech system. My father who owns the Z2300 system completely agrees and will be buying the SP2500 after hearing it at my house. I hope my mini-review helps people in selecting this system, most audiophiles will turn up their nose and that's fine this system is designed for gaming while still having fantastic sound for music.
 
Dextar, looks like the Corsairs are just what you need, as they do indeed perform very well for what you're using them for. Glad you are happy with your decision. Of course, we're going to have to agree to disagree about how they sound for music. ;)
 
Psoriac said:
Dextar, looks like the Corsairs are just what you need, as they do indeed perform very well for what you're using them for. Glad you are happy with your decision. Of course, we're going to have to agree to disagree about how they sound for music. ;)
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+1 and inconsistent performance of vocals in a music.

But I am glad that Dextar liked them. Love your SP2500.:cool:
 
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