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Posted by
Thomas
McGuire on June 20, 2002
Manufacturer: Creative Product:
Creative
Inspire 5300 Speakers
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5300
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While it may not be too big a deal to some, one of the more
interesting abilities of the Inspire 5300 is that if you
leave the Centre/Subwoofer input unplugged the system
can generate a Centre channel.
As you’re probably aware most 4/6 Channel soundcards merely
replicate the Front & Rear channels when it comes to
playback of stereo content, like CDs, MP3s & such –
with no Centre channel output in the case of 6 Channel
soundcards. In the case of Creative Soundcards they can use
CMSS available in PlayCenter to up-mix stereo/mono sources
to 5.1 channels – which will provide a Centre channel, though to be honest this reduces the quality too. Philips
PSC 70x Soundcards use QMSS to up-mix stereo content, much
like CMSS does only better, providing Centre channel output
in 5.0/5.1 output mode.
With the Centre/Subwoofer input unplugged the Inspire
5300 generates a Centre channel as a mix of the Front
Left/Right channels (Thanks Harvey). This extra channel will
be of most use for Music playback, but isn’t recommended
for Games which use DirectSound 3D as the “virtual”
centre will basically mess up the 3D Audio effects. Still,
it’s something worth considering when looking at this
system.
To test Music playback with the system I used a variety of
material – Episode II: Attack Of The Clones (192Kbps MP3),
Conan The Barbarian (192Kbps MP3), Medal Of Honor: Allied
Assault (128Kbps MP3), The Empire Strikes Back (CD), Raiders
Of The Lost Ark (CD), Lord Of The Rings (CD), Pablo Honey
(CD) White Ladder (CD), The Best of Ludwig van Beethoven
& several others.
The Subwoofer was generally weak, as
mentioned earlier, though the speakers themselves tended to
get more 'boomy' at lower frequencies depending on the type of music you listened to,
it was noticeable enough on Karma Police by Radiohead, for
example.
The Bridge of Khazad Dum on the Lord Of the Rings soundtrack
showed up the boomier side of the Subwoofer at almost 1/4 of
the volume level for the system, though the Speakers
themselves handled playback rather well, though on
Beethoven’s Rondo a capriccio op. 129 the piano seemed a
bit off.
Overall though Music playback on the system is alright enough
for the cost, though like most budget systems this is
somewhat dependent on the style of Music you listen to also,
what with the lacking (or overly boomy) Bass of the
Subwoofer depending on what’s being played (& at what
volume level) & the sufficient enough quality of the
Speakers themselves for the most part.
For DVD playback I used PowerDVD
XP, which was limited to 2 Speaker output & S/PDIF
Output (At least the OEM version I have that is). In S/PDIF
Output mode the Audigy drivers performed AC-3 decoding.
As you know the Inspire 5300 doesn’t feature an AC-3
decoder (or decoder of any sort), though for less than $100
that’s hardly surprisingly, so it is rather essential that
you have a software/hardware DVD decoder installed if you
are going to use this for DVD playback, or a standalone
system with built-in decoder and analog outputs
alternatively (such as the Extigy).
To test playback I used
a dozen or so DVDs including Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, Starship Troopers, Se7en, Twister, The Fast &
The Furious, Titanic & several others.
To reinforce what I’ve said earlier, the subwoofer was
similarly rather lacking during DVD playback, what with the
LFE channel not being too noticeable in scenes where it should
be, e.g. In Saving Private Ryan at the final battle you
should be able to feel the ground shaking as the
tanks rumbled along. The speakers partially made up for this
though with some good bass output, perhaps becoming a bit
more 'boomy' as the frequency dropped though. Voice
reproduction was fairly spot on though.
That said, the system lacks a volume control for the Centre
speaker so it may well limit the usefulness of the system
with standalone decoders unless it offers a way to adjust
the volume level for that channel – which may otherwise
result in it being too over-powering as compared to the
other channels. This shouldn’t be much of an issue if
you’ll be connecting to a PC soundcard, which should
include a separate volume slider in their mixer for the
Centre channel and thus will allow you to increase or
decrease
the Centre channel for more natural sounding output, which
doesn’t overwhelm the other channels whenever dialog,
explosions or whatever is played out of it.
Overall DVD playback with the system is pretty good when it
comes to positioning, though that also relies heavily on
the decoder you use; LFE output was somewhat muted for my
taste.
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