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Posted by
Thomas
McGuire on October 29, 2002
Manufacturer: Creative Product:
Creative
MegaWorks 510D 5.1 Sound System
Look
for MegaWorks
510D prices.
For testing music
playback I used a variety of sources, including Episode II:
Attack Of The Clones soundtrack (192Kbps MP3), Medal Of
Honor: Allied Assault (128Kbps MP3), The Empire Strikes Back
(CD), Lord Of The Rings (CD), Sing When You’re Winning
(CD), Kiss Of The Dragon soundtrack (CD), Black Hawk Down
soundtrack (CD) Band Of Brothers soundtrack (CD), &
several others. As with most speaker systems your
impressions may vary depending on the types of music you
listen to, with my preference being instrumental soundtracks
for the most part.
Perhaps the most
immediately impressive feature of the system while listening
to my music was the mid-range, which was a great deal more
detailed than before & I found myself picking out
instruments & other subtleties that I simply could not
before due to a generally muddy mid-range, e.g. I could now
pick out what seemed to be a snare drum playing in the A
Journey In The Dark track (Lord Of The Rings).
The bass performance was
also very noticeable & extremely good as regards both
the satellites & subwoofer output. Obviously, this will
be of most benefit for styles/tracks which use a lot of low
frequencies & added a lot more punch to tracks such as
Tribal War (Black Hawk Down), As If You Said Nothing &
Symphony For Isabelle Parts 1, 3, 10, 13 & 18 (Kiss Of
The Dragon) – in particular the Kiss Of The Dragon
soundtrack sounds a lot more muddy on the Inspire
5300 when it comes to bass. While there’s not particularly
inspiring as regards treble it is at least very clear &
comparatively should still outperform most cheaper systems
anyway. Listening to some other favourite tracks such as
Coast Guard Rescue (The Perfect Storm), Points: Band of
Brothers Requiem & Escape from Torture (Rambo II)
providing to be a great pleasure to listen to.
Overall the 510D is a joy
to use for music playback, though if you prefer somewhat
more prominent treble you might want to check into
alternative systems.
Lacking a decoder, the MegaWorks 510D is limited to whatever decoder you
may have available to use when it comes to audio playback
with DVDs. In the case of PC DVD playback I used PowerDVD
XP, which was limited to 2 Speaker output & S/PDIF
Output in the OEM release I have installed. When set to S/PDIF
Output the SoundBlaster Audigy was performing AC-3
decoding via it’s Drivers. I also tested the system using
the Sony DVP-NS305 DVD player in
my living room
with SoundBlaster Extigy (Acting as Dolby Digital decoder).
Of some note is that given my hardware/software limitations
only the Dolby Digital tracks were tested for playback
purposes as I‘ve no DTS decoder.
To test playback I used a dozen or so DVDs including Saving Private Ryan,
Pearl Harbor, Lord Of The Rings, Black Hawk Down, The
Matrix, Brotherhood Of The Wolf, Se7en, Harry Potter &
The Philosophers Stone & several others.
Similar to my thoughts on the Inspire 5300 before, the system lacked a
volume control for the Centre channel so it may well limit
the usefulness of the system with standalone decoders unless
they offer a way to adjust the volume level for that channel
– which may otherwise result in it being too over (Or
under) powering as compared to the other channels. This
should not really be an issue if you’re connecting to a PC
soundcard, which (should) include a separate volume slider
in their mixer for the Centre channel & thus will allow
you to increase or decrease the Centre channel
for more natural sounding output, which doesn’t over or
under whelm the other channels whenever dialog, explosions
or whatever else is being played. For what it’s worth I
don’t recall coming across a 5.1 capable PC Soundcard that
doesn’t allow this.
As is with the case with playback in other areas, DVD viewing was a joy
with the MegaWorks. Output with the subwoofer (Not just
limited to the LFE channel it’s worth noting) in movies
was excellent, providing very deep, tight bass without
becoming noticeably boomy or distorted. Scenes such as the
D-Day landing or final battle in Saving Private Ryan were a
great showcase for what the subwoofer was capable of &
clearly was a significant improvement over systems I’ve
used before. The subwoofer fitted in well in both
environments I had the pleasure of using it in, the PC room
& the living room.
The satellites were equally well suited to DVD playback providing very
detailed mid-range playback, with excellent vocal
reproduction & nice transitions between the satellites.
The improved imaging of the satellites also provided a
somewhat more immersive audio environment, though this will
depend on the films you watch of course, suffice to with
many action films you’ll feel a bit more drawn into them.
Some scenes where this is noticeable would be (again) the
D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan where you are nicely
surrounded by weapon fire & explosions from all channels
or the bullet-time scene on the Rooftop in The Matrix. Bass
performance is another strength of the satellites with such
low frequencies (Down to 150Hz anyway that is) being
reproduced to similar great effect in various scenes, e.g.
the helicopter rotor blades in The Matrix when freeing
Morpheus.
The power of the system wasn’t particularly diminished either in the
living room or PC room, i.e. whether you are a few feet away
or a dozen feet away the system was perfectly capable of
providing me with high quality playback that simply filled
the room.
Overall the MegaWorks is
a great system to use for listening to DVDs with, providing
good positioning & great sound quality, particularly
when it comes to lower/mid range frequencies. As mentioned
earlier you do need a software/hardware decoder though.
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