Customer Reviews

Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II 2.0 Multimedia Speaker System with BasXPort Technology

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I had to move my computer to a small setup/desk and my 4.1 speakers just did not make sense. So, I decided to get smaller desktop speakers. I listened to a number of cheaper speakers and it was hit or miss. Some sounded downright awful while other were decent but a bit tinny.

Since I really liked the "Creative" branded 4.1 Cambridge Soundworks speakers I decided to give Creative a second shot. Turns out it was a good decision. These speakers are loud enough for a small setup or small room. I would not expect them to fill a room like bookshelf speakers and a 80watt amp :). But these speakers make good use of the 28watts they have.

The overall sound is good for the size, power, and price. The base and highs end are good while the mid range is a bit weak but not too bad. If you want really great vocals, these may not be enough. Of course if you really want full, accurate midrange, you probably need to spend a bit more on speakers in general. My previous 4.1 (Cambridge Soundwords) did a bit better with midrange but they were about twice as expensive. One tip to help with the weaker midrange is to simply turn down the bass and treble in your PC sound setup.

The hardware itself is very solid and there is no vibrations even when you turn them up to 100%. That is rare with the cheaper speakers which just don't hold up at full volume. Basically, the speaker feel very solid and well build (and heavy) which is a good thing when it comes to speakers.

The cables also are good quality but a few of them could/should have been longer. The power cord and PC (line in jack) are both much too short. I was lucky and the line in jack just barely reached my PC (on the floor). The power brick is nice and small but the power cord also just barely reached the power strip. Its too bad they did no fix this with this, the second edition, of these speakers. So, if you're PC is right at your feet (right side) it will be easy to setup but you may find these cords too short. Thats really a shame when the fix is so easy. You can get standard, longer stereo jack to replace one and maybe even find a longer power cord but Creative should simply add 2 or 3 feet to the cables so they easily fit most installations.

So, other than the cables being much too short, they really have a quality product here. Worst case, you may need to hunt down a speaker jack for 3$ at Radio Shack :) Overall, I would recommend these speakers and I feel the price is reasonable given the overall good quality of the sound.

UPDATE: After more listening of these speakers, I find the lack of good midrange more disappointing. For some material and music, this is ok but for others (talk and movies) it can be pretty muddy. They are still better than having cheap speakers and the bass is good but if you are looking for good multi-media speakers you may want to spend a bit more. Due to this lack of good midrange, I lowered the score to 3 stars. They are still decent sounding but something is just missing in the full range of sound.

I have done extensive research on numerous computer speakers, everything from the simple 2.0 to 5.1 surround sound configurations for the past 6 months. I ended buying these Gigaworks Series II 2.0 speakers. Why? Because I couldn't have spent my $100 on anything else better.

Delicated tweeters for your high notes, midrange drivers for your mids, and the BasXport on top of the speakers for them lows, and all in a small 2.0 system! A lot of speakers do not allow the user to adjust their treble and bass, these do. Not a bass person? Dial it down to 0 and turn up the treble, or max out on both and anything in between. That's what the dials are there for, because not everyone is content with preset one-off factory settings.

There are users who complaint about the bright blue light glaring at them when it is on, I don't think it is that bad unless you are sleeping with them on. Some users also said that the speakers don't do too well at high volumes, as in the sound start to become unclear/muffled. I say it is true somewhat, just try not to turn it up past 75% and you should be good. Even at that level it is loud enough to be heard in my entire house, you're not running a nightclub in your house afterall.

These speakers in my opinion, are awesome, as long as you know what you're using them for. If you're looking for a surround sound system, this set of speakers is NOT for you. If you're looking for bass heavy speakers with subwoofers that will shake the earth, these speakers are NOT for you. However, if you need a set of speakers with good sound for the price, that you want to play video games/music/movies on without too much hassle, and your source is a computer, television, mp3 player, cd player, etc, these speakers ARE for you.

I had a set of 2.1 speakers from Acoustic Authority that were great, although really it was for the subwoofer. However, one of the speakers went out and I had to chuck the whole thing, including the subwoofer. However I wasn't interested in getting another 2.1 system because I wanted something simple, a set of 2.0 speakers that had good sound, something like my old Harman Kardon HK19.5 2.0 speakers, but better. So I looked around, and before I settled on these, I tried out both the Creative T20 series I and the Bose Companion 2 series II speakers.

The Creative T20 series I speakers were good, but did not bowl me over enough to warrant keeping them. The highs were great and mids were decent, liked the adjustable EQ settings on the right speaker, and were loud enough, however, I did notice that if I put the bass dial a hair past halfway, it would give a weird rattle that would distract me from the music, and if I turned it up louder, it would get worse (it is most notable on bass heavy music or music that had great emphasis on bass kicks). Also that blue light that people said was annoying...it really was annoying, and that sealed it. I took those back, and tried the Bose Companion 2 series II speakers. They were smaller, however they were more sturdy, mostly because they were heavier. No outside EQ setting dials, but had 2 AV outputs in the back, and then I tried the sound. It was really good. In fact it was great, UNTIL I started turning the volume past halfway. By then, it does this weird volume change where the highs and mids are cutback while keeping the bass, so you get this unnatural volume level change when it should be steady, and that bothered me, because it ruined the enjoyment of playing music (or other things for that matter) at a slightly higher volume, even if it was just past halfway. So off they went back.

So then I tried these. Saw them at Best Buy, thought they sounded good when I listened to the music playing station it was set up at, so I took a chance and bought it at Best Buy, mostly because it was on sale AND I had a coupon for an additional 10% off. I took the speakers out of the box slowly, opened the plastic, set the speakers up, plugged them in, popped in the Talking Heads disc "Speaking in Tongues" so I could queue up "Burning Down the House" (which was the song I queued up when I set up the T20 series I speakers). It sounded awesome. Then I got cocky and decided to crank the bass level up past halfway....wow, not nearly as much rattle from the speakers this time. The bass is actually quite good, for a set of speakers that are under a $[...] bucks that doesn't include subwoofers. Mind you, these speakers do NOT have quite the amount of bass any 2.1 set will have, but that is besides the point. If I wanted speakers with a mad amount of bass, I would have gone for a 2.1 system, but I didn't. That being said, the sound overall is quite good, once you tweak it to how you want it.

Pros:
- Great sound for not a whole lot of money. Doesn't rattle as much when bass level is past halfway unlike the T20 series I (I did find it will rattle, but only when bass level is near full blast, which I don't do)and it doesn't also have that weird volume cutoff unlike the Bose Companion 2 series II speakers.
- Adjustable eq settings on right speaker means you can tweak your sound more.
- Sharp looking design. Also, the grills are easier to take off/put on (I prefer the grills off). Also on the design note of the speakers, the hole where the X-bassport is on each speaker is more narrow, which is good because less air travels throughout and not as much rattling due to less air traveling.
- Blue light no longer is a bright dot by itself. Instead it's a less brighter ring shade around the volume knob. Doesn't bother me as much so that's good.
- At 28 watts, it gets surprisingly loud. When the volume is roughly in the 1 o'clock position, I can hear it from the otherside of my house. In a 1200 square foot house, that is loud. Needless to say, if you have a small area of residence (like a 1 bedroom apartment), or you need something for the bedroom, these are perfect. In fact, these things can get almost as loud as one of those Bose wave systems (maybe not the BIG wave system, but the regular one) Yes, that loud.
- Surprisingly portable. Now I don't think a lot of people will be carrying this around from place to place everyday. BUT, if you needed to take some speakers to somewhere like a friend's apartment or a hotel room, and you don't want to lug around a heavy boombox, these will do. However, the setup of the plugs and cords and whatnot will keep these from being truly portable. In fact the T10s are probably a better option if that is what you're looking at.

Cons
- The eq and volume knobs are more recessed than in the series I speakers, which makes it somewhat harder to just grab and turn.
- I like the black color and finish, but the front panel of the speakers are ripe for fingerprints.
- Slight 2-3 second delay between turning on the speakers and hearing sound. This was one of the things I read about in reviews of these speakers before I bought them, however I have adjusted accordingly and is not a concern to me. Maybe to others, but not to me.
- Left speaker is lighter than the right one and is therefore more prone to wobbling with movement near it, such as if I'm typing really fast, or if I shake the desk a little bit. Doesn't move when music is played so really that's all I care about.

In reality, the cons are just slight nitpicks to me and I can deal with those without much trouble. Out of all of them I think the left speaker wobbling more than the right might be the only issue that could be troubling to others.

Otherwise, if you need a set of 2.0 speakers, without spending a bunch of your hard earned cash, and you want great sound with plenty of options, get these.

Creative Labs GigaWorks T20 Series II 2.0 Multimedia Speaker System with BasXPort Technology

I purchased these speakers for my wife so she could listen to and watch a portable DVD player in the kitchen while she prepares food (the built in speakers on the DVD player were tinny and no depth of sound). I just received the Creative 2.0 speakers this morning from FedEX and we were both blown away with the sound quality of the speakers. They have a nice response through the entire frequency spectrum and they do have punch and plenty of volume with no noticeable distortion for this setup. I encountered a little problem initially when I hooked the cable coming from the ear phone jack on the DVD player to the Audio Input in the back of the speaker and got terrible humming distortion. Then I read the instructions and moved the plug to the correct location, the Aux Input on the front of the speakers and it works perfectly. The Audio Input in the back is for an analog input source. I highly recommend these speakers for using with any portable device such as DVD player, iPod, laptop, etc. They are not battery powered so you need to have an outlet nearby.

OK sounding speakers for the money. Unfortunately, within six months, both audio input connectors failed (one was broken out of the box, but I just used the other one until failed).

Thought this should be an easy warranty repair issue. Wrong. The only way to initiate warranty repair is through their online form, which is completely non-functional (I also tried it with a pair of Creative headphones I also own) and unusable. Creative has no direct phone or email contact on its website or in the manual for the speakers. This is a virtual company scam with no customer support. Buyer beware.

I've spent several frustrating hours testing both the Bose Companion 2 Series II and Creative Gigaworks T20 series II. These are two very different sounding sets of speakers, with their own strengths and weaknesses. I am well aware of the major limitations of such small speakers, but even taking this into account neither pair is satisfactory, with both being disappointing for different reasons. I expected bass response to be an issue, but it really isn't for either, although the Bose did exhibit a small amount of distortion with some material. The problem with these speakers is with everything else!
The T20s have clean, clear highs, and plenty of undistorted bass, but their midrange response is severely lacking. Vocals often seem distant and swamped by other instruments. The overall result is a bright warm sound, but with a very noticeable lack of detail and presence.
The Companion IIs on the other hand are very mid-range heavy, pushing vocals right out to the front. Sometimes too much, making spoken word material sound boomy. Unfortunately Bose have managed to do something remarkable, in that the Companions II sound both muffled and bright at the same time! I attribute this to the "TrueSpace" processing, which actively changes the sound to make it seem more spacious. Whilst it does achieve this effect, it also does weird things to the dynamic range, and overall these speakers sound too forceful and not very natural. What is really amusing is that Bose put a note in the box claiming that that, unlike other manufactures, their speakers do not introduce artificial effects to make the speakers sound more pleasing ( I kid you not!).
OK, so on the positive side, The T20s have tone controls which allow one to tweak the sound to a certain extent (but they don't fix the mid-range problem). The Bose `s dynamic compression make them sound better at very low volume levels, and so would probably sound OK if you just want quiet background music whilst you are working, or of you plan to use them in an environment with a lot of background noise. Oh, and it would appear that Bose have taken note of peoples comments about the lack of a power button. The volume control now has an off position!
Neither the T20s nor Companion IIs are deserving of their high recommended retail prices. They really should always be priced under one hundred dollars.
I'll be returning both sets tomorrow. My search continues :-(

Not the loudest, not the most bass, not the coolest, but simply the BEST computer speakers I have ever heard! For the Audiophiles in the house... These have the best Channel Separation, the best Imaging, and the lowest Noise Floor of any desktop speakers I have ever heard! I use them at work for my iPhone, and they sound AMAZING! These have better "imaging" (instrument placement) than some "high-end" home systems I have heard! Sometimes it is spooky!!! I convinced the guy at my local retail chain to do a Bose "no-no" and let me hook my own music into the Bose computer speaker display so I could "A-B" the Bose Companion 2 speakers with these... These blew them away in EVERY aspect! Don't expect room shaking bass obviously, but if you care more about sound QUALITY than bass QUANTITY, I highly recommend these!

Just got these today and I'm totally amazed. These things have awesome dynamic range and the bass is very crisp and clear. I listen to a lot of 'hard to reproduce accurately' classical music and these speakers did a great job of reproducing the sound quality. I could hear things I just haven't been able to hear on most other speakers.

My gold standards to test with are Ariel Ramirez's Misa Criolla and Chorovaya Akademia's Ancient Echo's for starters and they came through very nicely.

Highly recommended.

I bought these for a bedroom system- plugging in the ipod nano. They seemed small when they came out of the box which initally concerned me. I'm thinking- at this size how are these going to sound great? And what's up with this BasXPort technology? Sounds kind of gimmicky. Well you just have to hear them to believe it. They somehow achieve real bass presence from a 3" woofer! Take off the grill and these little woofers are traveling up to 1/2" in some passages. The tweeter does a fantastic job of creating pleasing midrange and highs. Tried them out on "Come Together" from Abbey Road (2009 remastered) and they were very adept at handling the bass and drums. When the distorted guitars came in at the chorus the tweeters brought out a nice crunch that was truly pleasing. I'm picky about speakers and I've returned more pairs over the years than I've kept. These are definitely keepers.

Pleasantly surprised by these speakers. After reading so many positive reviews I can say I am most definitely not disappointed. Very powerful speakers for the price and the size, and the sound in fact gets better the more you crank up the volume. Exactly how it always should be!

I do have a gripe - connecting my headphones into these 2.0 speakers results in a surprisingly noticeable drop in audio quality and definition. I cannot blame the headphones though, since the audio quality plugging the same set in was fantastic using my old - and awesome - Creative 2.1 system.

In any case, these speakers majorly kick butt. From Michael Jackson to Metallica, these puppies hit the high and low spots beautifully, even without the subwoofer. I tried these against the Bose Companion 2 Series II and can say confidently - go for these instead.