Customer Reviews

Creative Inspire P7800 7.1 Powered Surround Sound Speaker System

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

*Pros:

1. Excellent High Frequencies in the front speakers with tweeters.

2. Balanced, accurate and deep Bass reproduction.

3. CMSS up-mix feature for 5.1 & 6.1 sound card.

4. The best performance of this system is in GAMING.

*Cons:

1. Weak mid-range at high volume, especially in Voices.

2. The strength of side and rear speakers is not the same of three front speakers.

3. To achieve the best performance of this system, at least 5.1 sound card is required.

4. Its Quality doesn't match its price

Pros: Sound output is above average for price of system (I got the rebate which made it very attractive). 7.1 System with a Creative Sound Card made for 7.1 (as I have) is quite the match. BE AWARE THAT THE CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 ZS SOUND CARD WHICH IS MADE FOR A 7.1 SYSTEM HAS SOME SERIOUS CONFLICT ISSUES WHILE GAMING THAT MAY HAVE TO BE ADDRESSED BY A PROFESSIONAL TECHNICIAN. Though some list it as a Con, I find the wired remote to be quite convenient with the long cord run behind my desk and the remote in reach near my monitor (volume, bass control, and a headset connection on the remote). Good directions - easy to follow - even a caveman could do it! Supplied stickers allow for tagging designations of speakers.

Cons: I can understand why some might like to see speaker stands included (they aren't). Personally, I don't like more on my desk and preferred hanging them on the wall, so no detriment for me. Biggest Con I have is side speakers do not have adaquate wire length if you plan on having any significant distance. All speakers could probably use a few more feet of wire. I will likely be doing some splicing in the near future on the side speakers. CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOUR SOUND CARD IS 7.1 CAPABLE (Many complain that 2 speakers fail to work after purchase - due to inability of Sound card - not the speakers.

Other Thoughts: Some have reviewed this system as a nightmare to set up. I did not find it difficult and don't understand why anyone would say so. 7 speakers with 7 wires running to a well marked subwoofer for hook-up (read directions for connecting to proper input locations). One reviewer on another site mentioned the power unit getting hot. That had me concerned and have checked on it often. Never more than warm on mine - as expected. Not even close to "hot." I do agree that this is probably not the system for serious music masters (I would expect they would spring for Bose or other super quality speakers), but for those of us who want to do the gaming or just hear a decent music playback in 7.1, this has a good bang for the buck. For a basic and solid 7.1 system without going broke, that has a very good sound, you can't get any better than this for the price! For those reviewers who complain of "cheap" quality, I suggest they spend the $500 - $700 for a "great" 7.1 system. These are definately worth the price.

No one said you had to have Sound Blaster Sound card to hook these too! I went every where bought extra plugs and still coundnt get these speakers to work with my on board sound card. I disabled the old sound card got a Sound Blaster sound card on sale with XRAM and works great! Seems the plug hook up is propriatory (sp) to Creative so almost impossiable to hook up to other sound cards so be warned!

I have had these speakers for about a month now, and so far I have been extremely impressed with their quality for the price. This is definitely the best value you can get for a 7.1 system unless you go for the 400-500 dollar systems like the Creative Giga Works or similar. They do surround sound in gaming extremely well, for games like CS: Source, Unreal Tournament 2004, F.E.A.R., and Quake 4. For music, if you have the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS the mixing and sound quality is just fine. Overall, for under $100 dollars, these speakers are hands down the best 7.1 system you can find on the market.

I bought these speakers having hope for something finally good for my room and my computer. At first i had them hooked up to my ps2 with a bunch of adapters but the sub couldn't go that loud and it was also not under a desk so there wasn't much power. I got a little worried that i wasted $80 but once i hooked them up to an Audigy 2 ZS they go as loud as some recievers and cleaner sound than some $280 speakers I've heard. They easily beat my old 2.0 Altec Lansing speakers by far. If you run a headphone splitter and hook up the Creatives Vs. a normal 2.0 system then you will see a difference because they are getting the same signal and then you can test them out toegther. Well I'll be the first to tell you was i surprised when i first heard them together. These Creatives that i almost ran out of hope for, slaughtered my old 2.0 system. If you give them a good signal from a good sound card and put the subwoofer under the desk, they will be the one of the best systems you'll ever hear.

I've owned these speakers for a little over a year, and for the most part they've been great. The sound quality is great for computer speakers, they're loud and clear, and the bass sounds good. The satellite volume and bass control is very handy since you can put it far away from the speakers or the amp if you need to, and using the headphone jack from there is also convenient.

There are a few caveats you should be aware of:

1. Creative 7.1 sound cards only have three output jacks, even though there are four sets of speakers (front, side, rear, center/bass). I bought these to use with another brand of sound card that had four jacks, and there was no way to hook these speakers up. I didn't feel like spending even more money on four new cables, so I set my soundcard to 5.1 and set these speakers to "up-mix" 5.1 to 7.1. That worked pretty well, but I might as well have saved my money and just bought 5.1 speakers if that's how it was going to be.

2. The rear and side speakers are too quiet, they have to be positioned too close to your head to get the right surround positioning effect. I had to arrange my environment so I was basically sitting in a box with speakers on all sides. If you have children around that sort of arrangement can be precarious or even dangerous depending on what you use to position your speakers (toddlers pulling speaker stands down on their heads is bad.) Eventually I bought a different soundcard that allowed me to adjust the individual speaker volumes somewhat, and that helped me put the rear speakers further behind me.

3. The auxiliary input jack is stereo only, and only plays on the front two speakers (it doesn't even utilize the bass). If you play music through Windows it automatically spreads stereo sound across all of your speakers, so if you care about bass or hearing your music from all speakers, you're better off just running your iPod or other device into the line-in jack on your PC and forgetting the aux jack on the speakers.

4. Since these speakers have wires, you'll have to get the wires to the rear speakers somehow. I ran mine across the floor, and tied them down so I wouldn't trip over them. Obviously that's a problem with most surround systems, and luckily Creative supplies pretty long cables for the rear speakers (longer than I needed, which is great). The problem I ran into is that this past winter was pretty dry, and static electricity from touching the speaker wires fried the amp. I no longer get sound in the left rear or center speakers because of that. I think some sort of wire shielding or better grounding in the amp would have helped (along with maybe a humidifier in my house).

5. A comment about 7.1 surround - If you're buying these to watch movies you might want to save your money and get fewer speakers, since no DVD I'm aware of plays in 7.1. A few play in 6.1 surround, but the vast majority of movies with surround are in 5.1 only. These will "up-mix" a 5.1 or 6.1 movie to 7.1, which is nice, but probably not worth the extra money, or the effort of finding a place to put side speakers (remember that "sitting in a box" feeling I mentioned). If you're buying these speakers for gaming then 7.1 is great.

Overall I've loved these speakers, the sound is great, and coming from a stereo setup having surround is a great new experience. If you have a Creative brand 7.1 soundcard and an environment where you can position the speakers where they need to be, then I highly recommend these. Apart from the caveats I mentioned above I've been very pleased. Otherwise you need to consider your environment and other hardware to decide if these are the best choice for you.

I purchased this product in Dec. '05. It worked okay for 2 years, but I was never able to get full 7.1 sound out of it, even when paired with a Creative Soundblaster Audigy card. After 2 years, the speakers stopped working one day. Creative only offers a 12 month limited warranty to I was SOL.

In summary - Creative makes good speakers, but be warned that they may not last long.

The sound is excellent, good bass (unless you are looking for hip hop style heavy thumping), excellent treble and mids. Volume high enough to hurt this old rock-n-roller's ears. Plugs in easy, set up fine. Software that comes with it is so so. I prefer to use other SW to tune the sound. I can't think of anything that could beat this at the price point.

I would say if you want incredible sound go with Bose. These speakers are just a bunch of small boom box speakers around you. The front speakers defiantly over power the back and side speakers. If you are a gamer that wants a good cheap seat of surround sound speakers, go with these over the 5.1, the sound is more immersive. But if you want music and video sound you need to look elsewhere. The price reflects its performance.

They defiantly help in games, especially in first person shooters like Counter Strike, Call of Duty, and Battle Field 2 to distinguish where you are in relation to where everyone else is on the map without even looking. The surround sound adds a cool new dimension that most people do not think of; sound. When I play Call of Duty, I like to turn the volume and base up high, and the woofer really makes it feel like you are firing a gun.

I bought this product on 2007 for my brother. It got to my friend's house in time, and I brought it home. It not only survived to the trip (8 hours of airplane), but it still works perfectly. Really good stuff!!!