| Gadgets,
Toys and Such - Page 1 |
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By Wilfred
03/12/99
Hardware One
Creative
Surround Station
The Surround Station is
really a clever (or should I say creative?) creation. I will
explain why.
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| The
huge box that the set came in. |
The first Creative Sound Blaster Live!
card supported 4 speaker surround audio since its launch. Then, to sweeten the deal, Creative bundled the FourPointSurround speakers from their
Cambridge SoundWorks subsidiary which really popularize
the adoption of this new form of PC multimedia
entertainment.
Though the speakers were of
good quality and sold affordably, coming even with rear
stands of their own, they never made it into the homes of
many - simply because there existed difficulties of getting a
good setup for the rear speakers.
Usually, the cables that
comes
supplied within the Cambridge SoundWorks speakers were in 3m and
5m lengths - the rear 5m being barely sufficient. Users
sometimes made do by running cables across the
floor, creating a minefield to trip upon. It was a big no no
for many.
Unrelenting, some (like myself) bought audio cables,
improvised crude extensions and ran them across
the walls of the room anyhow. Indeed, most hoped for a more elegant
and simpler solution. Entertainment is supposed to be
painless after all.
How
I Think The Idea Was Conceived...
At many of Creative’s
demo booths, they used stands that stretched from the front
with overhanging speaker arms for the rear satellites. I did not imagine the
company actually making a retail product out of this, but
yes, they modified their showroom creations so that they
became foldable when not in use.
You probably cannot come to
terms with the fact that Creative now sells ‘furniture’,
but it made good business sense. If nobody is going
to make this and help them sell their speakers, they had to
undertake it themselves.
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| One
of the higher positions to anchor the rear speakers |
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| The
usual listening position that I would use. |
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| The
SurroundStation fully retracted. |
The product is sold for
S$109, coming in a huge but neatly packed box with warranty
card and a setup guide. It is compatible with the entire
range of Cambridge SoundWorks speakers, namely the FPS1000,
FPS 2000 Digital, DeskTop Theater 5.1 and DeskTop Theater
DTT2500 Digital, so you shouldn’t have to worry if you
procured these systems.
The set is heavy, very
heavy, but just from the looks of it, you know they created
the stands with the same Creative pride. Each part of
the assembly was packed in bubble foam and separately
boxed.
Installation was fairly straight
forward. The setup instructions were clear and simple. The
only tough part getting the parts together was the
weight and clunkiness.
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| The
instruction guide on the setup procedures. |
You will need to toy around
with only 2 screws and the rest will just snap into place. The
heavy base plate gives the sturdy stands a good grounding in
case you placed heavier than expected speakers on the arms.
Also, I did not encounter much difficulty fitting my 17” monitor
within the constraints of the setup, but owners of bigger
monitors may want to pay more attention to the exact
measurements (about 40cm allowance).
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| The
'cross bar' measuring about 40cm across will be what
users should be concerned with - ensure the monitor
fits. |
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| The
multi-level knob allows you to easily adjust
elevation levels of the rear speakers. |
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| The
joint on the arm which allows you to fold the arm in
two. |
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| A
reminder and word of caution for those who might
bang into a lowered speaker arm. |
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| The
heavy base plate which holds the stand and uses the
monitor's weight to stabilise the outreaching arms. |
After the basic structure
is in place, you will need to thread the speaker wires
through the hollow in the arm piping. I don’t weave
sweaters nor thread needles in my free time, and I found this
chore particularly strenuous. It was done after some 20
minutes of coercing the wires through. Next I attached the
rear satellites using the nuts provided onto the speaker
arms. I was done. Whew!
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| The
satellites as mounted on the rear. Doubly secured
with rubber bands, just in case! |
Next was actually to test
out my new setup. I found the speaker arms a little short
and does not reach sufficiently far back as I would have
liked. I made do. Watching Terminator DVD on my PC, I found
the best experience when the rear speakers were at my ear
level. Though it was a tat too close, that was far better
than having the satellites fire down from a 50 degree angle
at the next stepping.
The enclosure limited the
‘Dolby Digital’ experience to only a single user that
sits within it. And for the aesthetic aspect, the arms can
be rotated back to a vertical position and foldable.
So if
you think you can live with the limitations I brought up and don’t
think it will be an eyesore in your room, the
SurroundStation is a good attempt by Creative to meet
users’ need for better speaker placement.
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