Tiny Inspiration - Creative Inspire S2 2.1 Speakers

Inspired Smallness

With the advent of decent onboard audio, Creative's Sound Blaster sound cards may not enjoy the same popularity as they did in the past, but the company is still very much in the audio business. Apart from its Zen series of portable media players, Creative can also count speakers, headphones and professional audio interfaces in its stable of audio products.

Creative's selection of speaker systems remains one of the largest in the market and while their new GigaWorks series represents the cream of the crop, budget and mainstream users can look forward to great deals from its more affordable Inspire and i-Trigue series of speaker systems.

Today, we take a look at Creative's newest addition to the Inspire line - the Inspire S2. The S2 arrives as the new flagship 2.1 speaker system in the Inspire line-up and it has been positioned by Creative as an ideal companion for notebook PCs and MP3 players due to its small size. We check it out to see if it delivers on those claims, but first, its technical specifications.

The Creative Inspire S2

As we unpacked the Inspire S2 from its package, we soon realized that Creative's claims about the compactness of the speakers are indeed accurate. The twin satellites are truly no larger than tennis balls and the subwoofer weighs merely one kilogram! Despite the small size, Creative promises the Inspire S2 will deliver on sound, thanks to quality drivers in the satellites and the special DIRECT-THROW subwoofer (click on the link to find out more).

But while the compact dimensions were commendable, we were left flustered at the fact that there was no way to detach the cabling between the right satellite and the subwoofer. This would be a problem for those looking to route the cables through their table's cable grommets, or users with fixed place furniture. Oddly, the left satellite's cables could be detached, so we don't see why Creative couldn't do the same for the other side.

Test Setup

We'll be using our trusty setup of a Shuttle XPC SD37P2 (Intel 975X), which is mated to an Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard. In turn, the Inspire S2 was plugged into the soundcard by way of its supplied 3.5mm stereo jack.

Testing would be done across four categories: CD, MP3, movies and games. We'll be testing the Inspire S2 across a wide variety of tracks to gauge its performance. To gain a better understanding of how we are rating the speakers, please head to our test setup section of our mega 2.1 speaker shootout.

The Inspire S2 includes a bass level adjuster on its subwoofer and by default, we left it in the middle position, and adjusted it only when we wanted to have a feel at how the speakers would perform with stronger bass.

The complete list of testing material is as follows:

CD Testing:

• Pod Race Scene from Phantom Menance
• Tyrannosaurus Rex Sound Effects from Jurassic Park
• Theme from Jurassic Park
• Apollo 13 Lift-off Sound Effects
• Theme from Cutthroat Island
• Fanfare for Louis, performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony
• 
  

MP3 Testing:

• Hotel California - Eagles
• Sail on Soothsayer - Buckethead
• Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele
• Elements of Life - Tiesto
• 
  

DVD Testing: 

• Lord of the Rings - (Starting sequence, Balin's Tomb & Bridge of Khazad-dum)
• Swordfish (Starting sequence)
• 
  

Game Testing:

• Far Cry 2

Report Card

We began testing the Creative Inspire S2 with our collection of CD tracks, which gives us a good initial feel of what the speakers are capable of, since they range from sound effects to orchestral pieces. Immediately, we noticed that the Inspire S2 has a weakness with the higher registers, as they seem to be attenuated, leaving the swoosh and crackles in the Pod Race scene rather unsatisfying. Stereo reproduction, however, was spot on.

We also noticed that despite the DIRECT-THROW technology present in the subwoofer, the Inspire S2 felt a bit lacking in bass. This meant a subdued performance on the T-Rex and Apollo 13 sound effects test tracks. Adjusting the bass levels did alleviate matters slightly, but it resulted in a muddier sound.

Moving on the music MP3 tracks, the Creative Inspire S2 continued to display a significant amount of attenuation in the highs and a lack of quantity in the bass department. It also sounded a little veiled, and altogether, this left the shakers in Hotel California sounding hollow and the bass drums sounding muted.

The weak bass response also reared its ugly head in Tiesto's Elements of Life, making the track seem soulless - we didn't feel like bobbing our heads as we normally would. However, we must commend the Inspire S2 for its warm sound, which made Adele's Melt My Heart to Stone more listenable, compared to the other tracks.

The Creative Inspire S2 performed slightly better in movies, as the audio felt atmospheric enough. But dialogue was noticeably lacking in clarity, especially so in the opening sequence of Swordfish where John Travolta expounds on his theory of modern American cinema. Explosions and sword fights sounded meek too and that is largely due to the lack of bass from the lightweight subwoofer. Luckily, increasing the bass volume helped matters considerably, without affecting the quality too much.

When playing Far Cry 2, we noticed that the Creative Inspire S2 failed to handle the background jungle noises appropriately. Gun shots and explosions also lacked oomph and impact.

An Uninspired Showing

After the fine showings from Creative in the form of the impressive GigaWorks T3 and GigaWorks T40, we were expecting another hit, but Creative has dropped the ball with the Inspire S2.

While its compact size is appreciated, we cannot say the same for its sonic performance, which left us wanting more. Roll off from the highs, a considerable lack of bass and not much liveliness are problems encountered with the Inspire S2. This is more apparent if you are an avid music listener. It seems here that size does matter, if only sometimes.

Elsewhere, Creative's decision to not have detachable cables between the right satellite and subwoofer is just downright annoying and inconsistent. Furthermore, as the flagship for its Inspire series, Creative could have also provided a wired remote, or at the very least, relocate the bass adjustment dial to one of the satellite speakers so that it'll be far easier to reach.

But the final killing blow to the Creative Inspire S2 has to be its price. At S$119, it is not exactly what you'd call expensive on first glance, but the odd thing is that the Inspire T3130 2.1 speaker system costs a much more affordable S$79. And we don't think it could sound that much worse than the S2. It looks even worse compared to the Inspire T6160, which is a 5.1 surround speaker system which goes for the same price as the Inspire S2 - talk about bang for buck.

To end, we must maintain that sound is a very subjective matter and everyone has different audio tastes and preferences. But we feel that Creative is asking too much of the Inspire S2, and at that price, it will be difficult to compete, especially against Creative's own speakers. For that $120 price range, our advice is to check out Creative's other offerings, namely the 5.1-channel Inspire T6160 and the slightly costlier GigaWorks T20, or even the cheaper Inspire T3130. All seem to provide better value and arguably, better audio performance than the insipid Inspire S2.

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