Аlthough not an essential addition to a PC system, a set of speakers certainly provides another form of entertainment, particularly if you use your PC for more than word processing. The fact is that PCs and computer devices in general do far more these days than they were originally conceived for, everything from video editing to running a full DJ studio. Or perhaps to simply play a few games to provide an escape after a long day poring over figures in an office.
In fact, statistics tell us that most users tend to buy a set of speakers not long after their initial purchase. If you've travelled this road, you'll already know there are literally hundreds of speakers out there to choose from. Ranging in price from a couple of pounds to many hundreds, which obviously has a bearing on the output you can expect. For example, the cheapest speakers you can buy are generally unpowered and rely on the output from the PCs own sound card, which could be a separate device or one built into the PC’s motherboard. This type is not very efficient and would create what I consider to be a noise rather than sound. Now before we get bogged down in the fact that all sound is actually noise, I think you know what I'm saying... Whether you're pumping out Beethoven's Fifth or the roar of a formula one engine, they don’t reproduce the sound with any degree of fidelity.
If you climb the ladder a bit higher, you get speakers that are usually powered from the USB port on your PC. This normally indicates that they have some form of amplification built in, so they have the ability to produce a more reasonable sound with less distortion. And for gaming or listening to background music, I'm sure they're fine, but for anything more than that you need powered speakers, like this latest release from Edifier.
The Studio 980T speakers are quite compact at 140 x 226 x 197mm, yet they produce a sound that is both clear and with a decent amount of bass. They achieve this from a 106mm bass unit and 13mm silk domed tweeter. While not in the same class as a set of Bose or Bowers & Wilkins speakers, they can pump out 21W RMS and are perfectly suited for the purpose they were designed for.
The enclosure is a sealed and reasonably heavy construction, made from a black wood grained composite material. The front is removable, for those that like to hear the speaker units without any possible chance of distortion. Having said, that the covers are made from very fine cloth, so I don't feel they impede the sound quality anyway.
There are rotary controls for volume and bass on the back of the right speaker. This also has two sets of input RCA phono sockets, an on/ off switch and a pair of red/ black sprung connectors to link the speakers together. The inputs sockets are marked PC and aux and unusually the package includes all the necessary cables.
For those that like to see the statistics, the signal to noise ratio is 85dBA, the frequency response is 70 HZ-20 KHZ +/-9db and the input sensitivity is 700±50mV for PC and 550±50mV (THD+N=1 %) for aux.
Personally, I prefer to simply listen to the output, which for their size and price (in my opinion) is excellent. I'm pleased to see that the designers have not pushed the drivers beyond their capabilities either, so even at full volume, there’s practically no distortion. In fact, with a decent sound source, they're better than some dedicated midi systems I've sampled. Joe Lavery