Product Description
CREATIVE INSPIRE T7900 7.1
Customer Reviews:
Good but not great!.......2007-09-03
Creative Inspire T7900 is a decent balanced set from Creative®. I have been using this speaker set for over six months and what seems to me that the manufacturer has tried to produce a product as good as possible with its somewhat outdated and cheap technology. Their intention and outlook is quite sincere but due to price constraints, the outcome induces somewhat a mixed feeling. One thing is for sure that the speaker is not for the most serious of audio listeners. As the manufacturers understand their limitation and not try to exceed them with some flawed and ambitious tactics, the speaker sounds very much balanced- neither accentuating nor diminishing any particular frequency band. Nevertheless, as the speaker does not have enough clarity or punch it cannot generate the necessary feel and very often, the audio sounds weaker than average speakers.
Pros
A 7.1 speaker set and thereby supports all known audio formats.
Well balanced set. Almost even frequency response from 40 H 20,000Hz.
Good directional PC audio.
Good natural bass from the subwoofer.
Sounds perfect for modern day music, sci-fi action movies and games.
Respectable speaker design.
The headphone and auxiliary input jack on the volume controller do come handy in time.
No noise and no distortion even at high volume.
Lots of cable.
Cheap for a 7.1 speaker set.
Cons
Often sounds muffled with a bit older weaker recordings.
Loses quite a lot of details during sound reproduction. You would never understand it if you play only sources that have quite an even frequency distribution or is full of sharp percussive instruments. However, if you play something that has high frequencies in actual mid frequency band (that is lack of true high frequency sound, above 12 kHz, may be because of older recording, low bit-rate mp3 or because of the nature of the song), the output is something disgusting.
Poor sound imaging. Sound imaging indicates the size and location of the source as exhibited by the output audio. In spite of developers effort to give the sound a bigger fuller effect, it is quite easy to ascertain that the satellites are small and produces only high frequencies.
Poor midrange performance, as stated earlier. Sounds awful with audio dependant on mid frequencies below 12 kHz.
The satellites are weak. Therefore, the speaker turns out to be something tiny sounding when there is not lot of bass and treble too make the sound feel bright.
The speaker has too high threshold value for the higher frequencies. One positive outcome is no noise but sometimes it also skips high frequencies and the audio sounds muffled.
The speaker looses clarity with softer and weaker sound. So you cannot hear the low voice and faded background music from DVDs.
With too many musical instruments, the audio sounds overloaded and stressed.
The volume controller is very difficult to stably place. A remote controller would be preferable or the controller and the jacks could be front mounted to the center speaker or the sub.
Bare-end copper wire for satellites gets a bit rusty in time.
The speaker is cheap and its sound quality does not exceed its price.
Suggestion
Casual computer users looking for a good cheap all-format supporting speaker should buy this stuff. Those who love music from different ages and critical about the sound quality should look for a better set, may be from Altec or Logitech. I am one of them and therefore I have sold it out to one of my friends!
A few problems and solution:
The 7.1 cable supplied works only with Creatives Soundcard: to solve this, connect the stereo cables with your built-in soundcard as directed. Then all the satellites will sound apart from the side speakers. Notice that there are 4 stereo jacks on the subwoofer rear side. So buy a single stereo cable and connect it with your soundcard and directly to the rear of the sub replacing the side satellite jack.
Too short cables for the satellite: Buy some RCA MF extension cable from creative website at $10 (not available everywhere)!
7 reasons to get wrong.......2007-07-24
I have had this sytem for 14 days, and I can't recommend it to anybody.
I had made my mind to buy a 5.1 system, but my room's configuration required some large wiring to locate correctly the left rear speaker; the cables in the Creative T6100 and the Logitech X540, were too short for me, but getting an extension was easy. Then, I saw the Creative T7900, read that the cables were long enough, and that silly little detail made me choose the 7.1 system. Error #1.
I spent 90 good minutes setting the system, hiding the cables in corners, under the carpet, etc.... But the sound was not good: it was not surround sound at all!
I spent them longer time, moving the speakers at freedom, giving a damn then about seeing the cables all over the room or not... The problem is that, to get really surrounding sound, I should get some speaker stands to setup the rear and side speakers to some height, and then put them in a perfect circle around me... and, if possible, really close.
This is the error #2: my room was not adequate. But, I cannot imagine which room could fit. Mine is rectangular, quite small, I have complete freedom to locate the speakers...
And also the error #3: if you get this system, please buy as well some speaker stands for the rear speakers. And error #4, as the side speakers require as well hight positions.
And error #5: price is not anymore fine. Speakers plus two sets of stands makes the system not cheap anymore...
Well, before ordering the stands, I used some boxes as stands. I could hardly move, but I was surrounded by speakers... I guess that receiving noise from several locations around you could pass for surround sound, no? Perhaps I was already too sensible, but music didn't sound specially great. And that keeping low level,s trying to get it loud was another mistake: error #6.
Error #7 was playing with the bass control... better let it alone, in some low to very low level...
On the 14th day, I discovered that I could return the system in 14 days... so I spent another 90 minutes to disconnect the speakers, pack them again and carry the heavy box to the shop.
I have now decided to buy the Logitech Z-5500. That is much more expensive, but perhaps it will worth the money. I am not sure if the cheaper Logitech systems will fare as bad as these Creative ones, but all I can say: if your budget does not buy a good Logitech/Creative system, perhaps the T6100 or Logitech X540 are good alternatives, but the additional speakers on the T7900 count only as additional errors.
Great!.......2007-04-28
Had these speakers for about a year now, so I can give a reasonably unbiased review :D
I have a Audigy 2 ZS sound card (Works best out of the creative cards on linux, Incidentally the ALSA drivers for this card are great, sound better to me than the windows ones) and setting this sound system up was very easy, but as others have said it's not so easy without a Creative sound card.
The Speaker quality is really good, I listen to a wide range of music and play games and it all works very well. The subwoofer is quite powerful, I usually turn it down a little from normal to stop the bass being too loud in my small room... There's plenty of power in the speakers. As others have said, the Sub, Front, and Center speakers are defiantly the best, the rear/side speakers are'nt as good but the overall effect is good.
The wired remote is'nt too great, considering getting the wireless remote add-on. It has the volume control, bass level, headphone socket, and aux input, but It's not exactly stylish and has strangely thick wires running between it and the sub/amp.
These speakers are pretty cheap for the quality you get, but you really need a good and preferably creative sound card to get the best out of them - little vendor lock-in there.
Quite a good 7.1 set-up but don't expect it to work out of the box with on-board PC sound.......2007-01-16
This is quite a good value and good looking 7.1 set, and the sound is more than adequate for games and listening to music (far better than a Ghetto Blaster). It goes loud too without distortion. The wired remote is fine for my son and I, as it sits happily on the desktop and controls overall volume and subwoofer bass volume via two rotary knobs (including power on/off) - much easier than using windows/games menus or crawling under the desk to reach the subwoofer. The wired remote also has analogue line-in, great for MP3 players, and a headphone socket (via standard miniature stereo jacks) - you can't tell which is which easily though. The headphone socket cuts out the sound to the speakers when used.
We have managed to place all 7 speakers around my sons bunk bed/under desk unit, even hiding all the cables. I can't imagine fitting this 7.1 speaker set into our sitting room though, as I just couldn't live with all the trailing black speaker leads. See Creative.com's website for the speaker sizes. Other than that the only downside - and it's a biggy - is that the four standard RCA mini-jack lines into the subwoofer unit combine to just three for the PC's motherboard/soundcard sockets (colour-labelled 1, 2, & 3 to match a PCI Creative X-Fi sound card). This means that the supplied cable simply won't work with most on-board PC sound that have the standard 4 output jacks for the respective speakers position. I wish Creative could have included a converter cable to split the jacks input correctly as it is hardly an unforeseen problem. I have had to buy a few stereo jack leads to bypass the supplied one, which has now got all the speakers working. Our motherboard integrated sound is 7.1 but you can switch the woofer/control unit to upmix from 5.1 and 6.1 sound cards - but I don't how succesful it is (even 7.1 sound can be hit and miss with a stereo signal as the source, particularly with an on-board sound chip and driver). If the 7.1 upmix and EAX sound has problems, don't automatically blame the speakers - in our case it has always seemed to be poorly written soundcard drivers.
Our PC's motherboard SoundMax 7.1 sound chip, drivers and output sockets weren't really up to running these speakers properly (software & games rarely recognised the 7.1 setup and mostly we just got the front stereo/centre and subwoofer actually playing. So we have now bought a Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music PCI card from an Amazon reseller to get these T7900 speakers working correctly to their full potential. This card cost almost as much as the speaker set, but we think it was worth it to get proper CMSS surround sound and a better sound quality, e.g. when using the excellent XFi crystalizer chip to enhance DVDs & MP3s (plus there's the X-Fi card's optional extra's like a real wireless remote, in/out expansion box and home theatre connections). We have had the speakers for a year now and the speakers/volume control are still looking/working as new. So by all means give this excellent set of Creative 7.1 speakers a go, but be aware that you may run into some problems if you aren't using an X-Fi Creative sound card and it's latest drivers.
Superb surround system, shame about the remote..........2006-07-28
Love this sound system, packs a real punch with its base, and it's far better than having OEM speakers that I am used to. I like the metal stands but it would be nice to have the rest of the setup designed a bit better, the sound make up for that though. I think the main flaw of them though is the plasticy wired remote, I would have prefered to pay the extra £10/£20 it would have cost them to include wireless, or have saved some and included it on the sub-woofer, apart from that fantastic. If your looking for a nice sound system without going for one of the higher ranges I would recomend this one.
Product Description
High-resolution 7.1 surround sound.
Creative® InspireTM T7900 speakers deliver unrivalled 7.1 surround sound immersion in games, movies and music. When used with Sound Blaster® 7.1 sound cards they support the latest and most advanced standards for surround audio available today. The front satellites incorporate tweeters and mid-range drivers for detailed mid-to-high tonality, and the reinforced wood subwoofer provides dynamic bass. The front centre speaker has extra amplification for improved dialogue and effects, while its horizontal design enables it to be positioned for optimum results as a home theatre system. Versatile connectivity via the subwoofer and wired remote enables use with multiple sound sources, and Creative's CMSS up-mix technology supports 7.1 output from 5.1 or 6.1 sound cards.
Specifications:
8 Watts RMS per channel (6 channels)
20 Watts RMS centre speaker
24 Watts RMS subwoofer
Frequency Response: 40Hz ~ 20kHz
Front satellites feature tweeters and mid-range drivers for smooth mid-to-high output.
High-power front centre speaker ensures maximum detail in movie dialogue.
Creative CMSS technology supports up-mix to 7.1 surround from 5.1 or 6.1 sound cards.
Reinforced, ported wood subwoofer for dynamic bass detail, with line-in for connection to main source.
Perfect with Sounds Blaster 7.1 cards
Technical Specifications
8 Watts RMS per channel (6 channels)
20 Watts RMS centre speaker
24 Watts RMS subwoofer
Frequency Response: 40Hz ~ 20kHz
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR): 80dB
Magnetically-shielded satellite speakers allows for placement near monitor
Two-way design in three front speakers for enhanced acoustic performance
Reinforced wood subwoofer provides powerful and rock solid bass for extended reproduction
Wired Remote Control features
Power On/Off & Volume
Bass Level
Headphone Jack
Auxiliary Line In
Warranty
2-year limited hardware warrant
Product Description
Technical DataHeader / Product LineCreative InspireTechnical DataHeader / ModelT7900Technical DataHeader / ManufacturerCreative TechnologyTechnical DataHeader / Packaged Quantity1Technical DataRemote Control / TypeRemote controlTechnical DataSpeaker System / Response BandwidthHz40 - 20000Technical DataSpeaker System / Speaker System TypePC multimedia home theatre speaker systemTechnical DataSpeaker System / Amplification TypeActiveTechnical DataSpeaker System / Connectivity TechnologyWired
Product Description
Specifications: 8 Watts RMS per channel (6 channels), 20 Watts RMS centre speaker, 24 Watts RMS subwoofer, Frequency Response: 40Hz ~ 20kHz
Front satellites feature tweeters and mid-range drivers for smooth mid-to-high output
High-power front centre speaker ensures maximum detail in movie dialogue
Creative CMSS technology supports up-mix to 7.1 surround from 5.1 or 6.1 sound cards
Reinforced, ported wood subwoofer for dynamic bass detail, with line-in for connection to main source
Perfect with Sounds Blaster 7.1 cards
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