Review: Philips A 3.500 Acoustic Surround Speakers
Iain Laskey looks at an interesting new set of speakers from Philips
| Product | A 3.500 Acoustic Surround Power Speakers |
|---|---|
| Company | Philips |
| Web | www.philips.co.uk |
| Price | £99.99 |
| We like | |
| We don't like | |
| Rating | 8/10 |
| Requirements |
Philips haven't really made a huge splash in the PC speaker field but hope to change all that with this new set of multimedia speakers. The four satellite speakers are unusual in that they are based on the Nxt flat panel speaker technology. They are very slim indeed being no more than an inch or so deep. The sub bass is a compact floor unit with two drivers. One points forward behind a smoked Perspex cover and the other down. The whole system is controlled by a nifty remote control.
The connectivity is interesting. The sound card connects to the bass unit with the satellite speakers connecting to the bass. The bass unit has several different sets of connections allowing you to connect your PC plus up to two other devices such as a minidisc player or a home cinema surround sound decoder. Several leads are supplied to help with this.
Philips has modified the basic Nxt design to improve the treble response. The speakers themselves look good and feature a stand design that can have them sitting vertically or horizontally as well as detached completely perhaps for wall mounting. The bass too has a tweak in the form of w00x technology although it isn't entirely clear what w00x does. Despite switching it on and off I could hear very little difference, perhaps my carpet was absorbing it all?
The remote is a nice touch and allows you to select input, bass, treble, mute, volume and fade as well as three presets for music, games and speech. On the downside, this is the only way to control the speakers and if it dies or you run out of batteries you're stuffed.
The receiver module is a separate unit with a sticky pad for mounting it next to your monitor or wherever else you choose and is wired back to the sub bass unit. It has several LEDs to indicate which input is selected and when it is receiving instructions. A nice touch is that when, say, the bass is at maximum, the receiving light stops flashing.
Audio Impressions
I tested the speakers with a Sound Blaster Live audio card. The Philips system has a characteristic sound that is somewhat odd but certainly not bad. When playing CDs it could either sound detailed, exciting and clear or it could sound dull and muddy depending on the type of music. It had a strange ability to emphasise the overall tone of the music. It was also all too easy for the treble to sound rather harsh. With the right music the system can sound very impressive indeed but some careful adjustment is needed to get the best from it. That said, the satellites and sub integrate well and the system sounds cohesive rather than little tinny speakers up here and a bassy one down there. The bass isn't particularly deep but what there is is well controlled. For music this would be fine but gamers might find the lack of real grunting bass a turn off.
Conclusion.
There are better sounding speakers on the market but the multiple inputs and remote control all help to balance up the admittedly minor deficiencies in the sound department. People who just want to play games might want to look elsewhere but if your PC usage includes listening to CDs, MP3s and radio too then these Philips speakers are definitely worth checking out. The multiple inputs are a major bonus too which other manufacturers ought to take note of.
