Creative Inspire T3100 Review

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Creative Inspire T3100
3.2 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.2 out of 5

From 1 rating and 3 reviews

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Best Price: £38.3

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fjlvillanueva's Review of Creative Inspire T3100 Speakers

18th Aug 2008

Overall Rating

3.5 stars
  • Value for money
    5 stars
  • Sound Quality
    3.5 stars
  • Ease of Use
    3 stars
  • Time Speakers Owned
    Less than a Week
  • Ease of Set Up
    4 stars

Creative Technology Inspire T3100 have an accurate upper register. Value for money. But upper midrange is too forward. No lower midrange. Overall sound lacks body. No bass/treble controls. I bought Altec Lansing's BXR-1121 a month ago. Basically my main complaint is that there is a sharp rolloff above around 8khz. This shouldn't be a surprise since the Altec BXR-1121s have no tweeters on the sattelites, instead rely on full range drivers to deliver the music.

I have this habit of continuing my research even though I already bought what I wanted... so I came across Creative's T3100 which have two-way sattelites. They have tweeters! This got my attention. Why only now.... this might be the answer to the dull sounding Altecs!

After reading all the reviews (which were very good), I decided to go out and buy a set. No testing and demo allowed in the stores here in the Philippines, so I had to shell out some dough to satisfy my curiosity...

Okay lets get to the point: The sound. Though the specs show more wattage than the Altecs, the Creatives certainly do not sound louder, though the subwoofer has more punch. But that's not what I'm after... The highs definitely sound much sweeter having tweeters. Very welcome indeed after the dullness of the Altec BXR-1211. I would say the main disappointment would be how the critical midrange is reproduced.

The mids are too forward, lacking in body and lower midrange. It's like there's a huge gap between what the sub produces and what the sattelites produce. Yes I have toyed around with placement which tweaked the sound a bit, but I was nowhere close to the desided effect.

Today I reconnected the Altecs and they definitely have a much fuller sound, Midrange does not sound annoyingly thin. Though I'm back to my chief complaint about the full-range drivers the Altec's use- dull sounding treble (which I've managed to cure by using the equalizer in the Windows Media Player- a sin to us audiophile purists- but what the heck- this is a computer system!).

I do have use for the Creative T3100's though- for my office PC. I will try boosting the 250-500 hz range, which hopefully will fill in the lower midrange gap.

Overall, the Creative T3100 is a great set. You just have to find a way to make them sound fuller and deaden that forward midrange. Wow I'm forgetting that these are PC speakers- and it was enough to catch an audiophile's curiosity at an affordable price to boot!

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