Creative GigaWorks T3 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System

I bought these for school after my ears hurt from wearing headphones all the time (earbuds and larger ones). The sound quality off these are very nice, giving you a nice wide range of sound that isn't distorted or too low (as with many other speakers' mid range). I'm currently playing these off my laptop's relatively poor Realtek codec, so I can't really compare it to my previous Altec set at home which was played off a much higher grade Xonar desktop card, however it sounds comfortable over long periods of listening, various types of music, movies, and definitely gaming. What makes this really stand out over other speaker sets is the looks, mid-range performance, and the subwoofer. The sub is what I payed $100~ over the T20/40s (which are decent too, friend has them) for. Lows are deep, not the boomy type, and the controls on the back really do allow you to fine tune the sub to your liking.The included control pod looks classy as well as easy to use. At this price range though, I expected to see some sort of remote (though I never used the remote on my other PC speakers after setting it up), especially for the bass component as that is located at the back of the unit.I suggest this set to those who want high quality sound in a compact package (the speakers and sub are quite small vs other PC speakers). I don't think I've heard a more well balanced set (either emphasis on highs or lows), this set does the full-range really well. I do suggest people to actually go to a store to try them out if they match your tastes. If you test them, please use high quality files (320kbs MP3s or lossless codecs), if you test them with 128kbs files, anything will sound crappy. For people who don't really need the sub, T20s/T40s are a good choice too.

i couldn't believe how this $250.00 system could have such poor performance and the bass was one of the worst i heard don't be fooled by the 3 woofer design it sounds terrible very distored my old $70 system had better sounding bass . dont waste ur money on this piese of junk u will regret it.i returned it right away and got me the logitech z-2300 2.1 system for $130.00 instesd and i'm blown away by the extreme performance of it clean loud undistored bass and overall incredible sound.

I had a set of Z-5500's. They were great, but bulky as hell. So, I sold those; being impressed with Logitech (I've had a slew of their speakers over the past 10 years) I thought I'd pump out 150ish$ for their GigaWorks 2.1's. I've had these speakers awhile, they sound great, and still do.So, you're probably wondering... WTF is with the 2 star?This damn volume POD, should be labeled as a volume POS. The issue started happening 2 months ago, almost 2 years into my purchase: if the volume on the pod isn't cranked all the way up, the volume randomly goes up and down. We aren't talking a little bit, it's incredibly dramatic, enough to scare the hell out of me at times. I'll set the pod half mass, tunes ablaze, and the sound will dump to a whisper; then WAY up to a blast, then settle back down. It's really bizarre.Now, you're probably thinking... you must have some bogus codec or sound normalization feature running and you don't know it... turn your communications setting to not tranquilize your sound 80%. Trust me, I've done it all. What led me to the realization was after I replaced my Soundblaster ZxR with an HT Omega Claro Halo XT. The whole reason I bought the ZxR is so I don't have to type HT OMEGA CLARO HALO XT all day long. Anyway, bought the Claro, same issue. This volume pod is jacked, I hardly ever used the thing too.Long story short, if you get these speakers and plan to actually use volume pod for whatever reason, it's all or nothing. When I use these speakers, I keep the pod at 100% and manually control the volume VIA Windows. This issue happens when I plug an MP3 player into the pod as well... as the idea just dawned upon me to plug my ipod into it. Cool feature though.EDIT: Just saw the Amazon reviews about dust and dirt in the volume POS knob. Perhaps this is the problem... I'll be taking mine apart and giving her some wonderful sexy dielectric grease. This allows all the dust in the world to accumulate but never effect the integrity of the volume POS. I'll follow up.

( Disclaimer: I'm not a "true" audiophile) The system sounds pretty solid. If I had to complain about something, the bass is a little out of line with the high range, I've got my bass turned all the way down, at all times as a result. The annoying thing about this, is the bass volume can only be accessed from the sub, which is never easy to get to.Anyway, the bigger issue is the volume puck. One day about a year and a half after I bought them I noticed that my volume would dip randomly for a few seconds to a few minutes. I thought it was my Windows side, because I never noticed it in Ubuntu, so I sat on it for another 6 months. Well now, conveniently my 2 year warranty (additional year through Chase) ended and I realized it's all the time, and it's not just me. BTW - the issue is really annoying. Turn the volume up to compensate, then all the sudden the sound comes back, and you have to rush to turn the volume down again...Bottom line: I wouldn't recommend this product, unless like everyone else has said, you've got money to burn replacing these over an over.