Creative Labs MegaWorks 550 5.1 THX Computer Speakers (6-Speaker, Black)

List Price: $299.99

Features:

• Enhanced design over our award-winning MegaWorks 510D, with THX® quality performance in movies, games, and music
• High precision rare-earth magnet driver enables a compact speaker design for optimum audio fidelity
• Palm-sized wired remote with master volume, power, treble, bass, and mute controls; headphones jack; and individual control of center and rear speakers
• The widest sweet spot provides an engulfing 5.1 surround sound experience with any Sound Blaster® 5.1 sound card

Accessories:
Monster PC700 Computer PowerCenter¿ with Surge Protection	Wharfedale MovieStar 60 Speaker Stands, Pair (Speakers Not Included)

Customer Reviews:

THX Rocks! [Posted on 2004-03-01]
I bought this item a couple of months ago. At first I wasn't very impressed. The sound card in my computer wouldn't support the 5.1 surround sound. So, I had to buy a brand new sound card. After I got my new sound card installed, I still couldn't get all of my speakers to work. I adjusted my speaker settings from 5.1 to 7.1 and all my speakers work. This is a little confusing, since these speakers are supposed to be 5.1. But hey, who am I to complain? In conclusion, I would definitely recommend these speakers to anyone that wants to rock the house! (just make sure your sound card will support 5.1 to get the full experience of six speakers)

Musical performance poor [Posted on 2004-03-22]
Although this system might seem great for heavy gamers, its musical performance is poor and lacks behind compared to home theater systems. If you are a trained ear and listen to classical music now and then you're able to notice the lack of accurate sound in the midrange frequencies. Since many pc users will be playing music cd's or mp3s on their systems just as well as games or DVD's, the standard should be put for both use. The subwoofer of the 550 Megaworks is predominantly present when playing audio cd's and cannot be tuned to an acceptable level by either the 550's remote control or audio card sound controls (I own an Audigy 2 ZS from Creative). Although 2-way satellite speakers enclosed with the Gigaworks S750 or Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultra might do a better job, I seriously doubt whether you can ever get the same performance like you have on the average home theater set from Sony or any other manufacturer. Cables delivered with the 550 have unshielded copper and can easily transfer noise. So actually, you have to re-wire the 550 from the start with better quality cables. All in all, very disappointing in view of the price you have to pay for 5.1 or 7.1 speakers such as these.

awsome speakers, great all around [Posted on 2004-03-27]
wow these speakers are amazing, creative also has awsome tech support, these speakers perform flawlessly in lows, highs, mids. the bass is incridiable, u cannot notice where its comming from, really smooth, and the controller is nifty, gives you options for rear, master, center, bass, trible, and mute. at 80% the speakers are unbarable, saying its really clean and undistorted at 80% but its way tooo loud for me. 60% is sometimes pushing it, 40% is my usual casual listen level, these speakers sure do have a lot of power. the package it came with was quite well done. a lot bigger then i expected for the size of the satillites and the sub but thats a good thing:), setup is quite easy to do, but do make sure you do have a compatiable 5.1 sound card. the rear speakers cables are quite long, long enough to get to the rear for my room. hear things i never heard on my old logitech z 640 speakers, awsome job creative!:)! defently a good buy! no tweeter who cares if its able to produce such good sound, and if you have issues with any parts u can call creative and they will replace it (like i think my remote is messed up), i asked them if i need to send in the product or pay anything they said no to both, awsome tech support! go creative!

ok review add on after a few months of experience.
awsome still, no issues at all, creative have excellent tech support if anyone ever needs it. some of the best midrange and low range sounds out there. considering the fact that these are 3.5 inch drivers in the satillites it should be able to do well, and combine it with a 8 inch downfiring sub, highs are half decent but can be better:).

Supurb, versatile speakers...Best I've heard [Posted on 2005-08-21]
I've had the THX 550 for about a week. I was lost for words when I first opened the box. The Subwoofer is so big. That expains for the 17kg mass(for the entire set). Till today, i am still shocked at how I managed to carry the speakers up the tram(melbourne). The satalites are larger than an average set of PC speakers. The build qualty is also second to none. Golly, it better be good.
Indeed. It was. Setting up was easy thanks to the colour coded cables. The main problem was that the centre speaker's stand keeps collasping under its weight. I hooked it up to a creative 5.1 card and sat back to enjoy. My first impression was that the volume was kind of soft. I found out that some burning in was required after reading a couple of reviews. I did just that. The volume increased after the burning in.
The following day, I played some pieces of music that had very deep bass. Oh golly! It was good. All the previous speakers I had heard and owned before( with subwoofer) were unable to reach these low notes and gave a really disgusting note that was totally off pitch instead. This subwoofer handled it beautifully, revealing information which most people with other speaker sets miss. The powerful subwoofer, mated with 5 high quality satalites that churn out good mid range and clean highs allow the THX 550 to handle wide range of music beautifully. A couple of reviewers were unhappy that the sub was overpowering. This was no problem for me even at default settings. Classical, piano, jazz, deep music etc came up well. and the best thing was that THERE WAS NO HISSING! This revealed plenty of detail that would be otherwise be musked by the hissing.
Overall, I am fully satisfied with my purchase(with the exception of the centre speaker stand). however, this should not be a major concern if one plans to wall mount the satalites(mounting equipment provided).
The exceptional sound quality, great build quality and versility has led me to give 5 stars. It is truly deserving of the THX certification. The only other speaker systems I've heard, that out perform the THX 550 are the speakers in the gigaworks range 7.1(though they are an overkill for a PC system )

DO NOT BUY [Posted on 2006-08-09]
OK this system is great i will admit.. when it works. I bought mine from creative labs 19 months ago. The sub stopped coming on. It just wont power up. i have seen that a lot of people have had this problem. I called and talked to customer support about it.. it turns out they dont care. I was told that they cannot sell me a replacement piece, not only that but they refuse to repair it (i offered to pay for the repair). A friend of mine came over to look at it, and when we opened it up we found that all the wires were glued together lol making it just about impossible to repair (which explains why creative labs doesnt repair their products)

So after an hour on the phone with creative labs i learned that creative labs makes cheap products and if they break they dont care. I wont buy anything else from them and i would suggest everyone not either.

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