Creative Inspire T7900

Creative Inspire 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 center 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.

The speakers themselves aren’t going to win a Turner prize for their looks, but are hardly an eyesore. Each of them has the same styling, with the front material grill that sits in front of the angular black body. The silver edge of the speaker unit itself is easily visable through the grill, and so are the allen screws that hold the edge in place. While you can remove the grill, you’ll be left with four ugly(er) holes where the grill slots into. Each speaker comes with its own silver metal stand which is nice and weighty to prevent the speaker from sliding around. The stand connects to the back of each unit with a provided screw, which opens up for the opportunity of wall-mounting these speakers should you wish.

The central speaker features a RMS Watts of 24 meaning that it should be more than powerful enough for DVD watching although this speaker will often not function for general music listening without the correct signal from your PC. It packs a mid-driver and a separate tweeter so that the higher pitched sounds are muddied by using an oversized driver.

The front two speakers are similar with the separate drivers, but with a lower output power of 8W which is the same for the other satellite speakers. The outer four speakers are left with a simple mid-range driver as they will be used primarily for surround elements to a DVD and don’t need the same quality that the front three will. Interestingly, while the front three speakers have moulded wire output, the four surround speakers are the more versatile bare-wire method, which would open up the opportunity to use different speakers with the same cable although you’ll run into volume issues with non-Creative speakers not designed for this kit. As a result, the choice of using bare-wire connectors appears to only be to allow you to thread the cable through a smaller hole than a moulded connector would permit. It’ll also allow you to use a longer wire if the provided don’t meet your needs.

Creative speakers aren't known for their good looks, and the Eastern bloc angular blandness of the T7900s is no exception. The metal satellite stands make the black, boxy satellites look a little more interesting, but you're not going to be proud to have these on display.

The wired remote doesn't help matters. It's an ugly plastic dongle with controls that would be far better subtly frontmounted to one of the satellites, as with the Altecs. What would also be appreciated are some adapter cables so you could, if you wish, rig the T7900s up to an AV amp or DVD player.

But it all comes down to the price. As we've said before, the T7900s are not bad, merely ordinary, and £99 is hard to grumble about, though you will quickly become aware of their weaknesses. We do hope that Creative launches something that falls between these and its £330 Gigaworks speakers though.