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Logisys SP 6000 Alien Sound System
Testing
Music The Mahones - Drunken Lazy Bastard, The Clancy Brothers - Irish Fiddle Song, Propellorheads - Spybreak from The Matrix soundtrack, The Dust Brothers - Stealing Fat from the Fight Club soundtrack, The Beastie Boys - Alive, Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch, The Pogues - Whiskey in the Jar, Gogol Bordello - Sacred Darling, George Clinton and Ice Cube - Bop Gun, Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lookin out My Back Door, Public Enemy - Can't Truss It, Transplants - Tall Cans in the Air, The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army The first thing I noticed about the music blaring from the Alien speakers is a distinct lack of rich bass. The bass that flows from the bug-eyed sub is not at all weak and hits with enough force to rattle the metal panels on my drafting desk. But, the bass does lack the nice low-end richness common to high quality subwoofers. Bass drum hits are lost and hollow while bass guitars are muffled and subdued. This is most noticeable when listening to rock and rap. The White Stripes were brassy and weak while Public Enemy sounded like they had laid down tracks while standing in a sewer pipe. Strangely, the speakers sounded quite good while playing George Clinton. The synthesized bass grooves definitely sounded better than the bass drums and guitars. The Beastie Boys often use low (very low) bass tones in their tracks. So low in fact that often they are very difficult to hear without a nicely crossed-over, high quality subwoofer. The Logisys speaker just couldn't pick up on the lowest bass lines that are audible using a more powerful sub. Poor Creedence just sounded pathetic. The treble and mid range frequencies produced by the SP 6000's also varied from song to song. Some tracks sound muddy with vocals and mids muffled together. The Bloodhound Gang sounded somewhat bassy, but the mid range guitars were quiet and somewhat lacking. Music with less hefty bass, such as the traditional Irish Clancy Brothers or the gypsy music of Gogol Bordello both sounded quite nice, although at times the bass did get a little hollow and resonant. The highs often sound too brassy or too weak. Techno-like songs like The Propellorheads and Dust Brothers seemed toned down and flattened. All the sounds were there, they just seemed dull. The Pogues sounded pretty clear in the mid range, but they have little bass to congest their mid range sound. Thinking maybe my MP3 encoding was to blame, I reached for the CD versions of some songs. Sadly there was no noticeable change in sound quality. I used WinAmp to play all the music and found that the general quality of songs could be adjusted using the graphic equalizer. Upping the mids and killing off some of the bass hum helped the overall sound of most songs. However, I didn't find one setting that worked well for all. Really cranking the bass knob on the sub tends to over work the poor thing. I kept the bass setting at about half for the duration of my testing. Anything nearer the highest setting induced a bit of distortion. In contrast, turning the treble all the way up produced very little effect. Only for about the first 1/4 turn is there any perceivable change, beyond that I noticed no difference. Games Battlefield: Vietnam, Call of Duty, Colin McRae Rally 2004 If ever there were need to use the cliched phrase "night and day" now would be the time. Playing games on the Logisys speakers was a 180-degree turnabout from listening to music. Battlefield: Vietnam sounded amazing. Gunshots were hard hitting and ambient sounds crisp and realistic...and the choppers! Oh the helicopters sound so cool, like your sitting right in the Huey. I switched to Call of Duty and found the same quality sound effects shooting back at me from behind 50 year-old Russian tanks. Gunshots and explosions rattle doorframes with clarity. The bass response for games proved to be far superior to music playback. Even in Colin McRae Rally 2004, the in game menu music sounded very clear and game sounds were dead on accurate. The high-pitched exhaust notes of the rally cars sang nicely while crunches and crashes were also well represented. DVD Matrix Reloaded For the movie portion of my test, I chose scenes 24 and 25 from the Matrix Reloaded. There were two reasons for my choice. One, plenty of explosions, car crashes and techno music and two, no woman has ever looked better fully clothed on a motorcycle than Carrie-Anne Moss does on that Ducati. And boy did that Ducati sound good. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the SP 6000s. Occasionally I found myself wanting slightly clearer vocals, but the music, explosions and revving engines each pumped clearly from the speakers. The "whoosh" sound effects used when Morpheus jumps around doing his kung-fu also had a pleasant bassy tone. Conclusion The overall user friendliness of these speakers scores a low rating in my book. The treble, bass and volume knobs are located on the front of the subwoofer...which is generally placed on the floor at your feet. Not the most convenient spot for sound adjustment. Sure you can adjust your volume from the desktop, but when I'm in the middle of a frag-fest and the phone rings, I don't want to be crawling around on the floor just to silence my speakers. The small subwoofer easily fit on top of my desk next to my monitor, but the bass just didn't sound as good sitting 2 feet from my face. Other 2.1 speakers offer a simple remote volume control mounted mid-way between the ends of the input cable. This would be a wise feature to include. And, as noted earlier, the sub can get pretty warm during use. Keep an eye on it and don't set any oily rags or flammable gases near the subwoofer if you plan to go out for a few days. Despite their hit or miss music playback and cumbersome knob placement, I found these speakers to be more than adequate for the average gamer. Obviously they are being marketed towards the game conscious PC user, so why shouldn't they perform the best while playing games? If you are thinking of getting an Alienware system and don't want to shell out the extra bucks for the Klipsch, Creative or Logitech speaker options but are still looking for a set of matching speakers, perhaps the SP 6000s are for you. Or if you are a cheapskate, like me, and prefer to build your own systems and mimic the Alienware aesthetic, you will appreciate the $40 price tag. If your ultimate goal is to look good and sound good while playing games, then these speakers are singing your song. Pros Alienware looks at a bargain price Great for games Good for movies Compact size Cons Poor knob placement Not so great for music
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