Interesting review of an interesting product. You guys could have done a few more tests and given us some numbers to munch on, and I'd love to see more speaker reviews here in the future.

The DS500 and SW510 are decent in their own right, but in some way I believe they are Abit's response to our battle cries against Creative. No one can compete with Creative in sound cards, so Abit decides to try and popularize the idea of no discrete sound card at all. I imagine that if these speakers are a success, Abit will release even more powerful speakers in the same vein, perhaps even a surround sound version.

The criticism in this thread is a little harsh considering that these speakers coudl very well be Abit's prodding the market to see if there's some desire for digital speakers. A more in depth review might have clarified some things and quieted some of the naysayers, but in any event, let's take these speakers for what they are and not take them out of context.

Yes, there are other digital speakers. As the article points out, digital speakers are a great way to beat Creative, and that selling point is a new one. I think we all want to give Creative a little honest competition.

It's amazing how much bashing a set of digital speakers can get.

Audiophiles will not buy these speakers, they know better.
Non-audiophiles will buy cheaper, more powerful speakers. Why have underpowered 2.1 from Abit when you can have a more powerful, better quality 5.1 setup for the same money.

In the world of PC sound, most sound is dirty anyway. We've got to get away from these audiphile arguments in this thread because we're NOT talking about crystal-clear 24-bit DAC's that you get in a $1000 amp. We're talking about 192Kb MP3's and videogame sound effects sampled by a tape recorder. The problem in the upper spectrum of the PC audio world is low-quality sound source, not poor hardware reproducing the sound.

What class-D amplifier chip do these use? I'm pretty sure Texas Instruments makes one that accepts digital audio formats directly. No need for a D/A converter at all. (at least not an external one)

save your money and get a decent set of speakers from B&W. you will never regret it. sound is only as good as you can hear it.

Digital Bass eXhaust (DBX)
20Hz-300kHz (DS500)
16Hz-160kHz (SW510)

What a load of hooey! The first is called a bass-reflex port or vent, and it's no digital bass. As well, the frequency response specs are just ridiculous! (How in freezing hell would a "subwoofer" reach 160kHz? Divide by 1000, please. And double the 16Hz figure, at least. The numbers for the mains are, similarly, a blatant lie.) I'm sorry, but marketing like this really grinds my gears.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the review. I know audio is not TR's expertise, but I expected more in the way of listening impressions. Not that I would ever buy this matching set of pure audiophile shamefulness. Try a stereo pair of Swans M200 or S200 speaks.

Cue the bashing.

This article sounds like a stupid payed ad, the concept of "made for digital" is silly to start with, sound is analog.
And to call anything not digital 'distortion' is also quite silly, digital is the distortion (need I mention quantisation errors) that a good amp has to rectify to get rid of the inherent flaws and problems putting it back into sound, which is analog.

And the trick of the chinese to stamp 'for digital' on anything audio, even 2 dollar speakers/headphones like they've been doing for years makes it a bit unconvincing if abit does it too.

But ok, abit doesn't really deserve to go through so much trouble as they did I don't think, so I don't mind you boost them a bit with your ad, and the speakers might well be excellent, but I don't think you were interested if they were before you started the article to be honest.

So the fact that it merely passes digital audio out, how does this handle EAX and the like? That is a function of the sound card drivers I know but in the TR tests a while back it was found that some (Craaaaaaaaab peoples.. </south park>) on board drivers were horrible at doing the EAX and positional stuff. Is this eliminated in the direct digital stream? Or does the audio stream still get processed by the drivers and merely the DAC is moved to the speakers instead of the one on the sound card? If it merely moves the DAC aren't you still limited by the features and drivers of your sound card? I was under the impression this is the reason people purchase Creative Labs hardware over Envy32 and similar solutions... because they did hardware 3d and EAX algorithms with the latest and greatest versions, where as no other chip did it in hardware and you'd still feel the CPU usage...

I always get in trouble when I try to give constructive criticism, but here I go....

As previously mentioned, the frequency response specs are completely absurd. I don't know if they are a misprint or you're just quoting Abit, but they are a red flag for anyone with even a basic knowledge of audio.

Second, if you're going to review speakers, some basic measurements (frequency response, distortion) are an absolute requirement. A very effective measurement system can be cobbled together using a PC and mic capsule.

I'd love to see more reviews in this area, but "it sounds pretty good" is next to worthless. Our ears are easily fooled.

If there is one class of nerd more annoying than an Anti-MS linux nerd, it's sound guru nerds...

Thanks for the review. I've been considering these for the past few months but haven't been able to find a review I trust. Now I need to ride out the last few days of my contract with Microsoft and find a new job... then I'll pick em up.

"as long as you're not throwing a rave for a bunch of rowdy teenagers who have all but driven themselves to deafness with their iPods. "

back in your day, did you have to walk uphill both ways in the snow to go deaf? and did you use sharpened sticks rather than these new-fangled gadgets kids have these days?

:D

That's 7.3" deep, 5.3" wide, and 9.8" tall if you're partial to fractions of the king's forearm.

12.6" deep, 7.9" wide, and 13.8" tall for those of you who would rather water freeze at 32 degrees as opposed to 0.

Classic!

Sexy speakers. Too bad they don't come in 5.1.

I have a Cambridge Soundworks 2500 5.1 set back from 2001. Still works wonderfully and with the digital connection.

Adi

This might be interesting for someone with a DVD player but no digital-capable receiver (there was someone asking about this situation in the forum a few weeks ago). Sure, you don't get surround or a center channel but that's not a deal-breaker.

In the past audio virtualization has been pretty bad (playing 5.1 content on 2 speakers or 2.1), but with the X-Fi card I've found it to be almost just as good.

I own a pair of s750s and I have a nice pair of sennheiser headphones. When I need to turn the volume down I just flip over to my headphoners with CMSS-3D enabled. It's almost exactly the same as with a dedicated pair of speakers.

I'm pretty sure this gap will evaporate with the next iteration from Creative (not a rebadge of a X-Fi), but until then I believe it's one of the best features of the X-Fi sound card (and if you use headphones a really good reason to upgrade over a Audigy 2 or older).

Just a FYI.

Although 5.1 and 7.1 speaker systems with speakers(and wires) all over the place is the "in thing" these days,I find my Boston Acoustics BA735 setup with 2 satellites and a powered subwoofer delivers excellent sound across a range of applications.The 2.1 system in this article looks like a newer, better version of them.Definetly worth a look if you're in the market for a PC speaker system.Nice review there guys.

Please Digg. Thanks.

http://www.digg.com/hardware/Abit_s_iDomes_Digital_speakers_that_ca...