Entered CNET Catalog: 12/27/2003
SKU: 51MF7010AA000
Manufacturer: Creative Labs
Manufacturer description
Engineered with ground-breaking technologies, the GigaWorks S750 is a 7.1 speaker system that represents the new state of the art in PC audio performance. The two additional surround speakers give FPS gamers the advantage of precise positional audio that a 5.1 speaker system simply can't match. And with a chest-thumping 210 Watt subwoofer, and the amazing detail delivered by titanium supertweeters in each two-way satellite speaker, the GigaWorks S750 will give you a more intense and dramatic experience with games, movies and music than you've ever imagined.Product summary
The good: Good sound; reasonably powerful; two-way satellites; control pod and remote control; M-Port digitally streams audio from some Nomad MP3 players.
The bad: Expensive; connecting seven speakers, a subwoofer, and the control pod creates a lot of wire clutter.
The bottom line: Creative's THX-certified 7.1-channel GigaWorks S750 speakers deliver enveloping video game and DVD sound, but they're overkill for mainstream users.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/09/2004
Creative's flagship multimedia speaker system, the $499 GigaWorks S750 is targeted at hard-core video gamers and DVD aficionados. This 7.1-channel ensemble is Creative's best-sounding speaker system to date, but there are a few snags. For the uninitiated (for whom we'd recommend our recent surround-sound buying guide), a 7.1-channel speaker set differs from a 5.1 set by supporting two rear-channel speakers in addition to 5.1's standard combination of three front speakers, two on the side, and one subwoofer. These added outputs mostly benefit gamers because 7.1 discrete channels can be rendered in PC games via Microsoft's DirectSound and Creative's EAX software processing. Less accurate up-mixing is required to yield 7.1-channels from DVDs or CDs, as a true 7.1 standard has not yet been adopted for home-entertainment media.
The seven sealed, wall-mountable satellites are two-way units, with a 3.5-inch polymer midrange driver and a 1-inch titanium tweeter. The single-ported, down-firing subwoofer houses an 8-inch driver that blasts bass from the bottom of the unit. The speaker cables attach to the GigaWorks S750's satellites via wire spring clips, and they plug into the subwoofer-based amp with RCA-type connectors. Though a little more complicated to set up, standard speaker wires do allow more installation flexibility and might be appreciated by some.
The Creative GigaWorks S750's power specification rivals that of some A/V receivers; and Creative appears to have documented its power output ratings genuinely. Multimedia speaker vendors have had a habit of reporting what's known as peak wattage, which refers to the output at its highest level. This number is not sustainable over time, however, so a more accurate value is continuous wattage, also known as watts RMS (root-mean-square). In this case, Creative reports RMS wattage only in its documentation, which states that the amp delivers 70 watts RMS to each of the satellites and 210 watts RMS to the subwoofer.
The wired control module sports top-mounted power, volume-down, volume-up, select, and upmix buttons. Upmix toggles between three modes: off, 5.1 to 7.1, and 6.1 to 7.1. Headphone and auxiliary audio input jacks adorn the front of the module, accompanied by a USB-esque M-Port jack, which lets you digitally stream audio to the speakers directly from Creative's Nomad Jukebox Zen NX MP3 player. Downsides of the control module include its status LEDs; we'd rather see a more informative text or numeric display. We'd also prefer a volume knob to the puny buttons. At least the included remote control effectively untethers you from the control module.
The Creative GigaWorks S750's performance chops are strongest with video games. When we fired up Soldier of Fortune II, the sonic canvas effectively surrounded us. Enemies could be tracked coming in from all angles, including from the sides and the back. The GigaWorks S750's sub delivered explosions with suitable impact, and the satellites did a good job of creating a convincing 3D soundfield. In general, the 7.1-speaker system created a more engrossing gaming experience than we've had with 5.1- and 6.1-speaker setups.
Gladiator's "Hell Unleashed" scene proved that the GigaWorks S750 is no slouch in the home-theater department, either. As the battle raged, arrows flew across the soundstage from front to rear, convincingly popping and whizzing. The center speaker delivered dialogue clearly, striking a good balance between brightness and smoothness of the treble so that voices pop out at you sufficiently, but not to the extent that they will hurt your ears. Partially thanks to its two-way satellite speaker design, the GigaWorks S750 doesn't suffer from the huge midrange hole that plagues some subwoofer/satellite systems. The GigaWorks S750's subwoofer doesn't sound as tight as the subwoofer employed by the Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers, but respectably enough, it's about on a par with the Logitech Z-680's sub. By expanding the ambient soundfield, the up-mixing feature helped us feel that we were in the middle of the action, but it didn't yield significant benefits over listening to a Digital Theater Studios DTS-ES-encoded soundtrack through 6.1 speakers.
Music is the GigaWorks S750's weakest performance point, but the set still performs better than average. To test the system's clarity, we fired up Pachelbel's Canon. The music did have a nice airy quality, but playing the same track through our Event 20/20 studio monitors revealed considerable additional sonic detail. While playing Outkast's "Two Dope Boys in a Cadillac," we were surprised to find that the GigaWorks S750 didn't have enough volume on tap to get extremely loud. It's certainly powerful enough for near and midfield listening, but don't plan on using the system in a large home theater. The GigaWorks S750 did handle the track's deep bass frequencies fairly well, though we've heard a punchier, more agile sound from high-quality, home-audio subwoofers, for instance.
If you're a hard-core gamer, the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro and GigaWorks S750 combo is the rig to get. It's also a good system for PC-based DVD theaters, but conventional home-theater users will generally fare better with a home theater in a box, such as JVC's TH-M65, which includes a DVD player.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23out of 23 user reviews
OK Until it breaks.
Pros: Was a GREAT sound system for a few years.Great sound. Maxed it out a lot tho. Even at max power, no distortion (if settings are properly set).
Cons: I recently moved. Hooked up my computer. Plugged in all the sound cords. Turned it on. CLICK!!! On Off. The fuse blew. Replaced fuse. POOF! Blew fuse. Contacted Creative. They do not support out of warranty repairs. I now have a $500 paperweight.
out of 23 user reviews
Great Desktop Speakers
Pros: Great Sound with Xifi card
Cons: if there are no wires then its good
out of 23 user reviews
Great Speakers
Pros: Sound Quality, Bass
Cons: Seven speakers is still alot
out of 23 user reviews
I have been through several.....
Pros: Excellent Sound Performance
Cons: Wires and Price
out of 23 user reviews
Perfect 10 if it had a digital decoder
Pros: GREAT sound, good quality, bass is soooo true and tight.
Cons: Playing Digital Audio (SPDIF or Optical) is a different story
out of 23 user reviews
great system if u know how to use it
Pros: great bass..great power... nice teble
Cons: expensive of course, other than that no complaints
out of 23 user reviews
Great sound and the sub is amazing. Easy setup with my external soundcard the Audigy 2!
Pros: Great sounding, very loud sub. The Upmix button works great with my xbox360 and makes you think you are in the game!
Cons: The remote is pretty small and is difficult understand the display because it is only made of lights. Not enough speaker wire!
out of 23 user reviews
Flawless Victory.
Pros: I can rattle the downstairs dishes with clarity.
Cons: You can literally vibrate stuff off your desk/table, Watch out.
out of 23 user reviews
Awesome sound
Pros: Great Bass, Clean sound
Cons: Of course alot of cables
out of 23 user reviews
Top of the Line for Gamers
Pros: Exceptional surround sounds for gaming and music playback
Cons: Massive Wire clutter
Pros: In combination with the Audigy X-FI, nothing can beat this, superb sounds, strong woofer. If you take your time and organize the satellites with respect to where you actually sit and play games/watch movies, it is great. No hissings, distortions.
Cons: Wire clutter, volume is not meant to go really high else woofer will die :\ I think a stand should have been incorporated for the rear speakers.
Pros: In combination with the Audigy X-FI, nothing can beat this, superb sounds, strong woofer. If you take your time and organize the satellites with respect to where you actually sit and play games/watch movies, it is great. No hissings, distortions.
Cons: Wire clutter, volume is not meant to go really high else woofer will die :\ I think a stand should have been incorporated for the rear speakers.
Pros: In combination with the Audigy X-FI, nothing can beat this, superb sounds, strong woofer. If you take your time and organize the satellites with respect to where you actually sit and play games/watch movies, it is great. No hissings, distortions.
Cons: Wire clutter, volume is not meant to go really high else woofer will die :\ I think a stand should have been incorporated for the rear speakers.
Pros: In combination with the Audigy X-FI, nothing can beat this, superb sounds, strong woofer. If you take your time and organize the satellites with respect to where you actually sit and play games/watch movies, it is great. No hissings, distortions.
Cons: Wire clutter, volume is not meant to go really high else woofer will die :\ I think a stand should have been incorporated for the rear speakers.
out of 23 user reviews
LOL @ cnet
Pros: Awesome midrange and treble
Cons: bass not as deep as ultra 5.1's
GIVE ME A break!!!!!!!!!
Music is EASILY its best quality with 3.5" woofers and titanium tweeters, the gigaworks sats outperform everything from klipsch and needless to say.. logitech as well.
The subwoofer is only on “par” with the “z680” sub? That subwoofer is arguable the worst piece of crap every developed for a computer. It’s as boomy as it comes and to even say this subwoofer mimics anything remotely close to that horrible thing is simply ignorant.
Its really bad when someone has to write a review and a freaking review. CNET’s speaker reviewers are horrible!
[Edited by: admin]
out of 23 user reviews
THE BEST SOUND INVESTMENT EVER
Pros: POWER BABY
Cons: EXPENSIVE FOR SOME
out of 23 user reviews
people say wrong shi* abt da wrong speakers logitech nor klipsch compare my seven channel bomber
Pros: clarity confusion? i compared ta klipsch pro-media ultra 5.1, it was like ok we'll talk,,explain later
Cons:
too good..bt sometime jus sme times its a bit bottom heavy.
any comments or advice neede d. say it to my face punk! jus kiddn mail me at nahian_lilman@hotmail.com
out of 23 user reviews
Powerful, high-quality audio system
Pros: This is the most expensive computer speaker system on the market, and the reasons are obvious. 700 watts, 7.1, control pod and remote control, 2-way speakers, 8" ported subwoofer, and decent build quality. To give you an idea of how powerful the system is
Cons: These things are bloody expensive. The control pod would be quicker and more convenient to use if it had a knob instead of buttons to control the volume, like the Logitech ones. However, it would also be quite a bit larger, and I think Creative wanted to
out of 23 user reviews
dont get these, Buy the top of the line logitech's!
Pros: Easy to install, easy to use. came with more than enough wire. Nice sub, and a remote is a bonus. The sound is quality but read my cons..
Cons: Not nearly as powerful as my logitech z540's... and those are 4.1!!!! the bass was WAY stronger, and the volume went up A LOT LOUDER WITHOUT CLIPPING! if I turn these up all teh way (mind u 1/3 of the loudness as the z540's) they clip like crazy.. I eve
out of 23 user reviews
only multi media speakers with THX certification
Pros: makes other good sound systems look like a wimp
Cons: nothing but the price a bit too high
out of 23 user reviews
Best home theater speaker set for small rooms
Pros: I'm currently using S750 with DDTS-100 as my home theater setup hooked up to Xbox, Playstation 2, DVD player, and cable box. The games sound great on all speakers, movies come alive with great directionality, and faux surround on cable box sound great. Se
Cons: HEAVY!!! Almost broke my back trying to lift the box to empty the speaker set. May need to get your own speaker wire if you plan to run wires across the room and under the furnitures.
out of 23 user reviews
Remarkable
Pros: Sounds great with games, movies, and music. I use them to do video editing and need to be able to clearly hear audio glitches, and these are the best I have ever seen.
Cons: The sub is huge under my desk, but not a big problem.
out of 23 user reviews
Best investment I could have made in the sound area
Pros: Evrything is a pro, I have nothing bad to say. From the moment I pulled these out of the box I noticed how solidly they were built. Yes the bass is extremely strong, but you can adjust it accordingly. THe sound quality was exactly what I was looking for.
Cons:
out of 23 user reviews
Awsome for games, really good with movies, ok with music
Pros: If you play PC games these are the speakers for you. No question. If you use your PC to watch movies, these are as good as it gets (in this price range), without sending the digital stream to a seperate (more expensive) home theater reciever.
Cons: Soo many wires! I also found that music sounds better on a good hi-fi setup. But I think that can be said about any home theater setup, for the PC or otherwise.
out of 23 user reviews
Great Home Theater Speakers for this price
Pros: Great for small to mid size living rooms. Creative bundled the DDTS-100 decoder for free which can output six channels with regular stereo. When used with upmix sound is delivered to all seven speakers. Works great if you have audigy line of sound card. P
Cons: * Excessive Bass (but can be turned down. I've set mine to only 15%) * Amplifier could be more powerful. In a average size living room the volume knob is turned to almost 75% * MP3 any less then 128bit encoding will sound horrible. * Seven speakers means
out of 23 user reviews
The best pc speakers available.
Pros: These speakers sound good. Totally satisfied with the sound overall. For a bedroom or den, these speakers will have more than enough power. The subwoofer packs so much bass, I rarely have the volume on it turned more than half way up. DVD-Audio sounds
Cons: If you like lots of power and are hooking your surround system in a large living room, you will probably be better off getting a home theater in a box set up. Keep in mind that the s750 requires no receiver. The reciever is your pc. Any home theater in
out of 23 user reviews
Over priced and suspect quality
Pros: Reasonable sound, nice mid base punch, perfect for apartment sized rooms.
Cons: Over priced, mediocre sound and build quality, typical Creative Labs digital EQ to make up for cheap driver inefficiencies. Does THX means anything to anyone since Creative bought the company?
