Creative GigaWorks T3

Full Review

There are a very limited choices for a premium 2.1 PC speaker systems in the market currently. Among them, the Creative Gigaworks T3 are one set of 2.1 speakers that offer good enough sound to turn your PC into a decent Hi-Fi stereo set up.
Features & Design
The Gigaworks T3 is a neatly designed 2.1 speaker system that has two cubic satellites and a three driver powered subwoofer. The satellites are around the size of a standard rubiks cube which make it suitable to place them without much problem on the desk. They stood firmly with the support of their metallic stands. Each is powered by a full range 2-inch driver to deliver crispy mids and clean highs. The subwoofer uses Creatives own SLAM (Symmetrically Loaded Acoustic Module) technology which is actually comprised of three drivers in a port-less enclosure. The subwoofer has a dimension of 287mm x 236mm x 213mm and weighs 5.9-kg which provides stability when those three drivers are roaring below 30Hz. Behind the subwoofer is where all the cables are connected and it also has a bass level controller here. To make operating easier there is wired remote control pod which has a neat rounded design with ports for headphones and auxiliary sandwiching a blue LED power indicator.

We were impressed by the deep and thumping bass coming out from the SLAM subwoofer and the crispy mids from those cubic satellites.

All connectivity ports are clearly labeled which makes it really easy to set up the system. Creative did not provide any detailed informations on the system total power output, SPL, SNR, frequency response whatsoever. There are small issues we have with the speaker's design, like the cables which are fixed to the satellites instead of detachable ones -- the fixed design leaves no option to replace the cable in times of wear and tear. Besides, it would have been much more convenient to provide bass level control on the remote pod itself than reaching the sub way down everytime you need to adjust the bass level.     
Performance
We plugged the system to our Creative X-fi XtremMusic soundcard where we disabled all the sound enhancements and played the audio in Audio Creation mode.  As usual, the Foobar2k player with a mix of FLAC and MP3 files encoded in various bitrates took care of feeding the Gigaworks T3 to let it sing in various kind of genres.
We were first impressed with the deep and thumping bass coming out from the SLAM subwoofer and the crispy mids from those cubic satellites. Because of its port-less design, placement of the sub also was not much of an issue. The sub would play our test tracks way down to 30Hz without the need to crank up the volume to insane levels. On the other hand, despite pumping out a rather impressive amount of bass from a rather compact subwoofer, it could have been better with more accurate timing as we could hear a slight delay ( a few milliseconds) while listening to Hip Hop or Trance. However, this is fine for casual listening but discerning listeners will take notes. The mids and highs were crisp but the upper end of the high frequencies lack sparkle and need a little tweak with the Equalizer. Besides, the mids being sharp and crisp, they are a bit in-your-face and  aggressive at times. This is mainly because of the subtle or rolled off highs which could have been brighter and sweeter with more extension.  Nevertheless, the satellites could let us hear our high frequency test track up to 18kHz at moderate volume which is good enough. Stereo separation and imaging is good enough for speakers of this size. Genres like Rock, Hip Hop and Pop sounded very good but not so much for Jazz and Classical as they sound a bit more aggressive.
For movies and games, the Gigaworks T3 sounds best with keeping the bass level below the 50 percent as it tends to become boomy but vocals and action scenes sounded satisfactory despite being limited only to two channels.
The overall sound quality of the Gigaworks T3 is very good for their size and they are worth the upgrade over the standard set of 2.1 speakers to bring your audio experience to a new level.

Bottom Line

Deep and thumpy bass with crispy mids is what best described this neatly designed set of premium speakers from Creative.