Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2008/03/27/review_wii_2_1_speaker_system/
Wii 2.1 sound system
Nothing wee about this sound system
Posted in Personal Tech, 27th March 2008 12:01 GMT
Review It's well known that a speaker set of reasonable quality can substantially enhance your gaming experience, but if a high-end hi-fi system doesn't yet live in your lounge, this 2.1-channel Wii-friendly speaker set might make a superb substitute.
Let's face facts, the Wii is better suited to social gaming than either the Xbox 360 or the PS3. A few friends are round, you've just cooked a delicious dinner, now you feel like a little nine-hole action in the luxury of your own living room. The Wii's the machine to play it on.
And with this affordable and effective 2.1 speaker set, you can now add stereo sound to that group game of golf.
Wii 2.1 speaker system: tidy and self-contained
The system is designed to complement the Wii console, even down to the the rectangular design of the sub-woofer, with controls situated on the left and the long, vertical power LED perfectly positioned symmetrically with the disc slot on the console itself.
The sub-woofer sits in a cradle that's similar in design to the original one for the Wii, but also equipped with a slot for the console itself. So the whole package not only looks tidy but also sits neatly, self-contained under any TV or screen, measuring 15 x 17 x 25cm and weighing 2.8kg.
The two lightweight satellite speakers - each measuring 202 x 94 x 75mm and weighing just 170g - have also been designed to match the overall aesthetic. Crafted in the same glossy, pearl-white plastic as the Wii, they've been built to resemble the nunchuck, even down to the octagonal joystick housing at the top.
Setting the speakers up is extremely easy: just connect up the plugs on the relevant ports so the sound comes totally through the speakers and not the TV. The treble, bass, loudness and 3D audio options can be adjusted by using the remote control - which has also been designed to look identical to the Wii controller. Another nice touch, albeit a tad annoying when you get them mixed up.
It's a damn shame you can't play DVDs through the Wii, as the sound quality on these speakers really is very good. You could use a cable with stereo connections at one end and a Scart connector on the other, and run your Sky box through the speakers, for example. You'd have to swap the plugs around every time you wanted to play on the Wii, of course.
The sound was certainly superior than the PS3 equivalent, the Logic3 SoundStation3 PS3 speakers - all for the same price.
The satellite speakers take up very little space... and look oh-so-cool
Unlike the Logic3 PS3 speakers, you don't need to adjust any of the sound audio output settings on the console, and these Wii speakers don't rely on pre-determined EQ settings, such as Movie, Game or Music.
The 3D option didn't make a great deal of difference, but truth be told, we really didn't need to make very many - actually, any - adjustments to get the best audio quality. We ended up playing Wii Sports until about 6am, and on a school night, just because of the sound-created sensation that we were actually in a bowling alley with the Vince Guaraldi-style music playing in the background. Or when the crowd went wild with the hole in one on the sixth. That only happened once, though.
As soon as the system was connected, it seemed to breathe new life into both the TV and the console. The bass hummed beautifully without any sign whatsoever of overload. Just to confirm this wasn't just some sort of fluke, we fired up The Legend of Zelda and the quality was the same - faultless, quite frankly.
Verdict
If you own a Wii, you absolutely want one of these sets. For this price, quality this high is very rare. Not only does the system look stylish but it's compact and the sound is superb. Based on how much extra Wii fun we got out of these speakers, the PS3 and Xbox are going to start gathering a bit of dust.