Customer Reviews: Read 110 more reviews...
 Great for what they are... November 13, 2008
Knotscott (NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The T20's are a basic two-day design that simply starts with better quality drivers than the legions of big name high profit plastic noise makers that seem to get pushed in the big chain stores. The little T20's are given a fighting chance by way of reasonable quality components and simple design that doesn't try to defy the laws of physics. The woofer is woven glass fiber (aka fiberglass) with a rubber surround. It's not kevlar as I had originally thought, but still something more than the plastic and cheap paper drivers found in the majority of computer speakers. Creative doesn't specify a woofer size, but it's small...likely in the 3" range. The cloth dome tweeter has a similar appearance to many European made dome tweeters I'd tried and heard in other highend speakers over the years. Neither driver is expected to be remotely close to state-of-the-art at this price point and for this application, but they at least mimicked what the real McCoys offer. Even the placement and proximity of the drivers appear to have been conceived by an actual audio engineer as opposed to a marketing major. The drivers were as close together as physically possible, which cuts down on phase shift and offers a better sound stage to the listener. Driver placement also effects the "sweetspot" formed by the blending of two drivers to form a single soundwave. Locating the woofer above the tweeter makes sense, as it assumes a placement where the listener will be seated with ears at a higher level than the speakers, which will typically be the case in most desktop situations. The same logic is used with many highend home speakers that are angled back when the tweeter is located at the top of the cabinet closer to ear level. The T20's have separate knobs for on/off/volume, bass, and treble control. It's pretty obvious when the system is in the on mode because a beacon blue LED glares blindingly from the main powered speaker. The 20's also have a headphone output and auxiliary inputs. They're backed by a 12 month guarantee.
The enclosures of the Creative Gigaworks T20s are small and are made of heavy plastic...not my first choice of materials but certainly understandable given the price point, size, and intended application. They are however at least impressively solid...most we looked at are featherweights, which is an indication of their poor lineage. The enclosure of the T20's is ported like many smaller speakers to offer a bit more bass punch, but to the Creative's credit, they allowed the woofer to do the bulk of the work which improves the musical accuracy of the bass notes. Interestingly, the grills are removable too, much like many higher end systems, so you can remove the grills and eliminate any possible defraction and masking of the sound. I did not venture inside the enclosure to investigate the crossover design and components. It's safe to assume it's a bare bones design with inexpensive components. Being self-amplified means that there is a pre-amplifier stage and amplifier section inside one of the enclosures that replaces the receiver of a typical stereo system. Creative states a fairly believable 14 watts RMS per speaker (measured @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD @ 150Hz - 20kHz, two channels driven). Realistically there are probably closer to 3 or 4 usable clean watts from the amp, but they'll play loud enough to mildy rock most dorm rooms. Creative also claims a more suspect frequency range of 40hz - 20khz....I'd guess more like 80hz - 20Khz, as that bottom octave isn't overly deep or prominent.
Specs aside, the diminuitive T20's play with surprising clarity, sufficient volume levels in a moderate size room, lack of gross cabinet coloration, punchy reasonably well defined bass, and best of all have a pleasant midrange where the vast majority of music frequencies are found. Creative's designer have done a nice job balancing the output of the two drivers. Bass notes aren't deep and powerful and won't rattle many windows if that's what you're looking for, but it is reasonably neutral and is able to change accordingly when bass notes in the music change. The vast majority of competing speakers with little subwoofers have such hyped up bass that the sound you actually hear is largely produced by the enclosure itself and may or may not be part of the original music signal. Imagine the enclosure as a large bottle that resonates when blown across, which is exactly what many of these little sub systems do. It's intriguing to even begin to listen critically to a class of speaker that is usually downright void of anything resembling realistic high-fidelity music reproduction. The overall tonal balance leans toward the thin side which tends to make them sound just a tad "bright" to me, but they're really quite pleasant to listen to. Placement will actually influence the sound a bit, and of course there are always the bass/treble adjustments if needed. There's even a hint of a stereo soundstage! Their strongest attribute is the lack of glaring flaws, which is really a strongly positive comment from a critical listener remarking about computer speakers. These are not "amazing", "best ever", "startlingly realistic", or even remotely competitive with true high end speakers, but they are enjoyably "not awful", which is actually ironically complimentary in comparison to the horrid noises produced by the competition in this class speakers.
As I step down from my audio purist's soap box, it's easy to recommend the Creative Gigaworks T20s for use in a PC, or other application where there's a desire to get sound that remotely resembles a good stereo system. The sound quality is head and shoulders better than most other computer speakers and even better than most portable am/fm/CD/MP3 players. Wherever they can be hooked up to a line level music signal (MP3, CD/DVD player, etc.), and a 110v outlet to power the amplifier, the T20s will do their best for you. How "good" they actually sound to you is subjective and is partly influenced by what else you've been exposed to, or what you're used to hearing. In my opinion, they're "darn decent" for what they are ...a small self amplified pair of computer speakers.
 Failed after 9 months September 28, 2008
Rene
I bought the Gigaworks T20 for my wife in early 2007. We really loved the speakers. I bought some for myself in late 2007, and they have served me well for months. After about 9 months of light use, the right speaker stopped working with some loud popping noises. I was going to submit a problem report, and tested all the knobs, and when I turned the BASS knob the right speaker started working again. I decided to play a song, and about 2 minutes into the song the speaker failed. If I turn the bass knob, I can get some really irritating loud pops, then the speaker will work again, for a short while.
All of my equipment is connected to UPS surge protecting devices. I suspect that there is a loose connection inside of the unit.
I'm not turned off on Creative products because of this incident, and my wife's T20 is working just fine, and she uses hers a lot more than I use mine. Overall, I like the T20 and would be willing to consider buying a T40, although after reading some of the other reviews in here, I might try out some other units as well.
 I spent $XX.xx on computer speakers and recieved?!?! August 17, 2008
Earsion (Vestibulocochlear)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
These speakers sound good;for the money I spent I wanted great.Harmon brand dell speakers are a better buy for the money.The only plus that you get is extremely high clear treble.I did receive a box with missing parts but managed to salvage the cables needed from a laptop.My suggestion, for the money test the t10 first.If they are not what you are looking for due to the treble,than jump on the t20 train.The bass is not what you would expect considering the bassXports but it is not bad.It is a comfortable balance when used correctly, the highs can get extremely high with the t20, toooo high, almost ear piercing high.At the end of the day I spent around $80.00 a micro hi-fi system with aux in would be a better purchase.
Personally the T10 did it for me, worth the money for the sound quality.
 Powerfull / clean general use speakers August 5, 2008
M. Wagner (Springfield, MA)
The sound quality was very good considering the size of the speaker. The dynamic range of the internal amplfier was surpising. With the amp being turned all the way up, no significant distortion was noticed. Also, with no input at that volume level, there was no hiss! (very good signal-to-noise ratio). Product has good fit and finish. Controls are solid and smooth. The ON-OFF control is part of the volume control(not a favorite configuration). It was purchased for replacement of failed audio on a LCD TV. It works well and is easy to hook up as cables are included (3.5mm plug). An adapter for standard RCA phono cables is included (you will need cables for that). I would recommend this for all but the most critical listening.
Almost August 3, 2008
Robert Freeman (Massachusetts, USA)
Great looking, very good sound for low level, depending on your sound card. Bass is very good but the speakers NEED a greater output. I have a cheap pair of desktop speakers that put out greater volume than these.
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