Creative Inspire 5100

The 5100s are a replacement of sorts to the much-lauded 5300s. They're about £40 cheaper, quite a bit quieter and come with a smaller subwoofer.

Other than that, there's very little to separate them and their £100 predecessors.

As with most speaker sets, the 5100s connect to your sound card through three colour-coded minijack cables.

The five satellites connect to the sub via phono cables and are also well labelled. The front satellite cables are quite short at 2m: we found it quite fiddly to get the wires around objects without them slipping out of their ports.

The design is slightly different from the 5300s. First, the whole set has been shrunk down. The satellites have been flattened and their stands removed; small rubber feet on their bases prevent them from slipping around.

The 5100s have 42w RMS (root mean square) total power, with 6w per satellite, and 12 for the subwoofer. As such, they're not particularly loud, but considering they are only £60, you can't expect much more for your money.

When it came to playback, the overall feeling was that the 5100s were pretty tinny; the satellites were mainly at fault here, as they fail to pick up on some mid-range sounds.

The sub, on the other hand, is very good, packing a punch without being overbearing to the sound as a whole.

The signal-to-noise ratio is quite poor here but, again, for £60, we were very much impressed.The rather unsightly remote finishes off the package.

While this proves that high-quality sub-£70 sets are just not possible, at £60 Creative's 5100s really are good value.

SPECS

• Six-speaker set
• 12w subwoofer, 6w satellites
• Minijack connection from soundcard
• RCA connection from sub to satellites
• 44Hz-20KHz frequency response
• Remote control

DETAILS
Price: £59 (£48.67 ex VAT)
Contact: Creative
http://uk.europe.creative.com