Final words and conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

Corsair impressed us with the Corsair Gaming Audio SP2500 speaker kit, the overall sound quality is much higher then what you are used to with desktop speakers. Prices have dropped enough to make this an attractive kit to purchase. For that money you'll receive darn nice sound quality albeit not perfect. We do feel that the bass, especially acoustic bass, could sound a little warmer, but for any speaker set with a sub-woofer that likely is a huge biggest challenge. In certain ranges sub-woofers simply choke a little and that also happens here. So while exceptionally good, in some songs you'll miss that warm dynamic bass here and there. But I am nitpicking right now.

The satellite tweeters have razor sharp treble, and the 3-inch drivers produce warm mid-tones, excellent for voices and all mid-tones. Again, the sub-woofer is terrific -- for a subwoofer. It can go deep, loud will not distort and offers a very very good bass. Music sounds terrific, movies well... that's where the kit seems to be made for as the sub and speaker combination just blows you away (in a good fashion). Especially the LFE levels go really deep thanks to the 4th Order Band Pass Subwoofer.

The control unit is easy to read out, work with and full with functionality. If you leave your soundcard at default settings and just use the control pod you'll quickly end at POP IQ preferences with the DSP set to Dynamic POP as that generates the best bass, voice and treble experience. And whether it's gaming, movies or music, there is a proper DSP / EQ mode for your liking available. We like the multi-color LCD screen as that definitely gives this kit a little extra niche.

Do we have any real complaints you might wonder ? Yup -- wiring is too short. If you place the sub under your desktop then the satellites need to be within a range of a 1.8m of the sub. That's really short. For the next-generation speakers we sincerely like to recommend Corsair to use longer wiring, especially since typically anyone wants to hide away the sub-woofer somewhere under the desktop.

On the topic of wiring, we noticed that the satellite speakers are bi-wired, which simply means bi-amplified, thus two sets of cables leading to one speaker. It's a much discussed topic under true audio aficionado's. Some say it works in terms of slightly better audio, other don't care and can't hear the difference. We do like the implementation and to make a point here, this feature is more common than you think, my Onkio SR-876 AV-receiver is bi-amplifying my two front cherry wood Jamo speakers.

The one question that keeps ghosting through my head is this, would I liked to have seen a 5.1 kit instead of  stereo 2.1? Well... yes - it certainly is something Corsair should consider addressing in the market. Gaming wise this kit kicks massive ass in terms of sound quality, but with many game these days supporting DirectSound 3D more speakers would have had my preference. If say in counter-strike someone sneaks up on you from far left behind and makes a noise, you can hear that enemy coming from behind. With this kit you'll think he's coming from either the left side. It's these intricate little details that hardcore gamers really care about.

Also while watching movies I would have loved to have had a center speaker or preferably 5.1 surround sound. But fair is fair, if you are fine with good ol' stereo and need a good speaker set to fill the room with proper quality audio at 187 EUR / 199 USD this kit is right on the money.

So in conclusion, the SP2500 offers a lot for your money. It is an easy to use and easy to setup kit. The control pod / DSP is the cherry on top of the cake. The speaker audio quality really is extremely good with much clarity, great mid tones and a deep, although not perfect bass provided by the subwoofer. In pale comparison to you average desktop speaker kit, this set is a mile and half away in terms of better quality and sheer capacity.

More info on the SP2500 can be found here.

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