Hercules XPS 2.1 50 Speaker Kit review - Testing and benchmarking

Testing

Sources Used:

• Auzentech Prelude 7.1
• ASUS Essence STX

Note: The system was allowed to “burn-in” and settle prior to any critical listening tests.

Music

• Media Used:
• Ozzy Osbourne: Live at Budokan
• Nickleback: Dark Horse
• Metallica: Master of Puppets
• Ozzy Osbourne: Black Rain
• Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings
• Obie Trice: Cheers
• 2Pac: Greatest Hits

This system was allowed to “burn-In” prior to any critical listening testing.

The XPS 50 system put out a ton of bass for the size of the subwoofer. It was actually quite surprising when testing due in no small part to the tuned port. Many different genres were tested to hear what this system was capable of.

The driving bass of hip hop and Rap, the heavy guitars of Metal or the smooth acoustic guitar of Mr. Robert Johnson, the XPS 50 did a good job of reproducing the tests tracks. The system showed a good deal of clarity for the tested music and offered much bass when needed for certain tracks. There was no tubbiness of bass that can be found on some smaller systems, indeed the XP 50 performed quite well during the music test and had our feet tapping and our test bench rocking.

Movies

• StarWars episode II
• StarWars episode III

These movies are used for my movie tests as the soundtracks are know quite well to me and the imaging on certain action sequences is exceptional.

The XPS 50 2.1 system produced great forward imaging and dialog came through very easily with great intelligibility. When the system was required to wind out a bit and show some muscle for some actions sequence, the XPS 50 produced quite a bit of power for the tiny size. Space flying sequences and light saber sequences sound very good and stereo imaging sounded spot on with no phase issues or muddying of the image was heard.