i'm not a true audiophile who has been seeking out the best in audio gear for years, but music listening is very important to me, and since i spend most of my day at my powerbook, i decided to get decent speakers.
at first, i was enamored with the JBL Creature. i bought some last year when they came down in price somewhat - $90. i was excited as hell about them, set them up, admired their design, put the subwoofer behind the powerbook on my desk... and it looked beautiful. but then i turned on my tunes, and coming from the perspective of the apple pro speakers and iSub previously used with an iMac, the Creature sounded like crap. a small range in the mid-tones were completely absent. there was one particular song that illustrated it perfectly - the guitar part was completely inaudible.
so i put them up for sale, and got most of my money back. my heard was broken that something that looked so cool could sound so crap.
so i spent $40 and got some Creative Inspires, which were nothing to look at, and had a sort of bland, muted sound, but they played all the notes in the songs at least. i was satisfied, especially considering the low price.
but then the Bose Companion 3 came out at the end of January:
Bose Companion 3
i thought, oh no, they are exactly what i wanted all along. they match the powerbook and g5 line to a T. there's no doubt they copied the perforated AL look from Apple.
unfortunately, they cost $250, and no bargains are to be had anywhere yet (i did see them fro $200 on eBay at one time however).
so i consoled myself that they probably didn't sound much better for all that extra money. but then my wife and i were in Best Buy, and they had them on display, and i saw the control knob, and i turned them on, and they sounded awesome. better than the Klipsch 2.1 next to them.
luckily, my birthday was in 2 weeks, and my wife bought them for me. Yay! i was thrilled. here's why they are so great:
1. sound - they really hold up the bose name. the sub is large (50% bigger than the Inspire) and sounds rich and loud. the satellites are small, but really sound crisp and full.
2. look - they look like they shipped in the same box as my powerbook, though they are silver plastic and not aluminum bodied (the screens may actually be metal however)
3. control knob - has the smooth analog feel of a volume knob on a nice hifi system. a touch sensitive pad in the middle mutes the system and changes a small LED from green to orange. there are also line-in and headphone jacks on the knob.
so, i just wanted to share this with you all. if you have the cash, this is the system to get right now in my humble opinion. if you want further reinforcement, it was listed at the top of the hot products page in the back of Macworld this month.
oh, i guess any decent review requires the cons as well, so:
1. price - $250 certain puts you in the range of higher end speakers.
2. speaker wires are not super tough - my cat chewed thru my left one when i wasnt' looking.
i was able to splice it back together easily enough.
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