Corsair SP2500 2.1 Gaming Speakers Review

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
With the launch of its HS1 headset last fall, Corsair proved that the audio market wasn't one it was planning on jumping into without first making sure that its products would impress. But what about those gamers that don't like to use headphones? The answer is the SP2500, a speaker set with a unique design, and a lot of power.

Read through Jamie's in-depth look at Corsair's high-end speakers and then discuss it here!
 

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
i would have seriously considered these if they were 5.1 but 2.1 is no good any more! Even HD movies are not fun on 2.1s, 5.1 is the way forward! :)
 

Tharic-Nar

Senior Editor
Staff member
Moderator
For gaming an movies, yup, has to be 5.1 or 7.1. For music, good old stereo is more than enough. The problem with the 5.1+ systems is space, orientation and alignment of speakers. If you don't have shelf space behind you, then there is little point buying a 5.1 system. It took days of minute tweaking on an off to get my Logitech setup when bought. Balancing out the front and rear volume and such to create the perfect enveloping bubble of sound.... It's wonderful when it works and is balanced, it's just time consuming to get it right.

I really do want a 5.1 set of these speakers and if people make enough noise, Corsair will really listen. People wanted a non USB based set of the HS1 headset - not long after, it announced the HS1A. (waiting on a pair btw ;))

Setting up these speakers for 5.1 would be quite expensive if I am to be honest though. The system already has 6 amplifiers, add another 3 speakers to the mix and that's 12 amplifiers to contend with. That would put quite the strain on the active crossovers as well as power, talking another 168 watts on top of the 232, so a 400 Watt system. I'm sure Corsair could do it, no question, it has the experience with PSUs. My concern will be cost. At $250, these ain't cheap. Tack on another three speakers and the associated overhead, probably talking $350-$400, most likely the latter. Would still love it though.

In fact, i'm pretty sure they've been developing a set all this time, would be silly not to after putting this 2.1 and the the headsets together. What they do after... no idea. I'd be concerned if they went with a 5.1 headset though... i'm still not 100% convinced about the audio quality of tiny positional speakers, but who knows....
 
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Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
For the most part, 5.1 "surround" headsets are the real deal. The Arctic Cooling set that I reviewed were great for picking up directional sounds so I'd be curious to see what Corsair could pump out.
 
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Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
There's a lot of built in fluff - voice changing, on-cup volume control (dumb idea), a light that shows when the mic is muted...foolish.

Quality wise, I couldn't begin to speculate. I'm thinking that they may be 5.1 with simulated/virtual 7.1 surround sound. I'm curious to know how 2 speakers in each cup can produce surround sound.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I am surprised at the infatuation with 5.1 to be honest. Not once have I ever gamed and felt like I needed 5.1... I've long been content with a component 2.0 or 2.1 setup. I'm more interested in GOOD quality audio than directional audio.
 

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
the G35s as7.1 is a bit of an overshot, its more like 5.1 or even 4.1! Good for moosic and HD n games! Especially when i dont want to wake everyone up at night!
 

Tharic-Nar

Senior Editor
Staff member
Moderator
I am surprised at the infatuation with 5.1 to be honest. Not once have I ever gamed and felt like I needed 5.1... I've long been content with a component 2.0 or 2.1 setup. I'm more interested in GOOD quality audio than directional audio.

Yes, I'd pick solid audio quality over positional nearly any day. Movies these days are tuned to 5.1 and in games like various FPSs, hearing someone sneak up behind you is invaluable. If you hear the sound of footsteps over stereo, you tend to misplace the direction and can cause hesitation when moving, by which time you're dead. When setup correctly, 5.1 is invaluable as people's sense of hearing is significantly faster than their eyes. You can pick up on the general direction and then look for a target, rather than rely solely on visual queues. It' just makes you a faster shot.

If however the audio quality is off, it can become more of a distraction than a help... and if the game doesn't have a decent audio engine with over-emphasised effects, 5.1 won't help at all. Outside of FPSs though, for games... the use of 5.1 diminishes. 3rd person can be a little disorientating due to the birds eye or shoulder cam view, behind becomes below... with RTS, it's the same problem, there can become a dissociation between behind and below, so it's inevitably used for immersive ambiance and cutscenes.

Which is sort of the last point, immersion is the real lure, like a 30 inch or 3 monitor display. It's another layer to the experience. It's just that for a lot of us, an extra monitor is more useful for work than positional audio :p.
 
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