Sound BlasterX Kratos S5 Speaker Review from Creative

Sound BlasterX Kratos S5 Speaker from Creative

Release:
Publisher:
Developer:
Genre: Articles, Hardware, PC News
PEGI:
Comments:

 

Comment

It’s been a little while since we dove in and looked at a standalone speaker system from Creative. Our last few speaker reviews have all been of the Bluetooth and NFC variety, so to get back to traditional speakers is amazing! The Sound BlasterX Kratos S5 speaker from Creative has been available for a while, but still is a great system for the low price of 129.99. This PC setup will make a great addition to anyone’s office space, and although we have a few issues with the system as a whole, it’s a worthwhile investment for a low range surround sound system.

Out of the Box

Once you crack open your new Kratos S5 speaker system, you will be greated, as usual, by a handful of papers work. This is stuff you might not want to throw away, however, as it provides many tips for setting up your system, and where to go online to begin customizing your RGB Lighting! The meat and potatoes of this system however, are the two speakers and the single large subwoofer. Ideally, the subwoofer will sit on the floor somewhere around your PC tower – unless you have an abnormally large desk – and each of the speakers – one left and one right – will sit on opposites sides of your PC monitor.

Also included in the package is a puck-like-volume control that will allow you to change the volume of the speakers on the go. This handy puck can be placed almost anywhere on your desk, within quick reach for when you are mid game, movie, or music!

Everything in the system will connect nicely to your Subwoofer, which acts as the hub for the entire system. A Micro-USB to USB cord will then go from your subwoofer to your PC. When together, this is one of the cleanest speaker systems I’ve used for a home computer setup, and for those who enjoy having a clean desk, this is a huge advantage to this system. The speakers themselves feel like they are built of superior materials, and are very sturdy when placed on your desk. I’ve never worried once that these would fall or break, and they are weighty enough that even a slight tug on a cord – my child tripping over it, for example – wasn’t enough to pull the speaker over. It’s perfectly weighted.

System Requirements

Review

Generally, when companies begin incorporating RGB Lighting into their products, the products themselves suffer in some other way to keep costs down. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the Sound BlasterX Kratos S5. These are definitely not top of the line speakers, but at the same time, you are not paying top shelf prices. Doing a bit of searching online, I cannot find a speaker setup with sound as good as the Kratos S5 with RGB Lighting. The lighting aspect is huge, and to have a speaker that performs ‘better than average’ AND incorporates the lighting for 129.99 US is phenomenal.

All my audio experiences were top notch. There is a bit of audio distortion when hitting the very highs and the low lows, but in general, I wasn’t finding a whole lot of difference between my expensive audio setups and this one, except perhaps in my movies. WIth so many different pitches when watching movies, I didn’t find the Kratos S5 to be my ideal system, but at the end of the day, I do not watch many movies on my personal computer, so I don’t care too much. However, for the sake of this review, it is worth noting.

The 2.1 system – 2 speakers and one subwoofer – is ideal for the system, and provide a very rich experience overall. The included audio puck is a great feature utilized in many Sound Blaster and Creative products, and although there is no volume indicator on the puck – may be next time Creative? – it’s still great to have that quick access to changing the volume, without having to reach forward to turn a tiny knob on a speaker, or to manually adjust the volume in your computer settings.

Conclusion

For movie watchers, the Sound BlasterX Kratos S5 probably is not the speaker system for you. Because of how movies projects varying sounds so quickly, I find the speakers have a hard time outputting that sound cleanly. For everything else, however, I found no major issues. It’s a bit of a bulky setup, which is both a positive and a negative. On the downside, it will take up a good amount of space on your desk, but it’s also well build, meaning it won’t topple, even with decent strain on the audio cables.

The clean setup and RGB Lighting will be very attractive for those looking to create a unique experience for their online streaming activities, or even for their own personal aesthetics. Using the downloadable Sound Blaster software is incredibly easy, and those with fine tuned lighting and computer systems will have no trouble matching the Kratos S5’s to their current setup, regardless of what company makes the rest of their products.

Overall, the Sound BlasterX Kratos S5 is a must by for those looking to enhance their computer experience for a very affordable price. Again, this is not top of the line, but for what you pay, the value of the product exceeds the money you will spend!