I recently got the SOLO6C speakers as a cheap replacement for my broken 2.1 set. I was going to go for 2.1 speakers again, but since I would mostly be listening to music, I thought a proper two speaker set would be better. Getting some bookshelf speakers and an amp turned out to be a little too expensive and inconvenient (space wise) for my needs so I found these Microlab speakers to be a perfect match. Some impressions after a few weeks having owned them:
- Build quality: Very solid with a very simple but clean looking design. I thought the mahogany effect on the MDF might look tacky, but it actually looks very nice and certainly not cheap looking at all. The speakers are also reassuringly heavy, about 14kg in total.
- Setup: The backpanel on the right speaker has all the inputs (two sets of RCA jacks), volume control and power switch neatly layed out, with a large heatsink for the built in amp. Connecting everything up was very simple (all necessary cables are supplied), though I did have to strip the speaker wire for connecting the left speaker to the right speaker. Not sure if this was intended, but it's not exactly difficult to do, so not an issue for me.
- Features: It's pretty minimal but adequate for it's intended purpose (which is music listening). Volume is controlled digitally via the volume knob on the back or on the remote (adjustable in steps from 1 to 60). There is bass and treble adjustments (adjustable in steps from -8 to 8), but it's only accessible from the remote. These tone controls seem to work well, but I prefer to keep bass and treble at zero. The remote also has an input button (for switching between the two RCA inputs) and a mute button. There's also a small two digit red LCD readout on the right speaker for showing the volume and bass/treble settings. One minor issue though is that when you turn off the speakers, it forgets it's volume and bass/treble values and defaults to 20 and 0/0 for the respective settings.
- Sound: I've not had much experience with good speakers systems, but compared to my Sennheiser HD650 I think they sound pretty damn good, especially for something that costs less than £80. Of course, comparing speakers to headphones is not ideal, but it's the only worthwhile comparision I can make, especially since the HD650 are known to have speaker like qualities. I am using an Essence ST Line-out as a source with no DSP/EQ applied and only lossless files. I found the following:
Treble is quite soft and natural sounding with no hint of harshness or sibliance, even at high volume. At the same though, it doesn't sound dull or recessed and when the music calls for it, the speakers will delivery very bright, vibrant and airy highs - just not in an artificially boosted way.
Mids are very nice sounding. Vocals and acoustic music sound very forward, lush and vibrant, with an almost palpable quality to them. I love listening to music with with lots going on in the midrange and these speakers do it justice, something which I find most 2.1 speakers aimed at PC users fail at. Either they're too recessed or too congested in the midrange. These Microlabs deliver midrange that is both forward and uncongested.
Bass is suprisingly deep and powerful. I didn't realise 6.5" drivers could move enough air to reproduce deep, rumbling bass tones (less than 50hz), but these do. My room is about 6x7 metres large and the bass is certainly room filling. Whilst it does pretty well in raw bass quantity, it doesn't go overboard or become monotonous, it can sound very tight, impactful and dynamic when needed. The bass is also very clean and solid sounding, in that there are no odd colourations to the sound or weird vibrations coming from the enclosures.
All in all, I'm very impressed and happy with my purchase. I listen to all types of music and in my opinion these speakers perform admirably with everything I throw at them, especially acoustic and vocal heavy music or anything that needs good midrange reproduction. I generally like a balanced sound across the full sound spectrum, with maybe a slight leaning towards something 'warmer' sounding and in this respect, the Mircolab SOLO6C sound excellent to my ears - balanced sounding but still musical.
I haven't tested them much with movies and games, but from what I've heard so far they seem adequate, if not ideal - I think a proper surround system would be better for these tasks. I also normally prefer headphones for games and movies, so it's not really an issue for me.
Highly recommended!
