Antec Soundscience Rockus 3D 2.1 Speakers
by Dustin Sklavos on November 18, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Audio
- Antec
- Soundscience
- Rockus 3D
Movies and Games on the Rockus 3D
The 3D mode on the Rockus 3D seems to exist more for these two purposes: producing—or at least simulating—a surround sound environment in video games and in movies.
First, when playing games where pitch-perfect sound accuracy isn't as big a deal, the 3D mode can actually shine. While Grand Theft Auto IV sounded a bit thin regardless of which mode I played it in, I found that the simulated surround space in Left 4 Dead 2—a game where spatial recognition can be downright vital—was much better than I expected. The weather effects in the Hard Rain campaign sounded excellent, and I found I was able to locate my teammates and the infected more easily than I could using the Music mode.
Playing Modern Warfare 2, the 3D mode didn't feel quite as impressive as in Left 4 Dead 2, but it still produced a notable improvement in sound quality. Everything in the game felt like it had more body and depth, and it was a little easier to spot enemies than playing in Music mode.
The other big usage for the 3D mode is in watching movies, and here I ran into my first real snag with the Rockus 3D. I'm not sure whom to blame on this one, either, but it goes something like this: to test movie playback I use ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3, and for the majority of my testing I had the Rockus 3D plugged into the optical jack on my motherboard. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, someone (we'll say Realtek) screwed the pooch. Realtek's implementation of Dolby Surround doesn't work and results in a silent movie, while the Xonar DX is able to produce audio perfectly fine. No combination of settings between the Realtek audio (with a digital connection) and ArcSoft worked, while the Xonar had no such issues.
When I was finally able to test movie playback and actually hear the movie, I used Iron Man 2 and routinely switched back and forth between the Music and 3D modes during the attack at the Stark Expo. My findings here essentially echo the experience I had when gaming: Antec's 3Dsst produces a fuller, richer sound and improves the spatial quality of the movie's audio track compared to the basic Music mode. While it was still nowhere near the level of having dedicated satellites, it was at least a marked improvement over just having the basic 2.1 sound. Audiophiles and purists may very well take some issue with this: 3D mode does change the character and quality of the sound of the movie in a very real and obvious way, but that's what the toggle is there for.
My ultimate opinion on simulated surround sound remains essentially unchanged: while I was impressed with what Antec was able to achieve in 3D mode, particularly in Left 4 Dead 2, it's still no replacement for an authentic 5.1 system. That's fair, because it's not entirely intended to be (not the way Bose's Companion 3 and 5 systems grossly attempt to). The idea here is that if you simply don't have the physical space to hook up a surround sound system proper, 3Dsst offers a reasonable alternative and in that respect it's easy to say I'd rather have it than not. Turn it on when you like, and off when you don't—simple.
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wtfbbqlol - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
"You may not like seeing a subjective review of speakers, and I know for a fact that Dustin isn't particularly happy doing these reviews simply because of the backlash, but tell me this: has this review actually harmed any reader in any way? Would anyone read this review and come away thinking, "OMG I HAVE TO UPGRADE"? 95% of all audio commentary is going to be subjective, but you can hide it behind measurements and such (yeah, I just made up that statistic). It's a shorter op-ed piece about a new set of speakers that come from a brand any enthusiast is familiar with, and ultimately the conclusion is that they sound good but they're too expensive. Hardly a sham, ringing endorsement, or fluff piece.
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Weak excuse. Judging the quality of an online review by the degree of 'harm' it does to its readers? Come on. Anandtech should strive for better than that. My personal belief is a hardware review that is not supplemented some way by repeatable, measurable results qualifies as a fluff piece.
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But, I'll make sure that next time anyone mentions an audio review to me, I'll point Anand this way and say that we should probably just let sleeping dogs lie, so that our readers can get information elsewhere. Like this:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&...
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Yes, do so. Just leave it if you cannot devote more resources to it. It's because Anandtech's articles are of generally high quality that yes, FLUFFY, ones like this stick out like a sore thumb. It's almost like I'm reading a PC Gamer magazine review of multimedia speakers from 1998.
michal1980 - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
You might not have been directly paid, but who paid for the intial 'press junket'" They sent representatives to demo the Rockus 3D 2.1 speaker system to the press and take questions in person. I was sat down in front of a Toshiba notebook connected via analog minijack to the Rockus 3D and allowed to play with the speakers, play different music, try some tracks off of YouTube, listen to a movie demonstration. And when it was all over, they sent me home with a set of the speakers that I have rigorously put through their paces during the past 10 days."
From that paragraph it sounds like antec paid for dustin's trip to the press junket. Then sent him home with some free speakers.
Right there he got $250 worth of free goods.
Your right, their might not be any direct payment for a 'review'. But this 'article' was indirectly paid for by antec. And what really information did it give us? One listeners opinion that 2d makes things sound unclear? That in standard mode the speakers might sound ok?
Its not just this site. Most seem to have written the same amount of worthless subjectivity that is presented here.
I just expect more from Anandtech.
JarredWalton - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Actually, Antec flew a guy out to meet Dustin in his home town... was going to meet at his pad, but Dustin lives in a small apartment and declined to go that. I wouldn't qualify that as "paying" Dustin, certainly. LOLDustin Sklavos - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Actually I think they just drove out here. I live 45 minutes from their headquarters.As for keeping the speakers, what good would $250 speakers do me if they weren't any better than what I already had? "Oh, someone gave me free stuff, I'd better give them a positive BS writeup." Would you feel better if I sent them back? Is it really worth it for Antec to pay to have this kit shipped back to them?
Antec_Jessie - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Just to make one thing clear - Antec did not pay for this review.Our thinking is this - Anandtech is one of the most popular enthusiast websites on the internet. We have made a product in the rockus speaker set that we think PC enthusiasts will want to hear about from a source that they trust.
Audio reviews, from headsets to sound cards to speakers are all subjective. You can get into impedance, signal to noise ratio, dynamic range and other measurements all you want but what matters at the end of the day, when it comes to any audio device, is how it sounds to you. And that's what we wanted to hear from Anand's staff.
wtfbbqlol - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Antec_Jessie,I agree that audio to a large degree is subjective. But a review of an audio product still requires some reference measurements IN ADDITION to the subjective impressions. I'm not saying to just provide graphs and that's it. What I like to see is subjective impressions, corroborated by proper lab measurements.
From your side, let me ask you this. Whoever designed these speakers must have some specifications to meet internally, correct? During the design process you specify electrical, acoustical, and mechanical targets that meet the pricepoint and performance you want. You couldn't have designed these speakers with vague instructions like "eh just make it sound good" because "sound good" has no design/target properties.
Well reasoned, relevant, and correctly done lab measurements add value to any hardware review. Not having any, on the other, hurts the review.
WhatYaWant - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Seriously, the guy doing this review knows little of audio. Audio reviews CAN be done in a nice way and I strongly disagree that it cannot be done more objective."...is how it sounds to you. And that's what we wanted to hear from Anand's staff."
*cough* BS!
stratosrally - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
I never liked 2.1 systems, finding that for apartment living they annoy the neighbors.I have my PC audio going into a $45 Behringer Xenyx 502 mixer and out to KRK Rokit 6 Powered Studio Monitors. This allows me to do some basic home recording from my Korg Kaossilator, an additional stereo source(maybe guitar), and a good microphone. Yes, the speakers were about $400 for the pair, but that's for 6" woofers. The Rokit 5s are $100 less.
This equipment uses 1/4" TRS and RCA jacks to connect, so I'm using nice thick cables. Also, I feed the mix back into the PC and to a set of Grado SR60i headphones. I'm able to play music quite loud w/out upseting the neighbors because the KRKs are upon a shelf about 4' away and angled toward my ears. They come with a layer of foam rubber on the base, which I liked. I may buy wedged monitor isolation pads to angle them down as the shelf is 20" higher than my desk.
I'd been using the Creative Labs GigaWorks T40 Speakers for years - but when I tried using the Kaossilator through them the bass notes really overwhelmed the drivers... so I budgeted for a simple home recording setup and couldn't be happier.
WhatYaWant - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Please Anandtech. You are not qualified to make speaker reviews. Stick to what you know.slayernine - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
No graphs, am I on Anandtech?? You should find a clever way to benchmark speakers :D