im considering buying a set of creatures foor my sister for chrsitmas.
she is getting an ipod mini so the creatures would be a nice addition.

but are they really worth the price.
you can get them on ebay for aroung 150 or maybe a bit less.

i know they are nie lookign speakers but is the sound quality good enough to justify the price.

maybe Zen can help me with this one ?

*moves to hardware forum*

I was going to buy them a while back but settled on the Harmon Kardon Soundtsicks II. They have a much better sound in comparison.

The HKS II use an ordinary line in jack rather than the previous version which I think were USB, so I plug them straight into the iPod dock. I tell you when I play these babies the place rocks

they only thing i'm not very fond of those HK's are the base which i think is not in a pretty colour. (umm, that grey looks ugly to me) but of course, it's a subjective matter. how much are they going for nowadays.

I like to call them faux silver LOL

Gee I got mine in July and I think they were a little over $300. But they were just released at the time.

The Harmon Kardon sound sticks have been around for ages! The iSub (when it was sold by itself) was very popular with G3 iMacs!

I'm going to put a vote in for the Creatures. They are more than loud enough for me (really really too loud for me actually) and have a nice clean sound. I think Creatures are very good value at that price whereas you'd have trouble finding soundsticks for less than $250.

I could be wrong but I am pretty sure my local Mac store sells Soundsticks for $240, very resonable for what you get!

Damn I hope not

I heard of a price drop but the Applestore has them for $350.

hmmm might it have been $340, my memory is shocking at the moment and I have deleted the e-mail that had that information

MacMall.com.au has them for: $*289.00

if you try here....

http://www.sunshinecomputers.com.au/

soundsticks II for $263

try here for creatures II - $177

http://www.macmall.com.au/mall/customer/se...p?substring=jbl

and ozi and i did a review on the altec lansing fx 6021, which you can get for $275 from umart.

the altecs kick

pffft amature stuff.... man i got these babies
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products...d=9586,detail=2

Logitech 5.1 Surround Z-5300e got them brand new off ebay for $265 280watts. peak performance 560watts

SO LOUD! 37.5 watts (75 watt peak) per satellite and 39 watts (78watt peak) center satellite AND a 100 watt (200 peak) SUB!

if you want a comparison of how loud they are... the Creatures II are 8 watts each satellite and a HUGE 24watt sub! :P

there are many other products from logitech like this or in 2.1 and are just as powerful. for about $200 you can get a 200watt (400 peak) 2.1 system.(http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/pr...CONTENTID=9372)

I have a set of JBL Creatures.

Judging sound quality is very subjective and I don't know how to quantify sound quality. All I can say is that they sound OK for a set of $200 speakers, but you don't get audiophile sound at these prices

The funny touch sensitive volume controls are a PITA if you can't earth yourself when trying to operate them.

Steve

Rather then base loudness of wattage (like Intel's MHz myth). You want speakers that are sensitive.

Usually this is shown as:

Sensitivity: 98dB

The higher the dB rating, the better.

pipsqeek

another thing you need to factor in is how much room you have to play with. The creatures are realy compact, so would be good if you have a fairly small space. However, the fx6021s mentioned by Yinyang have a better sound, and can get louder too. Likewise, the Logitechs are great as surround sound speakers, but you need to be able to mount speakers behind you, preferably on the wall.

So i guess it depends how much room your sister has to play with, islayer.