SP2500 Overview
First, lets take a look at the Satellites. The satellites are a truly impressive piece of hardware. Corsair was serious about the build quality. With a smooth satin black finish and a hard metal mesh cover over the main driver and the tweeter you know you’re holding something that Corsair took pride in designing. The weight of each of theses speakers is enough to let you know that you’re not holding junk. These satellites aren’t overwhelming when it comes to size but don’t let that deceive you, because they pack a punch when it comes to sound. Each satellite houses a 76.2mm 40W mid-range driver and a 25.4mm 10W ferro-fluid cooled silk diaphragm tweeter giving you 50W’s of pure sound.
What is ferro-fluid cooled mean? I let Google help me out with this one…
“These tweeters are built almost exactly the same as other tweeters. They look and act almost exactly the same, too. The only difference is that they have a small, controlled amount of a special fluid inserted into the gap between the magnet and the voice coil.
One big effect of adding this fluid to a tweeter (or to any speaker) is that it makes the voice coil capable of dissipating more heat. This means that the speaker can have a lighter voice coil, for better performance, or a higher power rating for the same voice coil. The other big effect of this fluid is to add mechanical damping. The frequency response and transient response of the driver will change, possibly for the better.
In addition, this fluid may help center the voice coil, may lubricate the voice coil, and may help keep dirt out of the gap. This fluid will not increase the magnetic field, concentrate the magnetic field or otherwise change the magnetic circuit. Nor will it cushion impact if the voice coil bottoms.
-Bob Neidorff at Stason.org”
Google can teach us so many things.
The back of the Satellites contain only one connector. The thing is, the connector is the same as a 4 pin AUX power connector for a motherboard. I’ve never seen a speaker system use connectors like this to power and transmit audio signal. Personally, I think more speakers should use a connector like this. It’s bulky and has a recession clip to let you know that you have it properly secured.
Next, we have the sub-woofer. Did I mention earlier how big this thing is? Well, just in case, let me reiterate that this is the largest sub I’ve ever seen on a 2.1 system. The size of this thing rivals the majority of the 5.1 systems I’ve seen. With the SP2500’s the size of this sub certainly doesn’t go to waste. Inside this black wooden school bus is a 20.3cm 120W sub-woofer powered by 2 60W amplifiers. On the back we have a very simple layout; 2 color keyed speaker connectors next to the connector for the desktop controller, and below that we have our inputs. Because Corasir placed the power supply inside of the sub all you have is an AC power port to plug your cord into. This is very nice because it eliminates the need for an external power brick.
Lastly we have the controller. You see controllers of this type on the majority of the 5.1 systems out there but non that I’ve come across with an LCD screen. The controller has may features in regards to the output of the speakers but also provides the addition of a headphone jack. This is nice because on the majority of 2.1’s they place a headphone jack on one of the satellites.
I made a video showcasing the different functions the the controller has but you’ll have to excuse the part where I mention the use of an “external mp3 player” button. That button is actually the button to adjust the sub-woofer volume. The controller is the only part of the speakers I have an issue with. You’ll notice in the video how often I have to change the angle to allow the camera to pick up the display. This is enhanced simply because of the focus of the camera lenses but is also a problem when viewing it with you’re own eyes. If you had the controller laying flat on the desk you would be forced to pick it up to adjust the volume. The display washes out too much to actually see what the currently level is at. I think it was a nice attempt at a new feature but could have been much better without the screen and just some LED indicators or a better screen in general. I’d imagine the first option to be more cost effective. A picture is worth 1000 words, a video is worth around a million, I think, so click the play button below
