Despite being one of the most popular brands at large consumer electronics stores, such as Circuit City, any hardcore audiophile will quickly tell you that Kenwood is not considered one of the top speaker brands. Kenwood's success is due to their low cost and quality that easily rivals anything else in its class, which includes names like Sony, Pioneer, and Aiwa.

With that in mind, it seems reasonable that Kenwood's foray into the multimedia speaker market would produce a product with similar advantages - quality good enough for most people at a reasonable price. Currently, two computer speaker sets are available from Kenwood - the CL-701 and CL-501. The CL-701 is a three piece speaker set consisting of a subwoofer and two satellites. The CL-501 features essentially the same set of satellites without a subwoofer.

The most important thing to keep in my mind when buying an audio equipment is that your ears are always the best judge because everyone has different musical tastes. Keep that in mind while reading speaker reviews and, if at all possible, listen to any speakers before making a purchasing decision.

Design

The first thing you will notice when unpacking the CL-701's is the cool looking design. Most multimedia speakers out there today are really plain looking, but these feature a sort of "space age" look with elegant cloth covers. The subwoofer features a wooden enclosure for improved bass response as well as the power, volume, bass, and SRS 3D sound controls. Unfortunately, if you put the sub on the floor, as most people do, you will constantly be crawling under your desk to adjust the volume. Of course, using the software volume control in Windows can prevent some time under your desk, but it will not help you when the phone rings and your scrambling to turn down the volume in that Quake deathmatch ;)

A giant AC adapter connects to the back of the sub to power the whole system. Fortunately, the power brick will not block any plugs on your surge protector thanks to separate cords to the wall outlet and sub. The satellites connect to RCA jacks on the back of the sub by 5ft cables that are permanently mounted to each satellite. The sub in turn connects to the computer by a 5ft patch cable featuring standard 1/8^th inch plugs on each end. If your sound card uses RCA jacks for its line out, you will need to pick up an RCA to 1/8^th headphone adapter. A nice touch is the availability of a line out on the back of the sub for hooking up another set of powered speakers without the use of adapters. A one page installation guide shows you everything you need to know to hook these speakers up in less than a minute.

The satellites use 2 x 3 inch drivers and a 4W RMS amplifier while the sub gets a 4 inch driver and a 12W amp. That RMS power rating is with a high 10% total harmonic distortion. This setup provides for a claimed 40Hz - 20kHz frequency response with a crossover at 75Hz that leaves the sub covering 40 - 75Hz and the satellites taking 75Hz - 20kHz. Human hearing ranges from 20Hz - 20kHz and few, if any, computer speakers make it all the way down to 20Hz. Many home speaker systems cannot make it that low either.

CL-701 Specifications

Courtesy of Kenwood Technologies

Amplifier Output Power
- SRS surround system
- 12W + 4W + 4W (RMS 10%)

Speaker Impedance
- 4 ohms

Power Adapter
Input
- 120V AC, 60Hz

Output
- 12V DC, 2.7A

Safety Standard
- UL/CSA Approved

Dimensions
Subwoofer
- 7.4" W x 10.4" H x 8.7" D
- 186mm W x 265mm H x 221mm D

Satellites
- 4.2" W x 9.7" H x 6.3" D
- 106mm W x 247mm H x 159mm D

Weight
Subwoofer
- Approx. 5.7 lbs. (2600g)

Right Speaker
- Approx. 1.8 lbs. (800g)

Left Speaker
- Approx 1.8 lbs. (800g)

Speaker Unit
Subwoofer Diameter
- 4" (10.2 cm) magnetically shielded

Diameter
- 2" x 3" (5cm x 7.5cm) magnetically shielded

Input Power Nominal
- 20W, Subwoofer
- 5W, Satellite

Maximum
- 30W Subwoofer
- 7W, Satellite

Frequency Response
- 40Hz - 75Hz, Subwoofer
- 75Hz - 20kHz, Satellite

Sound Quality

This is most likely the most important area to consider when choosing a speaker set, whether for the computer or a home theater. Once again, the most important thing to keep in my mind when buying an audio equipment is that your ears are always the best judge because everyone has different musical tastes. It is also necessary to keep in my mind what you plan to use the speakers for. Just about anything will get you by if you just want Windows beeps and dings, but if you plan to listen to music 6 hours a day, you are going to need much more. With that in mind, not many people by three piece speaker sets for beeps and dings, so the focus here will be on music and (to a lesser extent) gaming.

This is where the Kenwood CL-701's get themselves in major trouble. Listening to just about any music with any semblance of bass produces obvious distortion that comes primarily from the satellites, even at low volume levels. There are a couple possibilities that could be causing the problem with these speakers. Most likely is the fact that the crossover between the satellites and sub is at a relatively low 75Hz. Quite simply, most 2 x 3 inch driver, such as those used in the CL-701 satellites, cannot handle frequencies that low. The other possibility is a simple lack of power, just 4W RMS, going to the satellites, but this is less likely since it occurs even at low volume levels.

Disconnecting the satellites and allowing just the sub to play removes most of the distortion, showing that the sub can handle the bass. In fact, when the satellites are disconnected, the sub thumps very nicely, probably near the specified 40Hz lower limit, but also produces a lot of sound above the supposed 75Hz crossover level. The sub actually goes to quite high frequency levels for a sub and could probably also benefit from a steeper crossover slope as well. Substituting a higher crossover frequency for the satellites could greatly improve sound quality. As it stands now, the aforementioned distortion in the satellites makes the sub's lows nearly imperceptible.

Listening to music with less bass actually produces quite good sound for a computer speaker set, especially in the midrange frequencies. The lack of a dedicated tweeter somewhat limits the upper frequency response, despite the claimed 20kHz limit.

The SRS 3D surround sound feature is an interesting one. In general, the goal of such algorithms is to make the sound from two speakers feel like they fill the room better and remove the listening "sweet spot" as illustrated in the diagram below from SRS Labs.

I have never found the sound from such algorithms to sound better, but rather it seems to produce a sort of "funny" feeling sound that is hard to describe. It definitely helps to eliminate the sweet spot, allowing all listening positions to sound good, but it always sounds "funny." In the case of the Kenwood CL-701, turning on the SRS feature increases the distortion even further from the satellites, and this time from all frequencies, not just the bass. As such, this feature is essentially useless on the CL-701's, even if you do like the 3D effect.

Conclusion

Kenwood's first foray into the multimedia speaker market was pretty much a disaster. At just under $100, these speakers offer very little to warrant spending hard earned money to get them. The sound quality is poor and the controls are inconveniently mounted on the sub. Kenwood should go back to the drawing board to satellite crossover and add controls on the satellite. These simple modifications would greatly improve the value of these speakers without significantly affecting the cost.

As mentioned earlier, your ears are the best judge of any audio components, so take a listen and I think you will agree with these conclusions. If you must have the cool look of the Kenwood speakers and do not really need high quality audio, pick up the lower priced CL-501 model. Otherwise, if sound quality matters to you, look elsewhere - there are many better options for under $100.