Introduction
Look out Goliath, here comes a young English fella with a slingshot and a rock. What does this mean? Well, for a while now, Klipsch has enjoyed being on the top of the speaker pile, but it seems there is a new kid on the block. VideoLogic, a division of Imagination Technologies, has recently started offering their products in North America. The first set of speakers from VideoLogic being reviewed here at AnandTech is the Sirocco Crossfire.

VideoLogic's existence dates as far back as the 1970's, when two gentlemen by the name of Mike Fuller and Joe Startup, whom worked for Philips at the time, started VideoLogic Limited. The company went through some transitions, and by 1985, things really began. They have had quite a reputable past, winning the Queens award for technology, jointly developing the PowerVR chip with NEC, and among many other achievements, introducing their latest, the Sirocco PC speaker line. The Sirocco Crossfire is one of many in the Sirocco line. The Crossfire represents the 4.1 solution. The package is made up of 4 sattelites, each putting out 10W RMS, a subwoofer that puts out 40W, and a very elegant amplifier. All of the speakers are Audax drivers. (Audax has been in the speaker business since 1926. The company itself is a division of Harman International, which is essentially Harman Kardon, one of the most famous companies in the audio industry.) All in all, the system puts out 80W at 0.1% THD, and 100W at 10% THD. This, however, does not compare to the staggering 400W that the Klipsch puts out, but the Crossfire makes up for this difference elsewhere.

Technical Specifications:

SUBWOOFER MDF cabinet, containing magnetically shielded bass drive unit. Low frequency drive unit: Audax 6.5" cone. SATELLITES Mid-frequency (bass/mid) drive unit and separate high-frequency drive unit (tweeter), both fully shielded. Bass/mid frequency drive unit: Audax 3" cone. High frequency drive unit: Audax 10mm polymer dome. AMPLIFIER Self Peak Instantaneous Temperature (°Ke) (SPiKe™) Protection Circuitry for protection against overvoltage, undervoltage, overloads, including shorts to the supplies, thermal runaway and instantaneous temperature peaks. Power supply unit: Dual rail toroidal transformer with 28000µF of smoothing capacitance.

Power output: Satellites: 4 x 10W RMS. Subwoofer: 40W RMS. Full system (all channels driven): 80 Watts RMS at 1% THD; 100 Watts RMS at 10% THD. Frequency response: < 3Hz to > 100KHz. THD (nominal output): Less than 0.01% at 1KHz. Input sensitivity: 200mV RMS for inputs 1 and 3; 1.5V RMS for input 2. Controls: Power on/off, Volume, Subwoofer volume (relative to main volume), Front/Rear fade, Source switch, Quad switch (for stereo surround). Connectors: Gold plated phono inputs for surround source, stereo source, and Dolby Digital LFE channel; 3.5mm jack for second stereo source; individual outputs to each speaker unit; 3.5mm headphone jack on amplifier front panel; IEC mains inlet. Power supply: 220-240V AC 50Hz.

GENERAL System Requirements: 3D Surround sound: PC sound card with 4-speaker 3D positional sound capability, or PC-based or stand-alone surround sound decoder. Stereo surround sound: Two channel sound card or any device with a line-level output. Cables supplied: IEC mains cable, two 3.5mm stereo jack to dual RCA phono cables, and loudspeaker cables. Approvals: CE marked. Compliant with the EMC and Low Voltage Directives (89/336/EEC and 73/23/EEC). Dimensions: Satellites: 100mm (W), 136mm (H) x 74mm (D). Subwoofer: 235mm (W) x 420mm (H) x 370mm (D). Amplifier: 204mm (W) x 86mm (H) x 340mm (D). Weight: Approx. 16.5kg/36lbs 4oz. Technical support: Technical hotline and Internet web site. Warranty: Two years.

Sound Quality
The most important part of a speaker is, of course, the quality of its output (i.e. how well it sounds). Enough can't be said for the quality of these speakers. There is a crispness about these speakers that will send tingles down your spine.

Treble
The treble for the satellites is provided by a 10mm Audax tweeter. Treble reproduction is excellent, clear and crisp, and most importantly, accurate. A lot of the PC speakers on the market today seem to "color" the signal, while the Crossfire excels at reproducing the signal as close as possible to how the sound was originally recorded.

Mid-range The mid-range speakers are 3" Audax drivers, which sound as good as a mid-range from a system worth four times the price. One song that really brings out the mid-range in these speakers is the acoustic version of Hotel California by the Eagles. The sound of Don Felder and Glenn Frey on their acoustic guitars is incredible.

Subwoofer The subwoofer is a 6.5" Audax polymer dome driver in a solid black MDF (medium density fiberboard) enclosure with a grill protecting it. The sub delivers punchy deep bass that does more than its job in delivering accurate reproduction of the frequency range, 30 Hz to 130 Hz.

Satellite

Subwoofer

Amplifier
This is a feature often overlooked by many, but should be addressed. The amplifer is one of the most vital components in any speaker setup. The Crossfire amplifier uses one amplifier for each channel, so each speaker is amplified separately, resulting in a cleaner lower distortion signal. The transformer used is a dual rail Torodial transformer with 28000µF of smoothing capacitance. What is a Torodial transformer? In many of the PC speaker amplifiers, the transformer used is an E-Core transformer. This is a rather inefficient transformer that does not contain the magnetic field as well as the Torodial transformer. The Torodial transformer is twice as efficient as the E-Core transformer. This is due to its ability to contain the magnetic field in the transformer, and thus, resulting in a better signal to noise ratio. "28000µF smoothing capacitance" essentially means that the output is continually being smoothed so that if a sudden current draw occurs, the capacitors will discharge to keep the current flow steady. If you didn't understand all of that, then in laymen's terms, VideoLogic did not go on the more inexpensive route for the internals of this amplifier.

Amplifier Case

Amplifier Inners

Torodial Transformer

28000µF of Smoothing Capacitance

Gaming

VideoLogic boasts that these are the speakers to have for true HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) 3D positional audio. HRTF is essentially the set of audio filters that form the core of 3D positional audio. The speakers performed very well in all aspects of immersing the user in a 3D audio environment; one of the favorites used for testing was Unreal Tournament. It's always nice to hear your enemy coming up behind you, so you can spin around and fill him full of some chain gun action. 4-channel setups truly give you a much more realistic gaming experience. Overall, the Crossfire's performed extremely well in the gaming area, with punchy deep lows and crisp low distortion output. Quality sound reproduction is what makes any 4-channel setup enjoyable.

Head Related Transfer Fuunctions

Music The Crossfire's are sensational when playing anything. Music was reproduced in a clear and concise manner, keeping the sound natural and un-colored. VideoLogic seems to have considered sound quality as an important part in designing this system. These speakers will fill a fairly decent size room very well. These speakers were tested in a room size of 15' x 10'.

Movies
VideoLogic included a LFE (low frequency effects) input on the rear of the Crossfire's. What this enables you to do is from an external decoder, you can hook the front left and right to Input 1 left and right on the amp, and hook the rear left and right to Input 1 rear left and rear right on the amp, and hook the decoders LFE output into the LFE input on the amp. Then if the decoder supports it, you can make a phantom center channel out of your two front speakers, providing they are not too far apart. As a result, you will have decent simulated 5.1 setup. Due to the powerful punchy sub, and crisp, clean mids and highs, watching movies is very enjoyable. But if you are looking for a true 5.1 solution, you will want to look at either VideoLogic's DigiTheatre solution or something else, as there is no center channel or digital inputs.

Functionality
The Crossfire package was well-thought out in terms of user functionality and features. All the speakers connect using standard speaker wire - no 1/8 inch adapters. For the front speakers, the wire is 6 ft long for each, and same for the sub. For the rear, a 20-foot cable is used for each speaker. The amplifier uses RCA inputs for 2 of the 3 inputs, while the 3rd is a standard 1/8 inch stereo jack. All RCA connections are gold plated for maximum signal quality. What a great setup! Not only can you plug in your speakers, but you have another RCA input jack at the rear and a 1/8 inch input jack on the front of the amplifier. To top this off, there is also a 1/8 inch headphone jack right on the front of the amplifier as well as a Quad button used when you have stereo signal hooked into Input 2 or Input 3. It duplicates the signal from the front speakers to the rear speakers for "Quad" sound. And, the user has control of the volume, sub volume, fade and source from the amplifier (the source selector is located on the front panel of the amplifier).

Amplifier Front

Amplifier Rear

Conclusion
This is one serious set of Hi-Fi speakers. These speakers should not be confused for just another set of "off the shelf" four speaker kits. VideoLogic seems to have to put a lot of time and research into putting the proper components together to make a fantastic 4.1 solution. The VideoLogic Crossfire's MSRP is $449 USD. Rumour has it the street price will be below $399.00, which is still higher than most other 4.1 solutions, but considering the features and quality in its package, it is a reasonable price. Although, it would not hurt for the price to come down a little, which it eventually will. Some of you are probably going to wonder if these are better than the Klipsch. Based on the tests performed on the Crossfires, the answer is "yes". The sound quality is definitely more crisp. Even when the amplifier was turned all the way up, there was barely any distortion, and barely any background hiss either - something some of the Klipsch ProMedias tend to have. All in all, you can't go wrong with these speakers. Even though this is a very well-designed package, I have only one gripe: the speaker grills - it's too easy to dent the paper cones.

For their impeccable performance, quality construction and sound clarity, the VideoLogic Sirocco Crossfire speakers are awarded the AnandTech Gold Medal.