Zardon

Read The Review Here
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The Razer Mako 2.1 Advanced Desktop Audio System was co-developed by the audio scientists at THX with input from Razer. Over the last couple of months we have run the Mako system through a barrage of tests in real world use and today we will let you know if this system lives up to the quality associated with its creators.

Matth

Well, after reading that, I really wasn't prepared for the price on the final page - ye-Ouch!

Ok, so the make is good and the power is honest, and it has a remote, but when all's said and done, it's only a 2.1, driven from just a stereo input.

If I was out to splash that much cash on speakers, I'd probably be looking at these bad boyz
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Multimedia Surround Sound Speakers 505W RMS - THX Certified - Ebuyer - The Logitech Z-5500 5.1 set, also THX certified, and with a plethora of input types. Big and heavy, and in speakers, that's usually a plus!

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Her father shot it dead
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Between two crusts of bread

Zardon

I think you are somewhat missing the point, the mako's and logitech 5:1's are for completely different markets. Granted you can watch movies on both, or listen to music on both but the The Mako's strengths lie in faithful and almost audiophile reproduction of stereo content such as WAV's or MP3's - the technology is quite high with the THX involvement.

The logitechs are basically for movies. No serious listener ever would purchase a 5:1 or 7:1 system for music reproduction. Then again as you rightly said, for many users the Mako's might very well be overpriced and not versatile enough.

Matth

Possibly these are carrying the wrong branding, as even though I'm no pro-gamer, I'd associate Razer with gaming rather than hi-fi, another area where surround scores.

Logitech also have a 2.1 THX set
Logitech Z-2300 2.1 Speakers 200W RMS - THX Certified - Ebuyer

One thing I notice, all the THX sets seem to have considerable "honest" power levels, unlike the lunatic power claimed by the worst of the cheapies in pie in the sky "PMPO".
What is PMPO? It's An advertising gimmick!
As it says there, you CANNOT calculate or justify PMPO.

A THX set tends to have a real power of 200, 300 or even 500W (all channels).
The lower sets seem to go for around 50W maximum.


I remember one golden rule of speakers relating to size, efficiency and quality.
You can have a small, efficient speaker, but it won't be good quality.
You can have a small, quality speaker, but it won't be efficient (hence, higher power required).
You can have a good quality, efficient speaker, but it won't be small.

2.1 changes the rules a bit, as the size tradeoff is mainly on the bass speaker.

__________________
Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead
Now Mary takes her lamb to school,
Between two crusts of bread

Veridian3

Without listening to each of the THX systems it is hard to say if the Mako is worth the extra money, for some it definitely wont be but the same could be said for many components... it is just as hard to justify the hundreds of £/$ to buy a X9770 CPU over the X9650 CPU for example.

Looking at the spec's of the Logitech systems I can see a few areas where the Mako would be more desirable... such as digital vs analog amp. In the Mako a more advanced control pod, more advanced monitoring (the ability to notify of damaged speakers etc), zero desk bounce, far better aesthetics, each speaker bi-amplified, amp which isn't always running at full power, higher wattage sat's....

It is hard to say exactly how much of a difference the above list makes but what I can tell you is that I have yet to hear anyone who has heard the Mako say that they have heard better. That goes for people in the press, staff on this site and random people who have been near our test systems.

IvanV

I remember when Zardon mentioned that DH would do a review of these speakers, you guys really took your time and were thorough with them. A good review and very nice piece of equipment, even if far out of my price range.

I once got a set of stereo desktop speakers (I didn't wnat them, they were bundled) that had PMPO rating of... I no longer remember, somewhere between 120 and 300W. That was the worst sounding set of speakers I've ever heared (I think they make mobile phones with better speakers novadays), plus it was unbelievably quiet, and if you tried to turn the volume up the distortion would be awful. Eventually, I opened them to see if there was a wiring problem of some sort, and I saw a sticker on the driver of the speaker claiming output power of 0.5W.

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ChaosMinionX

How do the Mako's stack up against Logitech Z2300 THX 2.1? I am considering the Mako, but I just want to know if anyone at all has used both yet, maybe you Stewart?

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