CREATIVE FPS 2000 Four Point Surround Sound Reviewed by Anurax Lian (10/06/99) FPS 2000 Specifications Satellite Speakers Four 2.75' compact satellite speakers with 14 total RMS watts at 10% THD per channel Satellite dimensions 3.5' X 3.5' X 3.5' with 2.5' long throw driver Sub Woofer Powered subwoofer with level control included with 25 RMS watts at 10% THD Sub Woofer Dimensions 14.1' X 8.0' X 6.5' with 5.25' woofer Frequency Range 50Hz - 20kHz Controls Remote in-line, master volume control can be attached to the computer monitor or other convenient locations. Speaker Stands One pair of 21-inch speaker stands Cables Two 9-foot (3m) front satellite cables Two 16-foot (5m) rear satellite cables With sticker labels for easy identification Power Supply AC/DC adapter included Safety and EMI compliance UL, cUL, CE etc Price S$ 320 (EST). Introduction Ever since Creative Labs merged with Henry Kloss' Cambridge Sound System to manufacture PC speakers, they have since been releasing more powerful speakers for the PC. Their initial releases (e.g.

Syslog Collector. SBS 20) were never the type of speakers that games and music enthusiasts wanted. When PC works first came out, people generally compared it with Altec Lansing ACS45/44 series. Many would agree the Bass was pretty good but sound was too low and the ACS45 was still the preferred choice to many. The Four Point Surround Sound System was generally a cheap gimmick, which many never actually fell for and Creative probably felt the pinch and seriously needed something to kick off their four-speaker configuration. The other 2 speaker the MicroWorks and SoundWorks were only 2 speaker 1 Subwoofer configuration, both were excellent speakers, especially the MicroWorks but never really found a niche in the gaming/home user world. The Desktop Theater 5.1 had some pretty good features like AC3 support but most of its speaker/sub came from the PC works family and therefore was not in a class of its own even though the price was otherwise.

This time round Creative came out with something pretty outstanding if I should say so myself. THE Four Point Surround Sound 2000 Digital. I would generally say this is THE set of speaker to pair up with the Sound Blaster Live. It is a digital speaker that accepts signals from a 9 pin digital DIN (not AC3 SPDIF cable) from the digital I/O card.

(Finally got to use the Digital card from my SBLive. Whew no waste). However, if you are using the SBLive Value, Monster Sound MX300 or even a 16Bit sound card, you may still use the analog inputs on the FPS 2000. If your sound card supports 4 speaker configuration, that's great, but however if it does not, well not to worry as the FPS 2000 will split the signal from the front to rear, meaning you'll have 2 left and 2 right speakers. The satellite speaker from the FPS2000 are fantastic, they are the same type of speakers the Desktop Theater 5.1 used for the front. The PC Works, FPS 1000 and the Desktop Theater 5.1 uses even smaller satellite speaker.

As for the Subwoofer, the FPS 2000 comes with a pretty big Subwoofer at 14' driving at 25 watts compared to the others driving at only 8 - 10 watts. Obviously the FPS 2000 is technically more powerful than the others (with exception to the MicroWorks). Another cool thing about it is that it's Black in color and not the Plain-Jane white we see so often.