Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II (2.0) Multimedia Speakers with BasXPort Technology

I bought a pair of these speakers so that I could play back the sounds (piano) which I had recorded onto a digital recorder. The units are well made with more than enough power for my purposes. There is no hum or hiss from the speakers when they are silent and the sounds they produce are clean and cover a good range. I was pleased to see the inclusion of a 3.5mm ~ 3.5mm extension lead in the box. It permitted me to play the recorded sounds direct from the headphone output of the recorder which I had plugged into the conveniently placed aux socket on the front of the right speaker unit. The right speaker also has a headphone socket and separate controls for the on/off switch (which is combined with the volume control) and bass and treble adjustment controls. The left speaker plugs into the right speaker at the rear, by means of a captive wire. At the the rear of the right speaker is the input socket for the left speaker where there is also another 3.5mm audio input socket and DC input. The units were supplied with a power brick, the 3.5mm ~ 3.5mm extension lead and a dual RCA to stereo adaptor so that you could connect the speakers to your TV easily. The units have a removable grill which covers the treble and mid-range speakers. The bass is handled by means of ports that exit from the top of the speakers. The speakers look neutral and smart and there is a blue LED encircling the on/off & volume switch so that you can tell when the speakers are ready to produce sound. If you are looking for HiFi output then these speakers will probably disappoint you with their small output of 14 watts RMS per channel. If all you need is to significantly boost the sound available from your computer or your TV, then you are likely to agree with me that these speakers do an excellent job. They are relatively cheap (at Amazon's price of £[]) and I can recommend them if your needs are better sound from your TV, computer game playing or playing your MP3 player. I bought them for the ability to boost the signal output from my digital recorder and for this purpose, they work really well and provide a clear and loud signal and I have no complaints. If you want HiFi output, then you would be much better off spending your money on speakers which are designed to output HiFi. Some vendors appear to be selling these speakers at more than £110 and at that price, these units would represent rather poor value for money because you can buy much better speakers at that sort of price.

Had the same problem as one of the other reviewers in that I had a BIG sub woofer taking up valuable space under my PC desk and wanted to streamline things a bit so bought these. Always been a fan of Creative products and they have always delivered the goods and these are just the same, great little speakers. First impressions were good, quite heavy for there size which is always good in a speaker as it means BIG magnets, which means BIG sound but don`t get me wrong, there not HI-FI quality but for there size they sure do pack a punch. Set up is a breeze, one speaker plugs in to the other, one lead from your PC sound card to the main unit (the one with the knobs on) and one power lead to the mains (via a power brick). Not sure what they would be like with on board sound as they are made by Creative and will obviously be better with on of there sound cards (which I am useing) and I have experimented with the sound card settings to get the best out of these speakers and have to say the do sound superb, to the point that if you turn up the bass too much they end up dancing across the desk, but at nominal settings they have a nice crisp treble, smooth mid range and a good punchy bass. I Would recommend these for the price as going up a notch tends to get bigger speakers which defeats the object of having a nice clean looking system, To sum up, great looking, great performance, great price, I am very pleased I bought them.

Very pleased with the t20s but they took a bit of work to get right. Main challenge is the bass, which can easily be overpowering. There's a tendency for frequencies in the 250-500 Hz range to be mushy and overpower and shut out the higher frequencies on the beat. I use iTunes which at least has an eq built in with which to fine tune. In the end I set all tracks in my iTunes library to have no eq preset and created an eq profile specifically for the t20s (and another for when I'm using 'phones). My t20 profile has all the bass frequencies up to 500Hz set at between 1 and 3 with the mid and treble frequencies from 1kHz onwards up at around 5. I can use the bass and treble controls on the t20s to fine tune for certain tracks if necessary - older recordings, for example, usually have a very shallow bass. But the bass/treble controls are not adequate on their own IMHO. I was at one time getting quite frustrated that I couldn't get a sound like the one I get playing the iPod through the kitchen stereo, which is a sub-£100 quid unit and nothing flash but has particularly good speakers. So it can be done and at the end of the day it's all a matter of taste and how fussy you are. Keep in mind you're (probably) listening to compressed music files on 50 quid speakers! When you've got the mix cracked they provide a great sound, as bassy as you like if that's your thing (I do like bass but I like to know it's there, not have it drown out everything else) and certainly good enough for party/barbecue events on the patio. A very acceptable alternative to a 2.1 sub-woofer set up if you (like me) don't have room for the woofer box. I had a listen to some Bose Companion 2s in a shop after I'd bought the t20s; nice sound but don't think they'd have the same clout as the t20s; and they cost a lot more, too. Then again I wasn't able to fiddle with them using an equaliser. There is at least one comparison review between the Boses and t20s on YouTube. They look good; particularly fetching with the covers off (not advisable if you have curious young children). Very pleased in all for 50 quid. Now I can happily watch music vids on my laptop while ironing.

Day Two - Good value for money. Certainly improves quality of sound from my iMac. Gives me hours of pleasure listening to Spotify when working on computer. No hesitation to recommend - Does what it says in the advert. TWO WEEEKS in to owning these FABULOUSE little speakers - Lets face it, for under £60 they are incredible value for money. As a teenager in the 60s I grew up in the music revolution that inspired the words first ever Youth Driven Culturs.... Now into my 70s my musiuc tast hve developed over the years to embrace most genres:- From Hevy Rock, to Grand Opera- From Classic ELO - Moody Blues - YES and WHO ... 60-80s popular bands to the subtlty of Delius and Vaughn Williams (in his pastoral mood) I love THE MUSIC! Yes, I was one of those who collected Vinyls to play through hugerly expencive stack systems with sterion speakers 3 foot tall.... Time and the impact of childrens play virtually destroying my beloved B&O system and the Denon/B&W COMBO THAT replaced it..,. By necessaty my appreciation of the music was reduced to more modest systems. In my 'Man Cave' for decades I have owned an iMac and have satisfied myself to play beloved tunes through the modest built in speakers in the Mac. - Basic, Not good - Laking loads!! It was an impulse that motivated me to browse the web in search of an economic set of speakers to (hopefully) enhance ther soud quality of the unlimited TUNES available on Spotify, You Tube etc. Reading lots of reviews I dropped on the GigaWorks T20! Hey ho - Impulse decision made .... Click - click - Order placed. Speakers duly arrived, easy to set up and off I went.... Day one pretty good - Reasonably impressed so posted first review Two weeks into owning these 'Little Gems' I am blown away by the quality of sound reproduction.... It is as if the speakers needed a little running in before they delivered their full potential. Getting serious with this review I think it only right that I explain my iMac is set up in a reasonably small home 'Man Cave - Office, However, the speakers deliver a wonderful range of sound, particularly Top End clarity. Base is good, but the delivery of sound through the frequency spectrum right up to Top End is really VERY GOOD indeed. The speakers deliver a quality and clarity making it easy to diferentiate the sound of variuous instruments in order to fully appreciate the quality of the performance. Curiosity motivated me to try the speakers in a much larger room....Again I was amazed at ther output and quality pof sound reproduction. ... Thank you Creative GigaWorks - ! Your T20s have reinvented my love of music - I am again indulging in actually listening to the music for musics sake and not just as a background. I have no hesitation in giving a 5* rating to this product - If you are looking for a set of speakers to MASSIVELYT increase the quality of sound from your PC or Mac... Look no further the T20 are ACE! Colin (Veteran Cosmic Rocker) Bentley

I travel a lot and currently divide my time between three different addresses. I work in the VT department of a big multinational TV station doing technical editing for films and TV programmes and in my spare time I produce music, record sound and edit low-budget films. I needed a pair of speakers that were more adequate for my needs than the tinny built-in things on the portable PC monitors or laptop that I have to use when I need to work outside of my own studio, but they also had to be sufficiently small, simple and portable that I could stuff them into an overnight bag for plugging into my smartphone for entertainment when I'm away from home. And not expensive. I am very impressed with these. They actually sound like a top-end Hi-Fi stack and not at all like a pair of smallish desktop speakers. They sound as though they are attached to an invisible .1 sub woofer. The bass has a stunning kick to it without being muddy (you can really feel the air pumping out of the ports at the top of the speakers and the basslines of all my favourite songs are revealed majestically) and the high end details cut through the mix like fine crystal. It's not a flat response, I wouldn't use these speakers for the final mix of a demo or a film for example, but the sound is pleasingly punchy and flatters most music on playback. Used in conjunction with some graphic equalisation it is possible to get a fairly clear, neutral sound for working on my various creative projects which is a lot better than I expected for the money. Having read the complaints about the buzzing power supply and the oversized plug from earlier purchasers I can confirm that these speakers are now shipping with a normal sized electrical plug which connects to a seperate small, lightweight power adapter which is not only completely silent but also remains totally cool even after several hours of use. If I subsequently have any problems with these then I will update this review. At the moment I would say you will not get a better pair of plug-in stereo speakers for this price.

Ok, Creative T20 series 2. £50ish, no buzz from plug (not even a whisper). Cracking sound, improved weight to bass from T10s, clear and responsive. Please dont let people talking about the plug buzz (?!?) put you off. this is obviously a rare issue that some unfortunate souls are experiencing. remeber people are more likely to review if somehting is wrong!! I have both T10's and T20's (both with same plug adapter) and never any problems. I do agree that the adapter is oversized and will overlap a socket on an extention lead but on twin sockets it fits like a glove and no space is lost. This is not just a review after a couple of days before anything has a chance to go wrong. I have had my T10's for over a year and my T20's for about 6months and they have been nothing but exceptional. T10's plugged in to laptop for use with itunes and t20's in LCD TV. laptop doubles as hifi and if volume at 2/3rds fills home. TV sound improved 10 fold. T20's still give the same impecable clarity as t10's but apart from obviously being louder give a richer, deeper bass that were missing from the t10's. Yes there is no bass unit to make outstanding low tones but they have a damn good crack. T10's have single "tone" adjust ment which seems to adjust treble and base at same time which isnt ideal but t20's have seperate bass and treble adjustments which helps you meet a sound better to your taste. Both have a solid build with clean lines and good finish but the t20's just look more purposfull and "meaty". One thing to note is that T10s have a metal mesh over mid range cone which will stop little hands from ruining them if you have kids. T20's have solid cones but only optional fabric mesh which i have opted to remove because it just doesnt look as good. conclusion very happy for over a year now with creative speakers will buy every time because they look good, perform beautifully and are very minimalist.

I rarely review but i thought i'd write this to save people the time i took. I spent ages comparing all (and i mean all) the speakers in this price range. I read numerous reviews from geeky sites and other non-geeky personal shoppers and narrowed it down to either these or the creative T10s. I use these as PC desktop speakers purely for gaming and occasionally music, replacing a 7.1 surround sound system with subwoofer. My old system was a dust magnet and looked untidy(not agreeable to my OCD). The T20s are a neat replacement. No untidy spaghetti-fest, 1 wire to 3.5mm jack on my pc and 1 wire to power supply....thats it. There is plenty of wire length on all the cables supplied and i the power cable plug only takes up one socket on my 4 gang plug socket...unlike my other that was so big it prevented you using the neighbouring plug socket. Appearance...expensive looking. Gloss black, very solidly built and don't look too large. The gloss finish does collect dust so i keep the woofer/tweeter covers on. I can't rant on about their beauty because...hey.. they are only speakers,but they do look a quality item. They are quite heavy so you are not accidentally knocking them over or dragging them around. Performance....excellent. Base and treble work very well and the speakers are naturally basey....but thats how i like my games and music. To be honest these out perform my old surround system and subwoofer and the bass doesn,t sound too muffled. I like the back-lit neon blue volume dial which is useful for my late night gaming sessions...it's easy to find when the missus 'asks' me to turn it down. I have never had the volume past half way....they are plenty poweful enough for games trust me ...and will fill a medium to large sized room with loud basey undistorted music. You couldn't expect them to run a mobile disco or outside party...so know their limitations. As an addition these are very versatile. Via the 3.5mm jack i have had my mp3 player plugged in to them, i hooked the wifes ipad up to them and showed her how to play her Spotify playlast through them. They even hooked up to my TV. I think the average price concious gamer would pay about £30 for a set of speakers (creative T10 speakers region) so the £52 i paid may seem a bit pricey....maybe to the 'pro' audio people this is cheap but i am very pleased with them. I have had them a month now...no problems and i love them and wouldn't hesitate to buy them again or recommend them to my friends or family.

A lot of folk considering this purchase will be weighing up one against the other; hopefully my account will sway you in what I think is the right direction. I previously owned a pair of T20 Series I speakers, which were kindly donated to me over 8 years ago, and I was always impressed with the sound from such a small speaker, albeit the Left channel was a little quieter that the right. Unfortunately, the Series I's recently died due to a persistent fault on the volume pot that couldn't be fixed with electrical contact spray. I put a fair bit of research into the Bose Companion vs T20 Series II argument and was eventually swayed by a number of reviews and the respected BOSE logo. I am however sad to say that I was very disappointed with the homogenized sound that I was getting from the Bose; no definition and lack of thump at the bottom end and certainly not worth the £90 I paid for them. I tried to persuade my ears that I might get used to them, but after playing a number of favorite tracks a few time over, I knew that they had to go, so I returned them and ordered the Creative T20 II's the next day. I think it was the Bose branding that pulled me in .. lesson learned !! The T20 II's are a world apart form the poor sounding Bose Companion and are better, though not significantly, than the Series I speakers. You will see reviews stating that they lack some mid range, which I would not totally disagree with if being picky, but they don't sound at all scooped and it is probably not something that I would even have noticed or mentioned if I had not read it elsewhere. Mine are primarily used for playing music and for that purpose they outperform the Bose massively.. and at £20 less. The ability to define the Bass and Treble for yourself is a massive plus over the Bose, unless you are happy with mostly mid range. The volume pot LED is unobtrusive and reassuring; note, no light at all on the Bose. Also, a simple and readily available 3.5mm male to female extension lead can be employed if you need more distance between the speakers; the Bose require you to contact their European Office to order a bespoke Bose cable which they may or may not charge for. So Creative win by a knockout in the first round !!

je cherchais un system 2.0 depuis longtemps et je ne suis pas deçu, le design est vraiment tres reussit et la puissance est au rendez vous, mais quand meme le son aurait pu etre encore meilleur = une etoile en moins (le son est trop equalizé pour les musiques avec bcp de basses, les autres styles musicaux sont moins plaisant a écouté, dommage)