Creative Surround Station: Late 90s Quadraphonic PC Gaming!
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Date: 2023-01-06
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Comments and reviews: 14
Solitaire
My surround sound solution back in the day, and actually still mostly in use today, was an L shaped desk facing away from a corner and an early 2000ish Creative Inspire T7700 7. 1 speaker system. The left and right side speakers were screwed onto the desk on the wings of the L (I got tired of knocking them off the desk) and the rear surrounds were mounted on the wall on either side of the corner. I still have and am using the desk though it is reversed so the corner is actually in the corner. It is a cheap OfficeWhatever desk and it is starting to fall apart so it will be replaced soon. I'm only using 5 of the 7 speakers currently. Just don't have the room to set up the other two. It has been a decent system across the years and various computer builds with whatever exciting new card Creative came up with when I built a new machine.
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My surround sound solution back in the day, and actually still mostly in use today, was an L shaped desk facing away from a corner and an early 2000ish Creative Inspire T7700 7. 1 speaker system. The left and right side speakers were screwed onto the desk on the wings of the L (I got tired of knocking them off the desk) and the rear surrounds were mounted on the wall on either side of the corner. I still have and am using the desk though it is reversed so the corner is actually in the corner. It is a cheap OfficeWhatever desk and it is starting to fall apart so it will be replaced soon. I'm only using 5 of the 7 speakers currently. Just don't have the room to set up the other two. It has been a decent system across the years and various computer builds with whatever exciting new card Creative came up with when I built a new machine.
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Brent
my brother-in-law was laughing when he came to my house at Christmas and figured out I am still rocking the quadraphonic Sound Blaster speakers I bought in the 90s because he was with me when I bought them at a Computer Show and Sale ( This weekend only at the Expo Center! ) Although mine are black and the volume is built into the front right speaker. I use a corner desk with my triple monitors in the corner. The front speakers sit behind the left and right of the center monitor. The rear speakers sit on the outer edges of the desk so they end up being only slightly behind you but are definitely at your left and right flank. 25 years later, they still sound great, although I had to replace a burnt out resistor inside the sub a few years ago to fix a buzzing issue.
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my brother-in-law was laughing when he came to my house at Christmas and figured out I am still rocking the quadraphonic Sound Blaster speakers I bought in the 90s because he was with me when I bought them at a Computer Show and Sale ( This weekend only at the Expo Center! ) Although mine are black and the volume is built into the front right speaker. I use a corner desk with my triple monitors in the corner. The front speakers sit behind the left and right of the center monitor. The rear speakers sit on the outer edges of the desk so they end up being only slightly behind you but are definitely at your left and right flank. 25 years later, they still sound great, although I had to replace a burnt out resistor inside the sub a few years ago to fix a buzzing issue.
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MS-DOS
This was all quite out of reach for me back in the 90s, but in 2020 I finally got around to building a 1999 rig with a 5. 1 set (also from Cambridge Audioworks) and experience the surround sound for myself. My reaction was pretty much the same as yours. so cool to hear those old games in a different way. I started with my all-time-favourite Half-Life and just hearing doors close behind you is such a great experience. It feels so novel but retro gamers just do appreciate these kind of things.
At first glance that Creative rig seemed a bit weird with the arms and such but I somehow appreciate it now seeing what it brings to the table. Quirky but cool!
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This was all quite out of reach for me back in the 90s, but in 2020 I finally got around to building a 1999 rig with a 5. 1 set (also from Cambridge Audioworks) and experience the surround sound for myself. My reaction was pretty much the same as yours. so cool to hear those old games in a different way. I started with my all-time-favourite Half-Life and just hearing doors close behind you is such a great experience. It feels so novel but retro gamers just do appreciate these kind of things.
At first glance that Creative rig seemed a bit weird with the arms and such but I somehow appreciate it now seeing what it brings to the table. Quirky but cool!
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patprop74
yeah surround sound was a thing i was nuts about in the early 2000's the computer was fully surround sound with creative labs live and Logitec speakers, and the home theater set was surround sound, . I remember the first time i played Splinter Cell in surround, Mannnnn that was soo good haha, now it's meh! just seems like more trouble than worth it. if i had a PCI slot in my computer i would be half tempted to put a good old SB Live card in there, but its not and I'm too cheap to buy modern sound cards hahaha But the Younger me would have dug a getup thing like that back in the days.
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yeah surround sound was a thing i was nuts about in the early 2000's the computer was fully surround sound with creative labs live and Logitec speakers, and the home theater set was surround sound, . I remember the first time i played Splinter Cell in surround, Mannnnn that was soo good haha, now it's meh! just seems like more trouble than worth it. if i had a PCI slot in my computer i would be half tempted to put a good old SB Live card in there, but its not and I'm too cheap to buy modern sound cards hahaha But the Younger me would have dug a getup thing like that back in the days.
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Tom
I remember having fun with 2 sets of 2. 0 computer speakers connected to like win7, seems most of the cheap prebuild had surround input from like 2008 or so. but never had a good place to set up the speakers. just kinda put them up for like a day at time, one game I specifically remmember was skyrim, ofc many years later and on another pc, never had other games before that which supported quad or surround, so never ended up really using it, before skyrim, in like 2016 acutally, again no real set up, just some old random speakers, on like sidetables behind me
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I remember having fun with 2 sets of 2. 0 computer speakers connected to like win7, seems most of the cheap prebuild had surround input from like 2008 or so. but never had a good place to set up the speakers. just kinda put them up for like a day at time, one game I specifically remmember was skyrim, ofc many years later and on another pc, never had other games before that which supported quad or surround, so never ended up really using it, before skyrim, in like 2016 acutally, again no real set up, just some old random speakers, on like sidetables behind me
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Bukkarooo
I actually would be up for just watching a blerb of you testing out more games in this setup with the camera stuff you had here. I just think that'd be fun! I saw you had STALKER installed on that pc, and with that game's audio, I half expected that to be a game you tested out. I can imagine that one being really cool.
I agree though, setups like this should honestly be more common, this is very cool and I love how you can just fold stuff away when you don't need it.
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I actually would be up for just watching a blerb of you testing out more games in this setup with the camera stuff you had here. I just think that'd be fun! I saw you had STALKER installed on that pc, and with that game's audio, I half expected that to be a game you tested out. I can imagine that one being really cool.
I agree though, setups like this should honestly be more common, this is very cool and I love how you can just fold stuff away when you don't need it.
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LeftyLab's
I had a similar Boston Acoustics 4. 1 system plugged into a Creative Soundblaster card of some flavor with my Gateway Pentium III machine circa early 99. I put the little powered sub on the floor, with the front speakers beside my monitor. I didn t have those nifty articulating arms, but I did have a deep L-shaped desk with the monitor in the middle. So the surrounds went off to each end of the desk putting them sort of next to and behind my head. Worked pretty well.
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I had a similar Boston Acoustics 4. 1 system plugged into a Creative Soundblaster card of some flavor with my Gateway Pentium III machine circa early 99. I put the little powered sub on the floor, with the front speakers beside my monitor. I didn t have those nifty articulating arms, but I did have a deep L-shaped desk with the monitor in the middle. So the surrounds went off to each end of the desk putting them sort of next to and behind my head. Worked pretty well.
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masejoer
Ah, the Cambridge Soundworks 4100 - my first decent, and first surround, multimedia speakers after many prior iterations, paired with my new soundblaster live. Of course Unreal, from the sblive bundle, sounded amazing for the time. I just put the rear speakers on their plastic tripod legs, placed on my bed behind me, though! ;) This video brought back that memory.
After that was Klipsch v. 2-400 in 2000 and there was no going back to anything lesser since.
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Ah, the Cambridge Soundworks 4100 - my first decent, and first surround, multimedia speakers after many prior iterations, paired with my new soundblaster live. Of course Unreal, from the sblive bundle, sounded amazing for the time. I just put the rear speakers on their plastic tripod legs, placed on my bed behind me, though! ;) This video brought back that memory.
After that was Klipsch v. 2-400 in 2000 and there was no going back to anything lesser since.
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MikeyBaps
I bought these in the late in the late 90's and was blown away when shooting the spinning disk gun in Unreal and hearing it bounce around the room.
Last year I set them up for the first in 17ish years to use with my projector only 2. 1 and they're fine. Weirdly though when off, the satellites sometimes pick up and play radio signals.
Anyway, these speakers were a great buy back in the day and even sound fine today with the sub turned up.
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I bought these in the late in the late 90's and was blown away when shooting the spinning disk gun in Unreal and hearing it bounce around the room.
Last year I set them up for the first in 17ish years to use with my projector only 2. 1 and they're fine. Weirdly though when off, the satellites sometimes pick up and play radio signals.
Anyway, these speakers were a great buy back in the day and even sound fine today with the sub turned up.
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Snake
I have some FPS2000 speakers that I used for about ten years in the 2000s. About a third of the caps in it had gone out of spec, so I replaced them last year to see if I could start using the speakers again. That fixed some noise issues the speakers were having, but they still sound like crap compared to my newer Logitech speakers: muddy, tinny, bad crossover, farty sub. They truly were budget gamer speakers. And so typical of caps from that era.
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I have some FPS2000 speakers that I used for about ten years in the 2000s. About a third of the caps in it had gone out of spec, so I replaced them last year to see if I could start using the speakers again. That fixed some noise issues the speakers were having, but they still sound like crap compared to my newer Logitech speakers: muddy, tinny, bad crossover, farty sub. They truly were budget gamer speakers. And so typical of caps from that era.
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Peter
My uncle (the family computer/tech guy ) found these speakers at a thrift store and gave them to me in maybe 2005? They were my first ever bedroom speakers (used to just have a boombox before that. I used to love blaring songs off of my Philips Micro Jukebox mp3 player and, later, my Zunes. I guess I ve always been 4-8 years behind the current tech, but hey I m proud to continue the thrifting tradition in the family!
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My uncle (the family computer/tech guy ) found these speakers at a thrift store and gave them to me in maybe 2005? They were my first ever bedroom speakers (used to just have a boombox before that. I used to love blaring songs off of my Philips Micro Jukebox mp3 player and, later, my Zunes. I guess I ve always been 4-8 years behind the current tech, but hey I m proud to continue the thrifting tradition in the family!
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Grabber5. 0
I still have the 2. 1 setup that came from CompUSA back in 96 or 97. I was always pretty satisfied with the sound from them, but those cube speakers, due to age or design, have poor output of the upper frequencies. I replaced the cubes with a pair of Sony bookshelf/surround speakers, which the amp has no trouble driving, and the difference in the high frequencies is night and day when listening to music.
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I still have the 2. 1 setup that came from CompUSA back in 96 or 97. I was always pretty satisfied with the sound from them, but those cube speakers, due to age or design, have poor output of the upper frequencies. I replaced the cubes with a pair of Sony bookshelf/surround speakers, which the amp has no trouble driving, and the difference in the high frequencies is night and day when listening to music.
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evilkinggumby
god i would have loved that mount. i got a higher model version of those speakers(FPS2000 4. 1 set) waaaaay back at it's end of life as a floor model for 50 and i am STILL using them to this day. aside from lacking the crisp highs the frequency range and solid bass has always been reliable. They have travelled all over too, from my homes in NY to the twin cities, arizona and all states between lol.
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god i would have loved that mount. i got a higher model version of those speakers(FPS2000 4. 1 set) waaaaay back at it's end of life as a floor model for 50 and i am STILL using them to this day. aside from lacking the crisp highs the frequency range and solid bass has always been reliable. They have travelled all over too, from my homes in NY to the twin cities, arizona and all states between lol.
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Un
I've had one of this Cambridge Soundworks systems since 2000 but it's the 2. 1 version. When I got a newer sound system(5. 1) for my pc I retired them to my art studio and they still sound super good.
PD: A quirky things about this systems is they have a fuse inside the Subwoofer, so if anyone come across a non working unit check that fuse. That's how I got mine for free back in the day.
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I've had one of this Cambridge Soundworks systems since 2000 but it's the 2. 1 version. When I got a newer sound system(5. 1) for my pc I retired them to my art studio and they still sound super good.
PD: A quirky things about this systems is they have a fuse inside the Subwoofer, so if anyone come across a non working unit check that fuse. That's how I got mine for free back in the day.
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