Creative Labs N400 Portable Notebook Speakers with X-Fi Technology
Posted by admin | Posted in Notebook | Posted on 03-04-2010
5
- USB plug and play convenience Single USB cable for both power and digital audio – No power adapter required
- Two high performance drivers Listen to rich audio playback with great acoustic balance
- Built-in control buttons Convenient multimedia buttons for easy access
- X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity Restore detail to your MP3s – and expands stereo music and movies into immersive surround sound
- Compact travel case protects your speakers wherever you go
Product Description
The Creative N400 speakers offer an easy, plug-and-play USB notebook audio solution in a compact, portable design. Each satellite has two high-performance drivers that deliver rich audio playback with great acoustic balance. There are convenient multimedia controls for quick access and easy control of your music. Plus, the X-Fi software suit lets you experience surround sound audio from your movies and games, as well as restoring the detail and clarity lost in compr… More >>
Creative Labs N400 Portable Notebook Speakers with X-Fi Technology
I bought these at Fry’s for $67.00 thinking this was a good purchase (Creative X-Fi you can’t go wrong?) Well think again! The speakers look pretty slick and easy to set up and very light weight, maybe this is the problem. They feel like cheap computer speakers that come with any computer. I bought these because I wanted to be able to take them with me to places I hang out. Overall they have no power and the bass sucks! I cranked them to 10 thinking they would blow my ears off but the louder they got the crappy`ier the sound got. I like what they were going for with this product but it fall’s way short of sound and quality. Im taking them back today and getting something a bit punch`ier. Don’t buy these if you are looking for music auido playback. Sorry Creative you guys can do better than this…
MÜDI
Rating: 2 / 5
My main reason for purcahsing these speakers was to not have to deal with any power cords, since these Creative speakers attach via USB cord only.
What I didn’t expect was how fantastic they would sound for such a simple set-up.
They have a much smaller foot-print then I thought they would – meaning they don’t take up as much space as it looks like they would based on the images, and video-demos of them.
Also, the carrying case is a nice touch, and small enough to fit into my laptop carrying bag, with speakers included.
These are the speakers to get if you’re considering adding more and better sound to your laptop computer. Obviously, they will work on your desktop too, but are geared more for laptops.
Wow is all I can say. They were most definitely a great buy!
Rating: 5 / 5
These speakers sound decent, and seem at first glance to be a good choice in the lightweight, usb-powered portable speaker category.
But they sound better when on a Windows machine running their proprietary software, which has to be authenticated on-line; a default installation of this software forces you to use their media player program for absolutely everything that you want to hear through the speakers. Other digital audio sources like YouTube via a web browser, or anything in iTunes, force your computer to revert to its built-in speakers. The speakers sound good on a Mac, like they do on a Windows machine that is not running the “x-Fi/3d Crystalizer” software.
UPDATE: I un-installed the full package and re-installed just the speaker drivers together with the player/burner options, to see if I could use their audio controls to adjust the speaker settings, with their rudimentary burning/recording/playback options intact, without the restrictions imposed on other audio sources by the default installation. After some trial and error, this is possible, and you can enhance other audio sources if you do a limited install of the the software. But definitely NOT Plug and Play. So the x-Fi audio enhancement will run on a Windows machine with software controls, just not on a Mac. I would increase my rating now by a star to three if I could, and to four if the software ran on a Mac.
From my perspective, the best reason to use Creative’s software would be to record VOIP telephone conversations, as my VOIP device shows up in their audio management software as a a cd drive/recording source. But the recorder only hears my voice, not the other party’s. Too bad, that would have been a very useful feature, and pushed this review to its theoretical fifth star.
On the plus side, the speakers themselves are well-finished, and sound good enough at low volume. They do not require a separate power supply as long as you have a fully-powered usb port, and the x-Fi technology may be slightly better than say, iTune’s Sound Enhancer, if you are up to the software challenges. They also come with a nifty padded travel case.
I use both Macs and Windows, and there are many portable speaker choices that don’t try and force you to make artificial choices between those two worlds. If you need the x-Fi enhancement, Creative has various hardware-only solutions that are less restrictive/invasive for both PC and Mac. But even with the above caveats, I am having a hard time returning these. They do sound good at low volume on a PC with the x-Fi enhancement software turned on; too bad it doesn’t run on a Mac.
Rating: 2 / 5
The speakers are pretty good, they sound good, with the X-Fi technology music sounds even better. They work fine in XP with my programs, I don’t know why one of the reviewers said the audio switched back and forth, I never had that problem, maybe something to do with the default audio playback setting.
Anyway, the reason I gave them a 4 is because they are not compatible with Windows 7 yet, and it has been a while. The beta driver and the proprietary software don’t work well at all, crashed my computer twice so I had to uninstall both.
When I boot up sometimes the system recognizes them, but sometimes it doesn’t. I have to plug them in and out several dozen times before they are recognized by the system again (not exaggerating here). All my other USB devices work fine in all the ports, so it has to be the speakers.
If Creative decides to eventually roll out W7 support this product would get a 5 stars rating from me. The speakers are very convenient if you travel a lot, don’t need recording studio quality music, and don’t like clutter on your desk. Again an excellent product, but it NEEDS W7 compatibility.
Rating: 4 / 5
This product arrived expeditiously from Amazon as described. The speakers are lightweight and have their own case. The case lacks a handle(s). These speakers are being utilized for a netbook. Initially, I had difficulty getting the speakers to work because they are USB powered. One must first activate the Creative Speaker program. Once activated the sound is wonderful with many options for customizing. I had contacted the Creative Labs Technical Support for information. The assistance that was provided via E-mail was limited.
Rating: 5 / 5