Having a good PC setup is nice, but without a decent sound system to back your gaming experience, an essesntial key for the gameplay is missing. If you have a nice desktop/laptop, but crappy speakers; you won’t have the game/view experience you were hoping for. Creative's kratos S3 is especially made to enhance this experience.
Packaging
They did a good job in the packaging. They made sure everything couldn’t move due to extra cardboard. Everything was wrapped up in plastics so there were no scratches on the surface, which is expected and the box isn’t much bigger than the system in it. So really efficient. A practical approach is used to contain the products, nothing fancy about it, but does the trick like it's supposed to.
Appearance
The Sound Blaster Kratos S3 has a modern, tight design. Total black with the “Sound blaster X” in red. It should fit every PC setup, which is a pro for every PC sound system. It is big, like every 2.1 system. Not huge but you need some space on your desk. Most gamers place the subwoofer under the desk to save place. All the cables are at the back of the system. Personally I don’t like this, because it takes even more space, because you cannot place it against a wall. The dimensions for the side speakers are : 158 x 95 x 102 mm (Height x Width x Depth). The dimensions for the subwoofer are : 227 x 170 x 227mm (Height x Width x Depth)
Set-up
The Sound Blaster Kratos S3 exists of 2.1 sound system. This means you have two full range speakers in the setup. A left and a right. The 1 stands for a subwoofer. In the two side speakers a pair of 2.75” satellites speakers are incorporated. Those are decent speakers for a fair price. And in the middle box there is a port-tube design 5.25” subwoofer.
Materials
Creative used wood to build those speaker. Wooden speaker cabinets are better, because of the fact that wood vibrates and helps project the sound in a stronger way, especially the low frequencies rather than dampening the vibrations. Wood is used because it gives a warmer, fuller, more natural sound. If I compare the system with the speakers I got back home who are made from plastic, these speaker don’t get the natural warm sound the blaster X gets. This is also used for guitar speakers etcetera it is a well-known technique to create natural warm sounds.
Subwoofer
The subwoofer is pointed downwards and the wood is here extra usefull due to the low frequencies. It is build with a port-tube design, like almost every subwoofer these days. With a knob on the back you can adapt the bass level to your own preference.
Connection
The connection is done by an AUX cable with 3.5mm jack. This is a reliable system to connect your devices. The aux cable has a lenght of about 150 cm, this is long enough, but not to long to plug in your desktop/laptop.
On the side from the right satellite, where there is the knob to change the volume, there is a 3.5 mm input jack for a headset. This is a clever solution to not unplug the speakers from your pc when you want to use your headphones. Every gamer can appreciate this little extra.
Another good thing is that the Satellites have different cables so you can't miss on plugging them in.
Sound
The sound quality is present. It is remarkable how good they preform when you are playing a game or listening to music. But there is a white noise. It is too loud to not notice but you can easy over class it whit the sound you want to hear from your boxes. ( I want to add to this that I’m not sure if it is maybe only present with the review sample installation or every installation).
After fifteen minutes there is a sleep mode on the speakers. So they will turn off until you play sounds. This way you save energy also when you forget to put them off. And the white noise will stop. This is really good and as a customer you can appreciate those little things.
Software
The little extra software you get in your package isn’t that valuable. It works fine, but the difference isn’t huge. So if you don’t want to install it to keep more space on your drive you can skip the software.
Conclusion
I would define this sound system as a step-in system. There are better boxes on the market, but these are also more expensive. I think that the price/quality is really good. There are some minuses like the AUX cable. But overall these boxes perform really well.
(!) Just as mentioned in the review of the Creative Iroar Go is Creative a company managed by engineers and that's what we can see in how much value is presented to the customer.
Therefor I give the Creative Sound Blaster Kratos S3 a golden reward.
More Information about our awards and High resolution versions can be found here
Specifications:
System configuration: 2.1 system
Connector type : Analog
Color: Black
Satellites:
Dimensions ( H x W x D): 158 x 95 x 102 mm
Weight (left): 0.5 kg
Weight (right): 0.6 kg
Subwoofer:
Dimensions ( H x W x D): 227 x 170 x 227 mm
Weight: 2.4 kg
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