MaximumPC 2005 06

Reviews

W

hen Tascam contacted us about reviewing its $100 VL-

S21 2.1-channel speaker system, we wondered if anyone

at the company had read our reviews of cheap speakers

lately. We stifled a chuckle and said, “Bring ‘em on!” And, boy, are

we glad we didn’t dismiss these speakers out of hand.

The VL-S21s are marketed as inexpensive studio monitors, which

means they’re designed to be flat across the entire frequency spec-

trum. But Tascam claims the VL-S21s are also suitable for comput-

ers and MP3 players.

Tascam uses a flat-panel NXT transducer sandwiched in a 1-inch-thick

steel panel for each satellite. A 5.25-inch subwoofer—housed in a stan-

dard medium-density fiberboard cabinet with three amps—handles bass

duty. On paper, the amps look wimpy, sending a mere five watts RMS (0.06

percent THD) to each of the satellites and 15 watts RMS (0.3 percent THD)

to the sub. In our tests, however, the sats got plenty loud, even with the

puny amps. Apparently, the NXT transducers in each satellite don’t require

much power. The subwoofer moved a surprising amount of air, too.

We do have some minor gripes with the VL-S21s. The volume control is

inconveniently located on the back of the subwoofer, and there is no head-

phone jack. Bummer. With our Audigy 2 set to its default output of 79 per-

cent, we were able to turn up the amp to nearly max without experiencing

any distortion. After setting the amp to about three-quarters volume, we

used the soundcard’s software volume control for further adjustments.

For music testing, we’ve been using the woofer-rattling bass drum track

in Paul Thorn’s “Fabio & Liberace” (from Ain’t Love Strange ) as something

of an acid test for musical bass response. To our surprise, the lightly pow-

ered subwoofer delivered tight, clean bass. Next, we cued up Steely Dan’s

“Josie” (from Aja ) to see how the satellites handle high frequencies—pay-

ing close attention to the

crystalline chime. The

speakers deliver a very

wide sound field, with excellent stereo imaging.

In our punishing games tests, the VL-S21s’ bass response proved to be

a little light in the loafers. The satellites gave us a tingly feeling in Half-Life

2 , serving up everything from character dialog to machine-gun fire with

crispy flair. The stomping footsteps of Striders and the reverberating thud

of exploding grenades and heavier ordnance lacked just a little bottom.

Cranking up the lower frequen-

cies in Creative’s software EQ

helped some, but wasn’t the

whole answer. If we were eval-

uating these speakers solely

on their musical performance,

they’d rate a Kick Ass award,

but they sit just shy of that

when it comes to games.

—MICHAEL BROWN

The Tascam VL-S21 2.1-channel

speaker system delivers more

performance than we would ever

have suspected from $100 speakers.

Reviews

Vibrant speakers with an amazingly low price tag.

Just shy of Kick Ass bass response for games.

$100, http://www.tascam.com

9

FLAT-PANEL

FLAT-FOOTED

MA XIMUMPCVERDICT

W

ith LightScribe disc-labeling drives showing up from BenQ and

HP, it’s understandable that you might overlook Samsung’s 16x

dual-format, double-layer Writemaster DVD burner. But that

would be a shame, because if you don’t feel the need to tart up your disc’s

label, the Writemaster’s talents will be of particular interest to anyone

building or upgrading a media center PC.

First, the basics. The Writemaster (we always sit up straight when

we hear that name) was able to burn 8.3GB of data to a 2.4x double-layer

DVD+R disc at 5x speed, for an impressive burn time of 23:03 (min:sec).

That time is about five minutes shy of the Plextor’s capabilities, but it’s still

well above average. Similarly, we burned 4.25GB of assorted files to a sin-

gle-layer DVD+R disc in just 5:55 (min:sec)—spooky! Is that the number of

the other beast?

We’d normally be beside ourselves with glee at this point, but the

Writemaster let us down by refusing to overspeed any media other than

2.4x double-layer DVD+R, so we were limited to writing at 8x to 8x DVD+R

media instead of 12x, and so on. DVD rewriting is a bit of a let-down as

well; it’s stuck at 4x even though 8x DVD+RW media is finally starting

to appear. Finally, the Writemaster does not support bit setting, which

some DVD+R/RW drives use to fool older set-top players into thinking the

recordable discs are actually DVD-ROMs, to increase compatibility.

The Writemaster is bundled with the ever-reliable Nero Express from

Ahead, but you don’t get any fancy drive-tweaking software like you do

from BenQ and Plextor. Nonetheless, this drive is one of the quietest on

the market—even when writing at maximum speed to DVD! If you know

how fast that disc is

spinning in there—that

would be stupid-fast,

Wink—then you know

this is no small feat.

Quiet operation has been a

welcome feature in Samsung

drives for the last couple of

years. And that’s what really

makes the Writemaster ideal

for home-brew entertainment

and media center PCs—

unless you actually enjoy the

sound of a gentle blow-dry

during your movies.

—LOGAN DECKER

Because optical drives should be

seen and not heard, Samsung’s

super-hush Writemaster is a great

fit for entertainment center PCs.

Samsung Writemaster Double Layer DVD Burner^

Can you hear it now?

Very fast double- and single-layer DVD+R writing;

nearly silent operation.

Cannot overspeed most disc formats;

no power-user features.

$75, http://www.samsung.com

7

S’MORES

S’NORES

MA XIMUMPCVERDICT

Tascam VL-S21 2.1-Channel Speaker System^

Budget speakers that can hang with the big boys

 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2005