Sirocco Spirit Speaker System

Reviewed by: Stuart Fairclough (stuart@mpcc.org.uk)

Hardware	Sirocco Spirit  Speaker System
Manufacturer	VideoLogic

Okay, so perhaps you thought that the DigiTheatre from VideoLogic was a bit too much for your humble 'under the stairs' hide-away, or perhaps you couldn't justify two hundred & forty nine quid to 'her who must be obeyed'. Having said all that, if I failed to wet your appetite with the DigiTheatre, then the Sirocco Spirit will sure as hell, blow 'yer socks off!

Extricating from one innocuous plain cardboard box, I was confronted with two pristine black speaker enclosures standing about 27cm or, in real money that's 11. in height. No horrible modern looking off-white cheap looking plastic-ee speakers but rather two very solid what I can only describe as: top notch hi-fi speaker enclosures. The Sirocco Spirit comprises two compact speakers fitted with woofers, high frequency tweeters, active filters and four power amps. All the advanced electronics are integrated into the back of one speaker with a single cable which connects the two for a quick clean set-up. There are even two acoustically transparent removable protection grilles for that 'trendy' or well 'ard' look.

The master unit contains the combined mega-powered integrated amplifier with rear mounted rotary controls and cable input/output sockets, with the second speaker acting as the slave. One of the first things I was immediately impressed with was the included wiring: big, chunky wires with moulded Din mounted plugs for connection between the two speaker units. Might cause a problem if you wanted to put the speakers at either end of your street but certainly enough length of wiring included to place the speakers at a sensible distance apart. I've currently got the speakers standing on a shelf two feet above my desk which in turn is a good 10 feet or so from the back of my floor mounted PC base unit.

The rear panel houses an On/Off rocker switch; mains power socket, Din socket and two separate left and right channel phono output sockets. The two rotary controls on the rear of the master speaker unit allow you mix the master volume and a combined treble and bass mix. The thought of no separate bass and treble control put me off at first that was, until I heard the end result, which was superb. The impression was one of cost cutting but instead of separate bass and treble controls, the Sirocco Spirit uses a more acoustically accurate duel shelving filter or 'Attitude control'.

This 'Attitude' control graduates the audio profile from a rich deep bass to a clear high treble, enabling you to customise your sound while maintaining the integrity of your audio source. In other words, you get just as good control of sound to suit individual and personal needs as if you had separate controls. If you think about its one less knob to have to fiddle about with and besides most reasonable sound cards come with their software controlled sound filter. Windows '98 has its own perfectly adequate bass and treble control (just click on the advanced button found on the volume properties). Double click on the little yellow speaker symbol located on the right hand tool bar.

The current buzz word appears to be 'sub-woofer' and woe-betide you if you haven't got a woofer to sub. The Sirocco Spirit uses their own unique technologically advanced system called: 'Dynamic Virtual Sub Technology'. What this ensures is that you have the luxury of a superb extended bass performance without the need for a sub-woofer. If, on the other hand, you still feel the need for a monstrous bass output you can simply connect an additionally powered sub-woofer via the rear panel.

Overall it took me longer to get the speakers out of the box than it did to connect the system together; everything is supplied and if you did need longer leads; extension phono and Din leads are easily available at almost any good PC store. And what of the sound& ? Fan-flippin'-tastic; in the average room or house even, the neighbours living at the bottom of the road are likely to complain first!

Sound reproduction from everything from the roar of a Formula One engine to the multiple machine chain gun as another Alien gets cut in half is handled by these speakers with no distortion. When I'm typing and not playing I like to listen to some soothing classics through my PC and the sound is as full and as sweet as you would get from a hi-fi costing 100's £'s. if you want a really excellent set of powered speakers then I would highly recommend the Sirocco Sprit; at under £120 (+VAT), I think the price's perfect as well.


Technical Specifications:

• Two speakers with integrated 50W RMS amplifiers
  
• Based on original Sirocco design using pro-audio techniques and hi-fi components
  
• MDF cabinets with Audax cones and removable grilles
  
• Ultra low distortion for 'near field monitor' performance even at high volume
  
• Two stereo inputs allows you to play CDs AND games simultaneously
  
• Dynamic Virtual Sub Technology TM ensures superb extended bass
  
• Connect to any line-level source e.g. CDs, MiniDisc, MP3s, consoles etc.
  

 METCOM Rating: 98%