Premium Two-Channel PC Speaker Roundup

Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II

As the developer of the iconic Sound Blaster brand, Creative needs no introduction to PC users. The company has been producing PC speaker systems for years, and continues to offer a number of notable products. The Gigaworks T40 Series II is its premium offering in the two-channel speaker market, and can be purchased for $149.99 on newegg.com. The kit features a comparatively modest one-year warranty.

The Gigaworks T40 Series II sets itself from the pack with a single 1” soft dome tweeter and dual 2.5” woven glass driver cone configuration in each enclosure. The Gigaworks has the smallest drivers in the roundup, but twice the number of them. The enclosures need to accommodate three speakers each, and at just over 12” high, they’re the tallest in our roundup (almost twice as high as the MM-1s).

The enclosures are designed to point at the listener while sitting on a desk, so they tilt upward slightly. The user even has some control over the look of the speakers, with the ability to remove the flat black cover to reveal the orange-colored drivers behind them, similar to many home audio speaker setups.

The T40s come with wider speaker stands for owners who’d prefer a little more stability. There’s also a 1/8” stereo mini-to-RCA adapter and a nice long 6’ mini-to-mini cable for the inputs. The left satellite has a permanently-attached speaker cable that can be plugged into the right enclosure.

The rear of the right enclosure hosts a 1/8” mini-jack input and the docking station input. This unique input is an interface for Creative’s X-30 docking station for iPods. This is also where the power input and left speaker output are located.

The Gigaworks T40s are one of two products in our roundup that offer an auxiliary input on the front of the speaker for easier access. There’s also a conveniently located headphone output for times when you prefer to keep the sound to yourself.

When it comes to the controls, Creative gets it right with volume, bass, and treble. Our only complaint here is the lack of grip on the slippery knobs, but we’ll still take this control mechanism over buttons any day of the week. It’s great to be able to have some variable control over frequency response.