Whereas we once put up with a cheap and nasty set of stereo speakers, there are very few nowadays who would do so. The norm is now a pair of satellites and a subwoofer as we try to extract reasonable sound quality from our PCs.
The gaggle of Jazz products we received are certainly a cut above the "norm" in many ways. For a start, the J-9902 and Rave 5.1 amplified speaker systems are a true 5.1 setup with five independent satellites, front left and right, rear left and right, the front centre speaker and the ".1" channel is the subwoofer. The only physical difference between the two systems' speakers themselves is the rear I/O connectors and the form of surround sound decoder, which we will get to in a moment.
The sub is compact and quite a lot is crammed into its small and attractive cabinet including a 6.5in driver, the power supply and six amplifier channels; 20 watts for the sub and 5 watts for each of the satellites for a total of 45 watts. However, at these power levels you are pushing around 10 percent THD so the actual "usable" power is substantially less. Even so, we found that both the 9902 and 9912 could produce quite a loud volume and, for a small computer room, would be more than adequate. We also, unfairly I might add, tried the speakers out in my lounge room hooked up to my DVD player. The volume level was adequate for my tastes at the maximum "usable" setting but, to be fair, my own setup includes a 500 watt, 5-channel Technics amplifier and a 140 watt powered sub. So, obviously, I like my movies loud.
Front controls are identical on both subs and includes a large master volume control, front balance, power switch, mic volume and attendant jack, and independent volume controls for the centre, surround and bass. The rear inputs of the 9902 and Rave sub are the only instance where the features differ. The 9902 and Rave have five RCA outputs, one to each of the satellites, and a mic output jack, the 9902 has three 3.5mm jacks for the centre/sub, front left/right and rear left/right inputs, whereas the Rave has a single proprietary 9-pin DIN input jack. The Rave did however ship with a small fly lead that converts the DIN jack to three 3.5mm input jacks. The reason the Rave has opted for the single DIN input is that it simplifies the connection to the supplied 6-channel sound card, which has an identical output jack and a single connection cable.
The satellites' enclosures are small and light, each with a single 3in full-range driver. We were, however, surprised with the sound quality of the system, it was quite good given the specs and the relatively low cost. We had a set of VideoLogic DigiTheatre 5.1 surround sound speakers in the Lab, which we previously reviewed back in December 1999, and given the similar speaker configuration we decided to compare the Jazz speakers to the VideoLogic. To be blunt, we found we preferred the sound quality of the Jazz when compared to the DigiTheatre under the wide variety of listening conditions we tested. The satellites have a surprisingly good range and only really lack at the high end, but they do manage to stretch higher than the more mellow DigiTheatre satellites. Of course they do not produce any bass punch given their small driver size but this is where the sub steps in. As is the case with most of these smaller speaker systems, the sub is designed to compensate for the lack of low end in satellites and should, in this case, be called a woofer rather than a "sub" woofer. It does provide a good bass punch, on par with the DigiTheatre's sub but given the 20 watts of power and 6.5in driver size, you cannot really expect the ground to shake as it would (and does) with a true high-powered sub. Claimed frequency response is 47Hz to 20kHz and again these seem to be a tad optimistic.
Hiss from the amps during the quite passages was noticeable, particularly at high volume levels, but then it was only marginally worse than the DigiTheatre in this regard. Both Jazz speaker systems include a surround sound decoder--the 9902 a small decoder box denoted DE-003 and the Rave, a 6-channel PCI sound card.
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