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"Soundstation 2"

Does anybody have a soundstation 2, are they any good, are they worth the money and is the review on sr accurate. It says the sound gets louder at tense moments and that the speakers glow in the dark

Fangface wrote:

Sonic, if
> you dont have one do us a favour and do not say it is rubbish if you do not have
> first hand experience


Actually I do have first hand experience of them... some of my friends have soundstations...

Now, what I said was that it was worse than a decent hi-fi. This is not just my opinion- hi fi mags have said the exact same thing. I was trying to point out that the way the system is marketted (as being DESIGNED with PS2 games in mind) is NONSENSE. It's just a bog standard piece of kit designed to look like a PS2.

However, I do take your point that I wasn't very balanced in my arguments. IF you have the choice you should certainly play your PS2 through a Hifi. If, however, you don't have a hifi (or don't want to put one in your PS2 room), then the soundstation is a reasonable deal, giving you all the kit you need to get decent sound quality- almost any external speakers will be better than the ones in your TV, so the soundstation is good in that respect.

Sonic

Interestingly enough, SR have soundstation 3 in their database as a Gamecube product.

I take it that it's a third party kit.

I can't afford a proper £1000 set up so if I was going for surround sound, it get something like this.

Ive got one
I like it
It makes the walls shake
It looks good
It is cheap

It may not be as good as a £500 quid hifi but since you get the leads necessary with it it is a good option for the money. I dont want my stereo in my study and this gives me better sound than my nicam TV

Sonic, if you dont have one do us a favour and do not say it is rubbish if you do not have first hand experience

All it is, form what I know, is a cheap set of speakers that have been designed to look like a PS2 accessory.

The sound quality is no better than using a normal hifi to channel sounds from the console... indeed, if you have a fairly decent hifi, it'll be far better than the soundstation.

Sonic

i8smbs wrote:
> Does anybody have a soundstation 2?

Yes, I do.

i8smbs wrote:
> Are they any good?

Yes, you get pseudo-surround sound, which means it isn't as great as routing your PS2 output through your £3000 Denon Pro-Logic AV4000 DTS Dolby Amplifier, but then not everyone has one.

i8smbs wrote:
> Are they worth the money?

YES! The cost of extra cables to route your PS2 output through another device like your Hi-Fi, another Amp, your PC speakers and so on would probably be around the £30 mark, and yet for less than £50 you can get the whole kit in one box.

i8smbs wrote:
> Is the review on sr accurate?

Erm, no. I checked the same reviewers other reviews. Here's his review of the PS2 horizontal stand:

"from bowenslim
8/7/01
Wow! I didn't think that it was possible, not only does this stand keep your ps2 in place and keep it looking stylish; it also comes with three extra USB ports. How does it do this, well, it connects into the playstation via the expansion slot in the back. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!... it also has a 56Kb modem attatched to it so you are free to surf the net and play Unreal in game forums! WHAT A DEAL!... and only £12.99!"

He's clearly silly. The speakers don't glow in the dark and they don't increase the volume of ingame sounds at critical points (most games do that themselves).

However, the difference between the sound coming from your portable 14" TV and the Soundstation 2's set of speakers is 'drastic' and so it's well worth investing in.

Add to that the fact that the Soundstation 2 is very aesthetically designed to complement the design of the PS2, they look like they were made for each other.

Does anybody have a soundstation 2, are they any good, are they worth the money and is the review on sr accurate. It says the sound gets louder at tense moments and that the speakers glow in the dark