Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000 digital - Mark Muschett - Last updated 21/5/00

 Installation:

Following the clear instructions in the manual, installation is a breeze. Its a little longer install than the FPS1000 as Cambridge SoundWorks has thankfully not used permanent speaker wires on the satellites. Instead, the speakers and amplifier (housed in the subwoofer) have standard speaker wire connectors and they ship the system with two 3 meter (10 foot) lengths of speaker wire for the front and two 5 meter (16 foot) lengths for the rear. This is a great move as all you need to do to get the perfect placement is the enclosed 16 foot length is too short is get some longer speaker wire from your local electronics store.  If I was doing that I would switch to a heavier gauge wire at the same time as the FPS2000s ship with the typical lightweight PC speaker wire.  The front speakers sit on my desktop on the included stands which angle the speakers slightly up. I really do not like the tripod stands as they are too low (18 inches high is not positioned for my head!) and flimsy and the 16 feet of speaker wire was enough to get them to the back of my room where there are two speaker stands permanently mounted for just this purpose.

As I noted above, the volume control is attached to a 12 foot split cable which goes directly to the subwoofer. A new addition to this control vs. the FSP1000 is a hand rear/front fader.    This can be handy for getting the perfect front/rear balance if you rear speaker are much further away from you than the front.  It can also be uselfull to overide the FPS2000 circuitry which automatically feeds the front signal to the rear speaker if you are only using a single stereo output from your sound card.  The subwoofer has the main power switch as well as its own volume control which only needs to be set once. Power up the system from the back of the subwoofer and that’s it. You never have to see the back of the subwoofer again as the remote volume control also has an on/off switch.   Cambridge SoundWorks has thankfully abandoned the problematic automatic on/off circuit that is on the FPS1000.

Performance:

In terms of frequency response specs, the official specs show the system rated for 50Hz - 20kHz.    Using a HIFI Surround test CD I was able to do a subjective analysis of the low frequency response.  I found that these speakers have good even subwoofer response with good volume right down to 45 Hz!  At 40 Hz the volume just starts to drop off and at 35 Hz there is a significant drop in volume. Again, not sure of the subwoofer crossover specification as they are not listed and unfortunately my test CD only has single track increments up to 200 Hz at which point the subwoofer was still firing.   Its also worth noting here that while the subwoofer control does let you exaggerate the bass, it gets rather muddy when exaggerated and the more you exaggerate it beyond neutral, the worse it gets to the point of crackling when you push it to the max at higher volumes.  

If you have a Sound Blaster Live with the digital I/O card you can hook the speakers up to the Live using the proprietary DIN connection for pure digital input. In theory (and technically true) this will give you the most distortion free, cleanest possible input to the speakers.  I have also been told that the digital input may even result in better stereo seperation.  However, to be honest, my ears could not detect any difference in audio quality between the DIN and the standard analog inputs but it certainly did not hurt.  Testing this was very easy as the system automatically detects the presence of the 9 pin DIN connector and gives the DIN input priority. Any input from the analog connection will be ignored with a DIN connector in place. To test all I did was hook up both the analog and DIN, start playing some sound and plugged the DIN in and out to listen for the difference which, as noted above,  I could not detect. Anyway, there is no disadvantage to using the DIN and you may detect a difference that I did not so if you have a SB Live go ahead and use it.  In fact, if you do have a Live, the DIN connector will allow you to compensate for the one oversight in my opinion on the FPS2000.   It has no headphone jack.  Some speaker companies must think that we can all play games at high volume at night when our non-gaming families are sleeping!   Anyway, if you have a Live with the digital I/O connected, using the DIN to connect to the FSP2000 will allow you to hook your headphones into the analog output on the Live and you are in business as the Live outputs from the DIN and analog outputs simultaneously. Just remember to change your output configuration from 4 speakers to headphones!

For all of you other sound card owners out there without the DIN connector you will have to do the headphone connection by reaching behind the PC and switching the cables (or by using a y-splitter which adds line noise IMO). It is a bit of a pain but the performance of the FPS2000 will more than make up for the inconvenience. In terms of sound quality that you are losing out on by not having a DIN, as I noted above I cannot hear the difference. I don’t doubt for a second that there is a technical difference but its just not audible for me.

Music
The satellites deliver clear clean highs and reasonable midrange for CDs and MP3 playback. Sound quality is very even across all volumes although I found the midrange a little harsh at very high volumes. The subwoofer delivers solid bass with good performance across all volumes but you may find yourself turning down the subwoofer level somewhat depending on your tastes as I find it can get muddy when pushed. One thing I will say is these are by no means the loudest speakers we have tested with 3DsoundSurge  so if you want a set of speakers that will damage your eardrums then look elsewhere. Don’t mistake that for me saying they are quiet, as they are not. The FPS2000 can certainly crank out a very impressive volume but the systems performs better in terms of quality than loudness. The quality is not the best either and while I would say they offer good quality for music it's not excellent, clearly behind the BA4800, the ProMedia and the Sirocco Crossfire. The relative low power output makes them loud enough for music when you're in the same normal sized room but it's not something you can use to fill your house with music.

DVD
The FPS2000 has no ac-3 decoder but you can use it with a software DVD player that supports AC-3 down-mixing to 4-speakers if you have a Live, Vortex2 or other supported soundcards. The typical close proximity of the listener for PC DVD playback allows this center channel virtualization to be effective and there is a virtual Dolby certification process to ensure quality of the down mixing. How effective is down mixing compared to true 5.1 decoding such as offered by the DTT2500. Our testing is that 4-speaker down-mixing of DD 5.1 using WinDVD, PowerDVD 2.5 or Dxr3 (only with Live) is much better than Dolby Prologic but not as good as on hardware decoder. It's not the phantom center channel that's the main problem, at least not when you have the two front satellites not too far away from each other. In terms of center what is lost with downmixing is mostly the ability to separately adjust center channel volume and delay. In terms of quality we find that it's more the front - rear transition that's much more effective and seamless when using a hardware decoder but also placement of sound effects between the speakers works better.

If you want you can always buy a separate AC-3 (or DTS for that matter) decoder that has a 4 speaker mode to get much better 4-speaker down-mixing or use your TVs built in speakers as the center channel. Lack of a subwoofer input will limit your choices of hardware decoders to buy since many of them assume you have a subwoofer input. The ACS56 is a bit too inexpensive to be really worth it to buy a stand alone Dolby Digital decoder unless you find one for about $100 but there may be several soundcards coming out this year that will offer 4-speaker down-mixing in hardware with excellent quality for just $100.

When it comes to audio quality most of my the comments I made for games applies to DVD with the important difference of DVD playback is much better test of the dynamic range of a system and the FPS2000 offers good but not great dynamic range that is somewhat behind several similarly priced 4.1 systems and also behind the more expensive home theater or 4.1 systems.

When it was released in 1999 the FPS2000 beat several more expensive 3 piece systems in terms of overall quality and was the first   4.1 system on the market to offer good performance.  Now in 2000,  the original price of $200 is not nearly as good a value as when the system was originally released since several new high quality 4.1 systems have subsequently hit the market in the $150-$250 price range.  However, Creative Labs new list price for this system is $150 and at this price or lower the FPS2000 continues to offers good value with above average performance for the money.     The system at $150 or less is an excellent option for gamers using any four output sound card and is even more attractive to owners of Creative's Sound Blaster Live line of sound cards who can take advange of the digital input mode. 

Overall score: 97.5/100

Related Information:

• Hi-Fi.com
• Sirocco Crossfire
• Sirocco Crossfire vs ProMedia comparison
• Boston Acoustic BA4800 Early Impressions
• Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400
• Altec Lansing ACS56

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