Genius SP-HF800A Wood Speakers look great with any PC system

The Speakers, the Setup and the Sounds

Here is the SP-HF800A box.  Dual inputs, enhanced bass, tone controls and 20 watts are emphasized:

Here is the other side of the box which has the the speakers’ features in English and several other languages.

And the end flaps give you a further illustration of connecting to a portable unit:

One end has the specifications which includes the frequency response of from 80Hz to 20,000Hz (at -20db).

The contents are well-packed for shipping and both pairs arrived in perfect shape and ready to plug in and listen to music.

There is a quick installation guide which shows the end user how to set up for music.

The two speakers compliment each other and the right side has the tone control, volume knob and line in as it contains the amplifier which powers both speakers.  The back of the right speaker has the power cord, input RCA plug as well as an RCA plug for connecting to the left speaker.  The right speaker is much heaver than the left.

The bottom of the speakers have plastic grips which keep them from sliding and from scratching the furniture.

The back of the speakers have the bass reflex ports – they are cardboard tubes about 3 inches long and they act to reinforce the bass produced inside the speaker boxes with the bass produced outside by the speaker directly.

The left speaker has the RCA plug to connect from the right speaker.

Installing the speakers is simple as it is plug in, turn on and play music, a movie, or a game. Check out your setup and make sure that you have the highest quality sound available. Here is this editor’s notebook’s integrated sound at its highest settings.

Next set up your speakers.

Here is the 5.1 configuration we chose on the left for our two pairs of SP-HF800A’s plus an additional powered Diamond speaker for the center speaker so that we could get the full benefit of DVD movies. On the right, you can see what a 7.1 system looks like; you would need two additional speakers over a 5.1 setup.

Generally we used a quadraphonic setup for gaming, an additional powered speaker for 5.1 movie sound, and stereo for music – “stacked”, a pair of SP-HF800A’s right speakers side-by-side and a pair of the left speakers also side-by-side.   There is a noticeable increase in overall volume and a lesser but audible increase with the bass response from adding a second pair of speakers.

There is one issue that we discovered that may be a problem for some users.  The speaker wire and the connecting cables are quite short for a quadraphonic system, only a little over six feet, and they may limit placement even with a stereo setup.

Listening Tests

For our listening tests, we used the well-recorded DVDs of Steely Dan and Carlos Santana that this editor is very familiar with. We also compared with our old Cambridge 4.0 system. Of course, we ran the usual audio synthetic tests and naturally they showed some differences but they absolutely cannot tell you how either of the speaker systems actually sound like when playing music. That is what trained ears are for!

First up, we used our Cambridge quadraphonic system; it is 4.1 which means that four surround speakers are used: the Front-out and Side Speakers-out are used on the USB Diamond soundcard’s front; the .1 stands for the subwoofer, a fifth speaker. We then decided to make our 4.1 into a 5.1 system by using a Diamond self-powered mini-speaker as a sixth speaker – for the front center channel missing in Quadraphonic systems and sometimes important for 5.1 channel DVD movies.

Next we compared our Cambridge 4.1 (and 5.1) PC audio with two pairs of the SP-HF800As also in a 4.0 quadraphonic system for games and a 5.0 system (using an additional self-powered Diamond speaker for the center channel but without a subwoofer) for movies.  Both systems provided decent surround sound and positioning but the overall sonic edge went to the system with the subwoofer as the Genius speakers simply did not provide deep bass.

For music, the Genius speakers sound better overall depending on what kind of music that you play.  If it requires heavy bass, then you would probably prefer a system with a sub.  For Jazz and for general listening, the Genius speakers were clear and not tiring.

For gaming, the 4 Genius speakers in a quadraphonic configuration provided good positional clues although again, bass is on the light side.  “Stacked” with the speakers side by side, they gave a good stereo stage with fair imaging and slightly more bass than that provided by a single stereo pair.

Of course, neither of these systems are “audiophile” and are not even close to high-end, yet the Genius speakers did reproduce music very decently over their range with no bad surprises.  For a fifty dollar pair of great-looking PC speakers, we would have to say they sounded very good.