Creative N400

USB sockets are wonderful things. You can plug all kinds of gadgets into these sockets and Singapore-based Creative has decided to capitalise on this flexibility by creating USB powered notebook speakers.

The N400 speakers use a single USB cable that provides both power and digital audio to the two-inch drivers within. The speakers also feature X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity, which aims to restore detail to MP3s and which expands stereo music and DVD movies into surround sound (if they aren't already encoded as such).

The X-Fi is a crystaliser that analyses sound and restores the highs and lows lost in compressed audio. It also takes stereo signals and transforms them into surround sound.

Thanks to these features, the speakers returned sharp, punchy audio that easily stood above the audio provided by other notebook speakers we've tested. Frequency response was reasonable and while bass isn't very pronounced, it is reasonable given the speaker's compact size and lack of a woofer. And, despite being a two-channel setup we found the speakers were able to create quite an immersive listening experience. Great.

If your notebook is geared towards gaming, this set of speakers also packs Creative's Alchemy and this added EAX effects to games despite our notebook lacking an EAX soundcard.