Competition

Keep them separated?

I did a quick experiment and hooked up the Sirocco satellites to a standard amplifier, and used the Sirocco amplifier with my bookshelves. Neither performed as well apart than they did together -do you know of any other musical combinations where this may be true? The already good imaging of my bookshelves was enhanced even further with the amplifier. Forced to make a conclusion, I would say that the amplifier for the VideoLogic Sirocco's deserves to be its own product. Maybe it's the toroidal transformer, or just good engineering, but the amplifier is much more than I would expect from an integrated multimedia system.

How does it compare?

Today, we are seeing more and more digital to analog converters being put on multimedia speakers. Interestingly, Microsoft was one of the first to push this idea with their USB speakers. Keeping the signal in digital form all the way to the amplifier is more efficient and less prone to interference that adds unwanted signals that were not present in the recording studio. VideoLogic does have a more expensive system with D/A converters, but they aren't present in the Sirocco Crossfire. That makes the Crossfire speakers more similar to the Klipsch's in design, rather than the high-end Altec Lansing or Cambridge speaker sets. Therefore, to take full advantage of the four-speaker sound, you'll a sound card with both front and rear outputs, which is no longer a problem for most people.

Power-wise, the VideoLogic Sirocco Crossfire fits nicely into the pack, trailing only the Klipsch system. For equally sensitive speakers, the jump from 100 watts of power to 400watts will yield 6 extra decibels of sound. In a moderate size room, 100 watts will be plenty to show off your system. One should also consider that most of these speakers are designed for near field listening, where excessive wattage can do more physical harm than good.

Of the speakers that have recently come through FiringSquad's offices, the VideoLogic Sirocco Crossfire's are the most expensive. To be honest though, I do like their sound better than recent speakers we have tested. The Klipsch speakers would be a close second, but with a $150 difference between the Crossfires and the Promedias, you just need to decide where on the cost benefit curve you want to be.