Antec Soundscience Rockus 3D 2.1 Speakers
by Dustin Sklavos on November 18, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Audio
- Antec
- Soundscience
- Rockus 3D
Introducing the Soundscience Rockus 3D 2.1
When Antec decided they wanted to introduce sound products to their portfolio with their new Soundscience brand, they weren't kidding around. They sent representatives to demo the Rockus 3D 2.1 speaker system to the press and take questions in person. I was sat down in front of a Toshiba notebook connected via analog minijack to the Rockus 3D and allowed to play with the speakers, play different music, try some tracks off of YouTube, listen to a movie demonstration. And when it was all over, they sent me home with a set of the speakers that I have rigorously put through their paces during the past 10 days.
So before we get ahead of ourselves, let's talk about the Rockus 3D itself. The Antec rep was adamant that this speaker system be near perfect out of the box, and I believe him. It's a "basic" 2.1 system: two satellites rated for 25 watts and a frequency response between 10 Hz and 20 kHz, and a large (but surprisingly not too large) subwoofer rated for 100 watts. The satellites themselves connect via an RCA jack in the back and use a fairly robust cable that splits into speaker wire when it connects to the subwoofer. Build quality on the satellites is impressive: they use anodized aluminum for almost the entire build save a glossy plastic rim around the speaker proper that serves more for decoration than anything else. This is supposed to produce a cleaner, distortion free sound that plastic speaker satellites may have more trouble with, but it also gives them some heft. We have no complaints about build quality at least; these feel solid.
The subwoofer is simultaneously more and less fortunate. As the basic control hub for the speaker system the housing is a sturdy plastic with the typical cloth front, and it's actually comparatively small, measuring at 13.8"x7.7"x10.6". The subwoofer fires forward instead of down the way many cheaper units I've seen do, and spoiler alert: it can fill a room. Connectivity on the back is kept fairly clean and manageable: there's a port to connect the remote controller (which is heavy enough to actually hold its place on your desk without being at the mercy to the cable connecting it), a power switch, the two sets of speaker inputs, and then three audio inputs. This is important: the Rockus 3D accepts a dual RCA connection, a standard 3.5mm minijack connection, and a TOSLINK optical connection. This last one is supposed to make the Rockus 3D ideal not just for your computer but for your blu-ray player or gaming console, but frankly it's just nice to see a digital connection. Finally, there's a hard switch to choose between three levels of bass, and that's disappointing: it would've been nicer to see an analog knob to let you finetune the output of the subwoofer.
Last but not least we have the remote, which is weighted fairly well but does feel comparatively cheaper than the rest of the kit. The top disc is the volume knob—press down to toggle mute—and the front of the unit has four indicator lights and a toggle button: one of the lights indicates whether the speakers are in digital or analog mode, the next two indicate whether they're in music mode or 3D mode (more on this later), and the last indicates whether the speakers are being muted. To toggle between digital and analog inputs, just hold the button for three seconds. Otherwise, one press switches between music and 3D modes.
The package includes pretty much everything you'll need to connect everything to everything, but there are a couple of major shortcomings. The cables used to connect to the satellites may be of good quality, but they're fairly short and made positioning a bit difficult on my desk. Despite including robust minijack-to-minijack and minijack-to-dual-RCA cables, Antec also neglects to include an optical cable. I understand these aren't the cheapest cables in the world, but having to go out and buy my own was a little irritating, especially when this is really one of the better features of the speaker set.
It's also worth pointing out that there isn't a single certification on the box or the unit: no THX, no DTS, no SRS, no Dolby, nothing. And I can confirm: the optical input takes PCM audio and that's about it.
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sinPiEqualsZero - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Hi Dustin/Anandtech,I truly believe that you’ve given your best recommendation based on the available data, and I appreciate the time spent doing the review. I pay particular attention to speaker reviews since I wear hearing aids and need amazing speakers to understand speech, and thanks to you I have some more data with which to make a decision. I'm even in the market for them since my old ones just died last week.
In general, as you are well aware, audio review is an under-appreciated and subjective process. In this case, I have reservations about the one used for the review. But first, a small bit of relevant background based on some of Anandtech recent accomplishments.
When SSDs were coming out, you picked apart their parts, algorithms, and used the awesome collective knowledge of Anandtech to make big waves in the industry. We are still benefiting from those articles today and I guarantee that the major manufacturers and engineers are reading all related articles they can. You even referred to working directly with some manufacturers!
Then the iPhone4 reception issues came along, and you did what no one else did; you measured the effect of the wild claims that were flying around and erased all doubt. We may never know the true extent that your article influenced the notoriously secretive Apple, but I bet the impact wasn't small.
Let's get back to speakers. There are so many things that can be measured with speakers: distortion, maximum/minimum settings that can be compared to manufacturer's claims, and more. The quantifiable data is there, you just need to find ways to measure it. Heck, you could even disassemble the speakers and look at their components, and comment on how their use/placement/etc. affect the sound and cost.
I'd love to see a true "Anandtech"-level audio review where that creativity was on full display. Given the shady claims and misinformation that pervade the speaker market, connecting repeatable readings, analysis, and some physics know-how with the overall listening experience would be amazing and unique. That is exactly the reservation I mentioned above - there is no reason that a speaker review should only be subjective, and I've love to see some of our finest minds in the industry tackle the problem of defining "good" speakers.
Again, thank you for the time and effort you’ve put in. No matter how many negative comments you get, there are many who appreciate what you do. In this case, though, I believe you have chance to once again take up the mantle of industry leader and go where almost no one else does. Best wishes to you and to all of the people at Anandtech!
VietPham - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I can't believe that this review was on AnandTech. I've read the criticism of the review methodology (all warranted) but there are more fundamental issues. The reviewer just doesn't seem to understand the basics.For instance, he uses the term "double blind" when it's clear that he doesn't understand what it means. It's okay if he's not already familiar with the term, but he could have taken just a few minutes to google the phrase if he was unsure if he should use it. To skip this basic self-education is a disservice to readers, who expect better from AnandTech.
I'm also troubled by his claim that he uses a set of Bose as his standard speaker system. Bose? I believe this is the same reviewer who compared the HS1 to a set of Bose headphones a few weeks ago. Lots of people do think Bose products are of sufficient quality, but I'm worried when an audio reviewer uses them as a benchmark.
Between his admission of his liking for Bose, his testing audio with YouTube clips, and his misuse of very basic terms, I'm afraid that this review has told me nothing about the actual quality of this product. It's more like a diary of his experience with a free set of speakers he got, written from the point of view of a non-audio expert.
Not AnandTech quality.
rscoot - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I'm not an audiophile but I concur with using Bose speakers as a baseline. They're overpriced snake oil junk.Shinobi_III - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
For that kind of money you could easily get a pair of Behringer 2x20watt digital studio monitors.Obviously there's no subwoofer, but accuracy and pressure is high. probably more bass anyway. And since they already contain DAC's, you won't even need a good sound card..
Matrices - Saturday, November 20, 2010 - link
I don't really see the need for an army of numbers in this sort of review, since they will simply march past the consciousness of readers who don't measure their listening experiences quantitatively - but I do think that you really need to have at least two comparable systems for comparison. And I also think that those systems should almost never be Bose products, for obvious reasons.At any rate, $250 for a 2.1 PC setup is, quite frankly, ridiculous. The reason Klipsch and Logitech all but stopped producing PC speakers around that price range is because most PC users who have that sort of money to spend on PC sound realized that they could do far better with real speakers hooked up to a cheap receiver. Even back then, Logitech's mid-tier 5.1 system went for around $250. A 2.1 system from a new contestant that's the same price? It's going to tank terribly.
plague911 - Sunday, November 21, 2010 - link
but seriously why does it seem like none of the major manufactures put any effort into that for these smaller sound systems. I mean half of them are outright ugly.musicgadgetz - Friday, June 4, 2021 - link
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