Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II

First came the T20, now T20 Series II. Creative have updated their high end GigaWorks speakers. So what does one get?


Design and handling

The predecessors looked pretty good, these look even better. The grey matte plastic has been replaced by a glossy black finish. The front-mounted controls for power, bass and treble look sleeker too and are well built. Apart from the two speakers, the box contains a (bulky) power supply adapter, a stereo-to-stereo audio cable (2m) and a dual RCA-to-stereo adapter (TV adapter).

It seems that changes are merely cosmetic. Once you take off off the grilles, as with the T20's, you get the same woofer driver with the woven glass-fibre cones and the small tweeter.


Audio experience

The quality is indeed the same as on the previous model. The mid-tones are too present, and the highs are watered out. The latter do exist but the sound is too smooth. Sure, it has got nothing to do with the poor quality you get on low-end devices, but still...

The bass however are powerful. There is no subwoofer so don't expect to send the walls trembling. When compared to other 2.0 solutions, it does rather well. What bothers us more than the light highs is the mid-tones: they feel artificial.

All in all Creative has done much to improve the T20s. As a result the T20 Series II still has the flaws and is disappointing for high-end gear. A real shame, because they have great potential.