Microlab solo 6c 2.0 review

If you have just built an updated computer in 2011 then a new, high quality set of speakers should not be underestimated. There are no shortage of high quality speakers at a £200+ price point, but what if you have only £100 to spend? Are you left with only clinical, harsh, poorly designed budget speakers? Microlab might just have the answer with the Solo 6C set of speakers, designed by Danish audio expert Peter Larsen.

The Solo 6C claim to offer ‘rich' audio quality with detailed acoustics, full bass and ‘vibrant' treble. There is even a remote control in the bundle to offer control over volume, input, bass and treble. Their construction relies on MDF to reduce distortion caused by vibration and they have been designed to enhance the overall experience from compressed audio files, such as MP3's.

Technical Specifications:

Amplifier: Output power: 100 Watt RMS Power distribution: 50 Watt x 2 Harmonic distortion: < 0.3% 1W 1kHz Frequency response: 55Hz – 20kHz Signal/Noise ratio: > 85dB Separation: > 55dB Input sensitivity: 440mV Nominal impedance: 4 ohm

Speakers: Tweeter driver type: 1″ Tweeter rated power: 10 Watt 6 ohm Bass driver type: 6.5″ Bass rated power: 30 Watt Frequency range: 55Hz – 20kHz

The Microlab Solo 6C speakers ship in a large, predominately white box with an image of the speakers on the front. They follow a more ‘hi fi' oriented bookshelf design ethic, rather than a traditional PC speaker design. This should appeal to a different audience of user.

The speakers are protected between some thick, heavy duty Styrofoam, which is just as well as our review sample box looked like it received some heavy handling during shipping.

MicroLab include a user manual, remote control, a cable to connect to a computer and a cable for connection between the speakers.

The tiny remote offers control over input, treble, bass and volume. There is also a handy mute button at the top.

The speakers are constructed from wood and are shipped with removable front covers, as shown above.

Bottom left, the signature seal of Peter Larsen himself, the designer behind the Solo 6C speakers.

The speakers ship with a thick plastic protective sheet, which covers the delicate tweeter. This is easily removed.

The speakers consist of a 1 inch tweeter and 6.5 inch woofer. The impedance is rated at 4 ohm with a signal to noise ratio of 85db. Input sensitivity is rated at 440mV. The tweeter delivers 10 Watt of output, and the bass driver 30 watts. They are considerably larger than many other speakers we have reviewed in the last year. As a means of highlighting this you can see one of the speakers next to a Nikon SLR lens cap.

The overall appearance is surprisingly good, especially considering the modest price point. Sadly we noticed some damage on one of the woofers as shown in the image above right. Luckily whatever caused the damage, didn't perforate the cone, but the surface ‘slice' was quite long.

Our concern with this would be that this set of Solo 6C speakers left the factory with cosmetic damage. The speakers ship with covers over the cones, so if damage occurred during shipping then the covers would have been ripped before the cones received damage.

One of the speakers contains the amplifier system and this is cooled by a large, metal heatsink. There are two sets of input connectors, a left/right speaker connector (to connect to the other speaker) and a power button and volume control. This rear mounted volume control is unusual in that it doesnt ‘stop' at a maximum or minimum point but will rotate indefinitely. Just be sure to keep this low before turning them on.

Bass and treble can be adjusted from 0-8 via the controller, and this is represented by a red LED readout bottom right of the primary speaker.

The support speaker is connected to the amplified speaker by a simple set of Hifi style binding posts. Audiolab supply a decent quality speaker cable for this.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.

For testing, the Microlabs Solo 6C speakers were connected to the Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card. We have reviewed this sound card before over here.

Firstly, I wanted to focus on some rock and pop MP3 music recordings. I listened to some guitar tracks from Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and John Petrucci and the Solo 6C did an admirable job of reproducing clear tones across a variety of tracks, such as Vai's ‘Tender Surrender', Satriani's ‘Tears In the Rain' and Petrucci's ‘Wishful thinking'.

Due to the large physical dimensions of the Solo 6C cabinets, we wanted to test bass response and fired up some digitally enhanced recordings, such as Jean Michel Jarre's Complete Oxygene audio disc. The woofer was able to resolve a wide range of tones, without sounding flustered or ‘wooly'. The total volume output is vastly superior to any other speaker system that we have tested in this price sector. So much so, that anything above '45' volume was painful in our 12×12 foot room. Distortion was minor.

I decided to shift genre's to ADELE's '21' and again the Solo 6C resolved a fairly impressive level of wide band detail from the recordings, without overexposing bass, or sibilance from the MP3 recordings. Compared against the Corsair SP2500 2.1 speakers we noticed that the Solo 6C woofers didn't quite extract all the lower frequencies from some of the tracks, but this is always going to be a compromise when omitting a subwoofer from the configuration. Overall however the audio reproduction was enjoyable and forceful enough to fill a medium sized room.

We directly compared against the ever popular Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II speakers, which retail for approximately the same price. The sound presentation was significantly different between the two sets of speakers, with the Gigaworks T40 Series II delivering a nicer balance of tones in the upper range of dynamic reproduction. I favoured the mid tone reproduction from the Gigaworks speakers, although they can sound rather ‘glassy' with some material.

We initially felt that Microlab might be overly optimistic with their claims of MP3 optimisation, but we did notice that some poorly recorded, compressed tracks lost a little harshness when directly compared against the Gigaworks T40 Series II speakers. For some people the default settings of ‘0' treble will be very soft, so there is room for audio adjustment via the remote.

The Jose Gonzalez album ‘Veneer' was brought to life with the Solo 6C speakers, although the bass settings worked best at around 3/8 as any higher could add an unnaturally rich range of string tones to Jose's acoustic style of play.

Classical music was presented in a warm, flattering manner, even if some of the soundstaging was compressed a little. If you like audio files reproduced with warm tones, then the Solo 6C may just be the solution you want, without breaking the bank.

Next I shifted to PC based gaming and tested with Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. The Solo 6C are clearly designed for music reproduction because I noticed a minor, yet noticeable ‘flatness' with the soundstaging when moving immediately from the Corsair SP2500 2.1 speakers. To be fair, the SP2500 speakers are three times the price, so it seems a little unfair to make a direct comparison. That said, after I ‘readjusted' for a few hours, I didn't find any glaring problems, with a huge cavernous bass being delivered at 4+ settings. I wouldn't say these would be a first choice for PC gaming, but most people would be more than happy with the volume on tap and depth of audio frequencies.

I tested with the BluRay disc of Avatar, as well as an older classic from 1991 – Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The Solo 6C have plenty of volume available from the built in amplifier, however the soundstage is not quite as wide as we had hoped, although the opening scene was delivered with plenty of impact. A set of 5:1 speakers would obviously be a better solution if this was a primary focus for a purchase.

Overall, the Solo 6C create a soundstage which is warm, if slightly two dimensional. They work fantastically well with acoustic and rock tracks, lending a feeling of intimacy when listening to a tight rock band or individual musicians. Acoustic music sounds warm, inviting and very enjoyable.

Microlabs have clearly worked hard in trying to reduce the nastier elements of compressed music playback and it really works well. I would recommend a cheap set of speaker stands, because when set up correctly the bass response is much tighter, and dynamically focused.

A wide audience reading this might not have heard of Microlabs. I admit, initially I was dubious that they were yet another cheap far eastern brand, with little room to fit into an already cluttered marketplace. The company name for example is less than inspiring, as it gives the impression of cold, clinical audio reproduction for the budget computer audience … who are only interested in the price point.

This is a rather unfortunate oversight, because audio expert Peter Larsen has clearly set out to build a set of speakers which focus on warm, inviting, audio reproduction. They really aren't that ‘technically' accurate, but the colourful and rich tones can effectively reduce listening fatigue and sibilance, often associated with compressed audio files.

In the computer industry there are very few speakers which offer a little ‘personality' of their own, which can subjectively add to the enjoyment of music. I really enjoyed listening to a wide range of material via the Solo 6C speakers, rather than analysing all the frequencies as I normally do. That said, they are not perfect and can sometimes suffer from a narrow soundstage, and don't make an ideal partner for movies or gaming.

The price point is very attractive, with UK sites such as Amazon offering them for £79.95 inc vat. At this price point I am willing to overlook some of their minor shortcomings. I really like the warm bias to the sound quality and very impressive levels of bass, which can be fine tuned to suit your specific genre. They might not be as clinically accurate as the Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II, but their overall balance of audio reproduction is rich and full bodied.

Are Microlab speakers good?

Great pair of speakers for the money. Sound is awesome. Bluetooth is a little slow connecting to my iPhone but that's a minor issue considering the sound quality. Having its own amplifier I don't even need to use my stereo amp.

Who makes Microlab speakers?

Microlab Inc. is a global audio electronics manufacturer based in Shenzhen, China that specializes in the research, development, and production of multimedia speakers, AV speakers, and peripheral products. It was founded in 1998, as a joint venture between Shenzhen Microlab Technology Inc.