VideoLogic Sirocco Spirit Early Impressions

Published: February 25, 2000 -  Mikael Hagén

Update: The full review is now available

The Sirocco Spirit is another addition to VideoLogic Systems' Sirocco series. If you read our Sirocco Crossfire (4.1 system) or Sirocco Original (2-satellites+subwoofer) review you know the Sirocco series offers excellent quality at reasonably but not low price points.  The Sirocco Spirit are priced clearly below the original Sirocco with a price tag of £140(inc. VAT UK)/US$249 but VideoLogic didn't reach that price point by sacrificing sound quality.   Instead VideoLogic decided to bring it down in price and space by not including a subwoofer.  They also integrated the amplifier into the right speaker to save space. While that succeeds in saving space,  the disadvantage is that all the controls, inputs and outputs are located on the back of the speakers.  Furthermore, with dimensions of 144 mm width x 274 mm height x 216 mm depth it's still not a small system. The controls are a master volume, attitude control and on/off button. The attitude control graduates the whole audio profile from rich deep bass to clear high treble. It's quite effective while still maintaining the excellent quality at normal volume levels, something that often is not the case with bass and treble controls, at least on many PC speaker systems. The in and outputs includes two analog stereo inputs, a subwoofer out and a headphone out.

When it comes to the more important aspect of the system the MDF cabinets which come with a removable cover house an Audax 4" cone for bass/mid range and an Audax 10 mm polymer dome for the high end.  These are all driven by 4 integrated amplifiers that deliver a total output of 50 Watts RMS.  If you read my Sirocco Crossfire review you know that the Audax drivers are very efficient which means the system can produce very loud sound, louder than many systems powered with more Watts. This is technically pretty much identical to the original Sirocco except no subwoofer. So does this mean excellent midrange and high-end with poor bass response? Not exactly...the satellites are now ported (bass hole) and Videologic increased the cabinet size which should help bass compared to using the Original Sirocco without a subwoofer. VideoLogic has also added something they call Dynamic Virtual Sub Technology to the Spirit. This gives a variable bass boost dependent on volume - most at low volume, tailing off to none at about the mid-point.

So how does it sound then? Before I tried them out I had serious doubts that the system would be a great choice for anyone that required even decent bass response. After I tried them out with a lot of different music CDs and a few games (Unreal, Half-Life and Unreal Tournament) there is no question that when it comes to the mid-range and high-end the Spirit delivers excellent quality, noticeably, but not earth shatteringly better than the Sirocco Crossfire (which have a different amplifier, same high-frequency unit and 3" instead of the 4" Audax drivers). Compared to more average but still good PC speakers (e.g. Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000) the Spirit sound reproduction offers a detail and accuracy that is miles ahead. This is especially noticeable with music that includes a lot of high-end where many other speakers (e.g. FPS2000, ACS56) are severely lacking.  When it comes to bass, the Sirocco Spirit was surprisingly close to the Sirocco Crossfire at normal listening levels. The bass isn't as deep, but the specs put it at 45 Hz so it's not poor. The major difference comes when you want to crank up the volume or exaggerate the bass response, which most people do when it comes to gaming. The Sprit as mentioned has a variable bass boost dependent on volume - most at low volume, tailing off to none at about the mid-point. This doesn't mean you have no bass at high volume but it falls behind the midrange and high-end unlike systems with a good subwoofer. You can use the attitude control to get more bass but at high volume it will cause significant distortion. In the end this means that for normal listening levels the bass response is quite good even for games but if you want a very powerful and/or deep bass the Sirocco Spirit comes nowhere close the bass response of the Sirocco Original or Sirocco Crossfire. In the full review I will see how the bass compares to cheaper systems with a subwoofer such as the ACS56, but my early impression is that the ACS56 has more powerful bass but not of the same quality.  In the full review I will also go into more detail of how deep the bass response is and how loud the speakers can play before the bass starts to fall behind. If you want better bass then you can connect an amplified subwoofer to the Sirocco Spirit and get excellent bass response. I connected it to the Sirocco Crossfire subwoofer input which is the same subwoofer that comes with the Original Sirocco and the bass response was much more powerful and deeper.

The conclusion is that the Sirocco Spirit are a compact system for those that don't have room for a subwoofer,  already own a good standalone amplified subwoofer or don't have enough cash to buy the Original Sirocco and are willing to pass on deep and more powerful bass in favour of the excellent quality including good bass response at normal listening levels. It's worth mentioning that if you are a gamer who wants 3D sound and has room for 4-speakers there is no question you will get a lot better positional sound from a 4-speaker system than the Sirocco Spirit.  You could of course buy two sets, but then you are better off buying the Sirocco Crossfire which are not far behind in quality and offer much more powerful and deeper bass.

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