Arctic Cooling’s new 2.0 speakers look to add some oomph to the multimedia experience of your laptop.
Product on Review: Arctic Sound S111 Portable Speakers
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Arctic Cooling
MSRP: 13.45 € (excl. VAT) / US$ 15.45
Street Price: Not listed
On July 9th 2010, Arctic Cooling launched the Arctic Sound S111, their very first 2.0 speakers. These speakers are marketed mainly towards laptop users. Not only are they compact and portable, the Arctic Sound S111 seeks to enhance the overall multimedia experience by offering better sound quality over the stock speakers of the laptop.
Seeing as they are USB-powered, the Arctic Sound S111 speakers should not add to cable clutter because they do not require an AC adapter. According to Arctic Cooling, pairing these speakers with a USB power supply, such as the Arctic C1 Mobile, would make an excellent sound system for the person on the go.
With its small price tag of 13.45 € (excl. VAT) / US$ 15.45, the Arctic Sound S111 looks to be quite a bargain. Does it deliver in terms of sound quality? Read on to find out.
The Arctic Sound S111, taken from Arctic Cooling’s website
About Arctic Cooling: Link
| Who we are? ARCTIC COOLING is a privately owned company founded in 2001 with headquarters in Switzerland, offices in Hong Kong and the USA and production facilities in Asia. The ARCTIC COOLING team consists of international highly educated people with business, technical and communicational skills. The attitude to work is based on Swiss principles of innovative spirit and high standards of workmanship for which it is recognized internationally. This striving for excellence is integrated in all processes as a matter of course. ARCTIC COOLING´s core competencies are multifarious including systematic noise reduction,copper and aluminum heatsink development, customization of thermal solutions, as well as designing quiet fans. More recently quiet and cool PC Cases and Power Supplies have been developed. What we do? ARCTIC COOLING is a leader in creating thermal cooling solutions for personal computer systems that enable CPU (Central Processing Unit), GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) and PC case cooling whilst reducing the noise level. Increased heat generated by modern computer systems has overwhelmed most existing cooler manufacturers in their efforts to keep pace with the demands in terms of noise level and cooling. The noise pollution caused by today´s IT systems has increased, severely affecting productivity in open office environments. ARCTIC COOLING has been working closely with globally recognized companies such as Inno3D, ECS, Galaxy, Sapphire, Powercolor and ATI. Through these partnerships ARCTIC COOLING has been able to adapt to the changing market requirements and has quickly developed the optimal solutions. ARCTIC COOLING combines the Swiss art of engineering to realize innovative cooling ideas. Thanks to the low labor cost in Asia, ARCTIC COOLING has consistently produced innovative solutions which lead the market in price / performance. Cooling solutions are created from the demand of our customers. Due to the continuous product development at ARCTIC COOLING the demands of end-users will always be satisfied. As a result of the head-start ARCTIC COOLING has in knowing end-user´s requirements, manufacturing possibilities and ARCTIC COOLING´s strong R&D, ARCTIC´s products will continue to be market leaders in cooling solutions and provide assemblers, computer hardware distributors and IT-technicians with innovative, virtually silent, cost-effective cooling solutions for CPU, GPU and PC-case worldwide. |
Features and Specifications
As far as features and specifications go, the Arctic Sound S111 differs from other speakers on the market by being USB-powered. This will cut down on cable clutter because it does not need an AC outlet or an AC adapter to work. The USB port of your laptop or computer will power these speakers just fine.
The Arctic Sound S111 also comes with a decent 2-year warranty, which is quite nice to see on such an inexpensive product.
The rated output power of these speakers is 4W. Remember that USB 2.0 ports can only supply up-to 2.5W. How this mathematically works out, I am not sure.
Unlike many of Arctic Cooling’s audio products, the Arctic Sound S111’s product webpage does not have the convenient chart that rates its sound quality, such as bass, clarity and highs. This information is printed on the product’s packaging and it can be found in the specification sheet, however.
Features: Link
| The ARCTIC SOUND S111 is a set of compact, dice-shaped portable speakers. It has a one meter cable length with 3.5 millimeter stereo jack to connect to any laptop, MP3 player or many mobile phones. The ARCTIC SOUND S111 also features a large volume control knob for users to adjust volume easily. As the ARCTIC SOUND S111 is a USB-powered speaker, it can easily be powered by a laptop without additional cables or adapters. It is an accompaniment for laptops and can be used as a replacement of the mostly mediocre built-in speakers in laptops. The ARCTIC SOUND S111 can amplify the volume at a greater extent, while vocals and bass are still well balanced. Main Features – Compact dice-shape speakers – portable and lightweight – Balanced vocals and bass for natural sound response – Built-in volume control – USB-powered – 3.5mm jack – compatible with computers, MP3, DVD, CD players |
Specifications: Link
Specification Sheet: Link
| – Frequency Response: 50Hz – 25KHz – Impedance: 4 ohms – Output Power: 4W (2W x 2) RMS – Cable: 1m with 3.5mm stereo jack – Dimensions: 70 L x 70 W x 70 H (mm) – Weight: 494g – Warranty: 2 year – EAN Code: 0872767003477 – Manufacturer Code: ORACO-SP001-GBA01 |
Packaging and Contents
The Arctic Sound S111 USB-powered speakers come in a compact white and grey box. Various things are printed all around the box, including product description, features, specifications as well as diagrams.
As far as the amount of information goes, there was actually more information on the packaging than on the product’s webpage. In fact, the packaging has a diagram that is missing from the product’s webpage. This diagram, a chart actually, rates the product’s sound quality. Arctic Cooling’s rating system is quite handy and accurate from my past experience.
Note that this chart can still be found on Arctic Cooling’s website via the product’s specification sheet (Link). Strangely enough, there were discrepancies between the specification sheet and the packaging. Arctic Sound S111 scores 1 point less in bass and 1 point more in clarity on the packaging in comparison to the specification sheet.
The product packaging also advertises the Arctic Cooling C1 Mobile, which is a portable USB charger with a built-in battery, as a means to power these speakers. Seeing as the Arctic Sound S111 is USB-powered, any USB power supply will work fine with this product. All in all, the Arctic Sound S111 is shaping to be interesting portable speakers.
The Arctic Sound S111’s packaging
With the packaging opened up, we see that Arctic Cooling has secured the product between two recycled cardboards. For environment conscious buyers, this is an essential packaging feature. They seemed to protect the speakers quite well too.
The Arctic Sound S111 secured between two recycled cardboards ala egg carton
In terms of package contents, Arctic Cooling has not included any accessories besides the manual. The manual explains in several languages how to set up the product and how to use it. It also gives information on the warranty. Many diagrams are used in the manual and they are easy to understand. It is a straightforward and well-made manual.
For the curious, the manual can be downloaded via Arctic Cooling’s website (Link).
The contents of the product (from left to right): manual and the Arctic Sound S111
Closer Look: Arctic Sound S111
Seeing as the Arctic Sound S111 is marketed towards laptop users, the speakers are compact. They are also very easy to carry around because of their cubic shape. In fact, these speakers are smaller than a typical 4x4x4 Rubik’s cube.
In terms of build quality, the Arctic Sound S111’s casing feels very strong. The same cannot be said of the loudspeakers, as it will be discussed a bit later. For their size, they do pack quite a weight, but at 494g they are still very light.
The Arctic Sound S111 in all its glory
As far as exterior design goes, the speakers’ casing is made of dark grey plastic that looks quite good next to a black laptop. The Arctic Sound logo is printed on both the right side of the left speaker and on the bottom front of the right speaker. The speakers have a simple yet beautiful look.
The loudspeakers have a rubber frame and a white diagram. These loudspeakers vibrate when sound waves traverse them. It makes for quite an amusing experience when your fingers are touching the loudspeakers.
The left side of the Arctic Sound S111
The Arctic Sound S111 speakers each feature four small rubber feet. These keep the speakers from sliding around on the table, and they do their job quite well. In fact, you can easily stack these two speakers on each other without worrying that the top speaker will slip off. Obviously, pulling on the cables too hard will collapse the tower.
The bottom of the Arctic Sound S111 with four soft rubber feet on each speaker
At the back, we can see that there is a large volume knob with a scale on the right speaker. Looking at the volume scale, intuitively the maximum volume would be at 7 o’clock and the minimum volume, at 4 o’clock. However, the volume knob turns clockwise and it actually increases the volume from 7 o’clock to 4 o’clock. It is quite confusing to say the least.
Seeing as these speakers are meant to be portable, some kind of wire management clip to wrap the cables around would have been helpful to eliminate cable clutter. For example, the wire management feature of the Logitech LS11 speakers would have been excellent for the Arctic Sound S111.
Logitech LS11 Speakers Webpage: Link
The back of the Arctic Sound S111 with three cables and a volume control knob on the right speaker
The two speakers are connected via the white RCA audio plug
The Arctic Sound S111 has three cables that each have a length of approximately 3 feet. More precisely, the male white RCA audio cable is 93 cm long, the 3.5mm stereo cable is 94 cm long, and the male USB type A power plug is 96 cm long.
Again, seeing as these speakers are USB-powered, no AC adapter or power outlet is needed to power these speakers.
The cables of the Arctic Sound S11 (from top to bottom): male white RCA audio cable, 3.5mm stereo plug and male USB type A power plug. All cables are approximately 3 feet long.
Installation and Usage
Installation or set up of the Arctic Sound S111 is very simple. Firstly, plug the right speaker to the left speaker with the white male RCA audio plug. Then, power the speakers by plugging the USB cable to a vacant USB port on your system. Finally, plug the 3.5mm stereo plug to the required port. All of this and more is explained in the product’s manual.
Download the Product Manual: Link
The Arctic Sound S111’s strong selling point is its portability. Arctic Cooling seems quite fond with how their Arctic C1 Mobile is compatible with the Arctic Sound S111. The Arctic C1 Mobile, or any other USB charger, will power these speakers just fine. With the standard 3.5mm stereo plug, these speakers are compatible with many portable media players. In the picture below, I am using my trusty Super Talent Mega Screen MP3 Player (my usual Samsung YP-K3 2GB Black was MIA during the product photoshoot) with these speakers.
The Arctic Sound S111 is USB powered and works well with USB chargers
The Arctic Sound S111 works well with laptops too. Seeing as the Arctic Sound S111 speakers are USB-powered, make sure that your system has a vacant USB port that it can use. From the picture below, notice how small the Arctic Sound S111 are compared to the 14.1” laptop. No doubt, carrying these speakers around should be no problem. It is unfortunate that Arctic Cooling did not include a carrying pouch for these speakers. The product’s packaging works well as the latter’s substitute though.
The Arctic Sound S111 was made for laptops. Here, it is used with the HP EliteBook 6930p.
Test System and Testing Methodology
Testing Methodology
Music will be played on various systems and a portable media player to evaluate the sound quality of the speakers. The music’s format will be either FLAC or MP3 (320 kbit/s), depending on the device used.
Benchmarks
– Sound Quality: Music played with foobar2000 1.03 and on a portable media device
Test Setup: Portable Media Device
– Samsung YP-K3 2GB Black
Test Setup: Laptop 1
– HP EliteBook 6930p
– CPU: Intel Core2 Duo Processors P8400
Test Setup: Laptop 2
– Dell Inspiron 1545
Test Setup: Desktop
– CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5000+ Black Edition @ 2.6 GHz 1.15V
– Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G
– RAM: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 PC2-6400 2x2GB
– Case: Antec NSK3480 mATX
– Power supply: Antec EarthWatts 380W
– CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U12P with Noctua NF-P12 @ 5V
– Case fan: Noctua NF-P12 @ 5V
– Hard drive 1: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB
– Hard drive 2: Hitachi DeskStar T7K500 HDT725025VLAT80 250GB
– DVD Drive: LG GH22NS30 DVD Writer
– OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
– Mouse pad: QPAD|UC Large
– Monitor: Dell E207WFP 20” TN
Test Results: Sound Quality and Portability
Sound Quality
The first song that was played was “Ulaid” by E.S. Posthumus. Ulaid was released with E.S. Posthumus’ first album entitled “Unearthed”, back in 2001. This independent music group’s genre is orchestral with a cinematic style. Ulaid has a celtic tone due to its usage of bagpipes. The track has rhythmic high and lows and an overall ambient feel.
From the get-go, I suspected that the Arctic Sound S111 would not be excellent in terms of bass because of the lack of a bass control knob. This was confirmed with E.S. Posthumus’ music. With these speakers, bass seem to take a back-seat. This is not to say that there was absolutely no bass, but the Arctic Sound S111 does lack the amount of bass (which is not much already) that I enjoy from other 2.0 speakers, such as the Altec Lansing VS2120.
The Arctic Sound S111’s sound quality also lacked in terms of clarity. The music felt like it was being held back.
The Arctic Sound S111 is excellent compared to many built-in laptop speakers
The second song that was played was “M.A.D” by Hadouken!. The song was recently released on the band’s second album entitled “For the Masses”. It uses a great amount of bass that can easily muffle out the rest of the song on low quality speakers.
Again, Hadouken!’s music confirmed that the Arctic Sound S111 was not impressive in terms of bass. Music was still definitely clear and there was no distortion, but the speakers could have done better in terms of bass and highs.
The third and final song, or piece, that was played was Grande Polonaise brillante in E-flat major composed by Chopin. The version that was played from the soundtrack of The Pianist. Like most classical music, every note contributes to the overall enjoyment of the music, and clarity is a must.
Arctic Sound S111 did play Chopin’s music quite well. Clarity was good, but still I felt that the speakers were holding the music back. The music just felt tiny even with the volume turned up.
Overall Sound Quality
Without a doubt, the Arctic Sound S111 blew away the built-in speakers of both the Dell Inspiron 1545 and the HP EliteBook 6930p. It felt like new life was put into these two systems. Honestly, the built-in speakers are abysmal and this is the trend of most laptops.
Arctic Cooling’s take on the sound quality of the Arctic Sound S111, which proved to be quite accurate
At its budget price of 13.45 € (excl. VAT) / US$ 15.45, the Arctic Sound S111 doesn’t seem to have any direct competitor. Logitech’s USB speakers cost much more than that. The Dell AX210 speakers are priced quite similar to Arctic’s product at less than US$20. Dell’s speakers have less bass than Arctic’s speakers, but they slightly surpass the latter in terms of highs and clarity.
All in all, the Arctic Sound S111 produces respectable sound with adequate highs, lows and bass. I would have liked if it could have more bass, but in a way I would be asking too much from USB-powered speakers.
Also, the Arctic Sound S111 can be quite loud with the volume turned to maximum. There was little to no distortion unless the volume was taken to worrisome levels. I would not recommend using these speakers to fill a room with music. There just isn’t enough bass. However, for the calm trip to the beach or the moments before you fall asleep in bed, these speakers perform admirably.
Portability
The Arctic Sound S111 is a bit smaller than a typical 4x4x4 Rubik’s cube, making them easy to carry. Arctic Cooling does not provide any pouch to carry these speakers around. Honestly, though, I would put the speakers in its original packaging if I was planning to carry them around. The box itself isn’t that big.
Elsewhere, the left and right speakers are not hardwired together, which will facilitate carrying them around.
Unfortunately, the loudspeakers themselves feel as if they could be punctured if a sharp or blunt object hits them. I would not carry these speakers around without proper protection.
The Arctic Sound S111 also lacks a nifty feature: wire management. The speakers themselves have three 3 feet cables. These cables could easily create a mess when carried around unless they are wrapped and tied. If the speakers had some kind of clip to wrap these cables around, it would avoid this situation. A similar wire management design such as the one found on the Logitech LS11 speakers would be perfect.
Conclusion
The Arctic Sound S111 is Arctic Cooling’s first 2.0 speakers. These speakers are USB-powered and thus they do not themselves require an AC adapter. This makes the Arctic Sound S111 a great match with a laptop by minimizing cable clutter and by being portable.
These 2.0 speakers are small enough to be easy to carry around. Although the product’s casing is a strong plastic, the loudspeakers feel quite fragile. Hitting them with a sharp or blunt object will likely damage them. As such, carrying the Arctic Sound S111 without proper protection would seem unwise, which kind of complicates carrying them around. Still, these speakers are much more portable than others.
As far as sound quality goes, the Arctic Sound S111 performs much better than the built-in laptop speakers. No doubt, you will feel a whole new level of multimedia experience if you are content with laptop speakers. Then again, almost all external speakers are better than the built-in laptop speakers.
The Arctic Sound S111: decent sound, compact and great looking. If portable speakers are not required, then the Arctic Sound S111 is not for you.
In comparison to desktop-grade speakers, the Arctic Sound S111 lacks some oomph, especially in the bass department. This is not to say that these speakers sound terrible; music still sounds clear, but it simply lacks the immersive feel. Still, the Arctic Sound S111 is marketed and geared towards laptops and portable media players.
With a price tag of only 13.45 € (excl. VAT) / US$ 15.45, the Arctic Sound S111 packs a lot of value. At this price point, there does not seem to be a lot of competition. Other USB-powered speakers perform quite similarly, but the Arctic Sound S111 has the edge in terms of portability.
Unless portability is an essential feature for you, you should invest a bit more into an AC powered speaker system, such as those in the US$25 price point. The latter will provide a much more immersive multimedia experience.
In a nutshell, the Arctic Sound S111 speakers are good for users who wish to replace their laptop speakers. Users looking for great pounding sound should look elsewhere. With only a bit more monetary investment, buyers could get themselves a budget 2.0 or 2.1 speaker system that packs quite a bigger punch.
With all of this in mind, the Arctic Sound S111 is given Vortez Hardware’s Silver Award.
Pros
+ Beautiful look
+ Decent sound quality in comparison to laptop speakers
+ Fantastic price-tag
+ Portable
+ Strong exterior casing
+ USB-powered
+ Volume control knob
Cons
– Fragile loudspeakers
– No carrying pouch
– No wire management features
– Not enough bass and highs
+ Beautiful look
+ Decent sound quality in comparison to laptop speakers
+ Fantastic price-tag
+ Portable
+ Strong exterior casing
+ USB-powered
+ Volume control knob
Cons
– Fragile loudspeakers
– No carrying pouch
– No wire management features
– Not enough bass and highs
We would like to thank Arctic Cooling for providing us with this sample. To discuss this article, please visit our forums
