JBL Creature

by Harman Multimedia is a new three-speaker audio system for Macs, any Mac with an audio-out connection. It is self-powered and offers 40 watts of sound, 24 from the subwoofer and 8 each from the two satellite speakers. Harman Multimedia also makes the Harman Kardon USB SoundSticks which has a 20W subwoofer and 2 10W satellites, also for a total of 40. The JBL Creature's three components look like droopy mushrooms and come in white, silver and blue. The sound level controls are located on the front of the right satellite, making volume control an easy task. The system also has a single mute button. Both satellites also have down firing LEDs for a cool desktop look in minimum lighting environments. They were sprinkled throughout the gaming area and provided terrific sound effects. The system sells for $129.95.

This report completes our on-scene coverage of Macworld NYC 2002. We want to make it clear that there were many other excellent Mac products on display than we were able to see carefully and report on, mostly in the video field where our expertise is pretty meager anyway. A Macworld Expo is really a great event to see much of what is available for the Mac or will be available in the next several months.

On Monday, we will have some comments on the reverberations from this year's mega-event.