Installation and Usage

The installation is pretty easy. You just need to connect one end of the power cord to the “master” speaker and the other end to any AC outlet, connect the 3.5 mm plug from the audio cable to the “front out” jack (green jack) on your computer or the appropriate “audio out” jack on your iPod or portable CD player, connect the two RCA plugs from the audio cable to the “master” speaker, connect the woofer cable from the “master”  speaker to the “slave” speaker, and connect the tweeter cable from the “master” speaker” to the “slave” speaker. For these two connections you need to carefully observe polarity, connecting the wire with a red strip to the red connector on the speakers.

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Figure 8: Cables that come with the product.

We, however, found two inexcusable flaws for a speaker set from this price range. First, the two RCA plugs available on the cable use colors that are different from the color used on the “master” speaker. The cable uses one red and one yellow plug, while the “master” speaker has one red and one white jack. Second, the two cables for connecting the speakers don’t come with their outer jacket removed on their ends, meaning that you will have to do this by yourself.

Audio quality from Swans D1080MKII is outstanding, if you are looking for high-fidelity speakers and not wanting to play games or start a nightclub with them. Sound was very clear when played on the reviewed speakers; sound from our mainstream speakers that we used as a reference seemed muffled compared to Swans D1080MKII. When playing some MP3 files we could clearly hear noise and cracks from the original sound source (we had some files that were converted from vinyl records), sounds that weren’t apparent when playing the same files on a mainstream speaker set.

The woofer used on this system is in fact a mid-range, so the frequency response on bass sounds wasn’t the greatest around.