Despite the whole installation problems, I must stress that the MLi-490 is an excellent speaker system. The sound quality, though it faults in some specific areas (which I'll touch up on below), is excellent overall. If the installation didn't scare you away, then please read on.

First, there is really one bad thing about the actual speakers - and that is MidiLand's choice of where to place the audio controls. On most speaker sets, the volume controls are placed on one of the satellite speakers, which makes for easy access to adjust the volume whenever needed. However, on the MLi-490, all volume controls are placed on the subwoofer itself, in the front. While most people prefer to place the subwoofer on the floor, or out of visible sight, this creates a big problem. If you don't have a keyboard with volume controls, then you'll definitely find yourself with a problem, unless you plan on rearranging your setup. While this isn't a major problem, I do feel that this does take away from the overall product - little things build up into bigger ones.

But now onto the good things about the speaker set--thankfully, there's plenty of good things to say, as well. The frequency response on the 490's is surprising, especially considering the price point these are at ($99, though it has been found online for prices such as $75!). The real problem here is that the 490's can't quite hit the lows & highs of a slightly more expensive setup. The satellites only have a single midrange driver inside, which forces them to attempt to reproduce sounds which really should reserved for tweeters. The end results are somewhat "muted" highs, with extreme highs not getting heard at all.

However, the bass goes low enough to please all but the pickiest of audiophiles. The driver on the sub comes in at a beefy 6.5" which is easily the largest in its class. This helps the 490's shine against competitors like the FPS1000. One of the reasons for the great bass from this system is the polypropylene cone (with rubber surround) that Midiland has used, instead of the generally cheaper and more often used paper cones (with foam surround). This is just another reason why the MLi-490's edge out the competition.

So as just a quick recap, it appears that with the MidiLand MLi-490, it has quite difficulty handling real highs--the satellite speakers try to handle work that only the tweeters should really be working on. On extreme highs (This is most notably recognized when playing music), it tends to just mute itself out, simply because it cannot handle the performance it urges for. The lows in the bass are done extremely well though, and while playing games such as Deus Ex, MechWarrior 3, Unreal Tournament, and Rogue Spear, you really see what this subwoofer is really made of. Despite the somewhat dissapointing problems with the highs and extreme highs, it is still forgiveable.

The bottomline is this: The MLi-490 performs extremely well with games. Our overall game experience was extremely acceptable, and this is exactly what MidiLand designed these for--gamers. For the price that this speaker system is setup to be, plus the discounted prices seen around the Internet, it's definitely tough to beat this. The notable reason why games perform so well on this speaker set is because most games avoid extreme high/low frequencies. Therefore, MLi-490's definitely handled what was tossed at them.

On to: Conclusion