Product Brief: Microlab FC360 speakers, cheap and easy to setup

If you don’t want to fiddle about with surround sound, or lay out potfuls of cash on an audiophile setup, there’s an awful lot to be said for hooking some simple 2.1 speakers such as these Microlabs to your PC. They’re cheap, and very easy to rig up: just hook the subwoofer and two satellite speakers to the amplifier unit, connect that to any 3.5mm output, plug into the mains and you’re done.

The cabinets are finished in a slightly cheesy faux-leather wrap topped off with shiny black plastic, and they do feel a touch insubstantial, but the sound quality they pump out is surprisingly good.

Bass from the 24W, side-ported subwoofer is tight and well defined – most other budget bass units we’ve listened to at this price have been flabby and overblown. And while the mids and highs from the satellites aren’t the most crystal clear we’ve ever listened to, they don’t distort at maximum volume and are a good match for the sub.

A great price just goes to show that sometimes simple is best.