Creative's Inspire M5300 is a 5.1 PC speaker set. At a very affordable RRP and with respectable audio quality, they're quite good value. Powerful bass dominates their audio range, while treble performance is their weakest area. By no means a high-end audio product, they're nevertheless well suited to basic music, movie and gaming use.

The M5300 delivers clear audio, with a minimum of distortion at reasonable listening volumes. As mentioned, however, treble is their weakest area, with a lack of definition and general flatness in the upper ranges. Bass is powerful, and although it tends to be slightly slow at times, for the most part it's well defined. Long, rumbling explosions and thumping music should be well handled by these speakers. The mid-range is clear, although along with treble it is sometimes overpowered by the dominant bass.

The volume levels are quite good, and we found a comfortable listening level at around about 30 to 40 per cent volume. We did encounter distortion at the highest levels, but realistically these were too loud for most use. Bass volume is adjustable via a knob on the back of the subwoofer, which can be somewhat hard to reach if the sub's positioned on the floor, but otherwise gives a good range of bass levels. Again, we encountered some distortion at the maximum volume, however, we found this to be too heavy anyway, and found a comfortable bass level at around 90 per cent. A small, handheld volume control plugs into the back of the sub, and is an easy and unobtrusive way to make quick adjustments.

The speakers' design is quite basic, with detachable stands for when the user wishes to wall mount. The black plastic finish looks a little tacky up close, but as a package they present a reasonably attractive aesthetic. The speakers themselves are quite lightweight, and we did notice that they were fairly easy to topple, although this shouldn't be a significant concern for most.

Overall, Creative's Inspire M5300 speaker set is a great value product. It doesn't have the best quality audio, but its powerful bass and clear mid-range make it a good choice for gaming, as well as casual movie and music use.