Sandberg Pro 2.1 review

Danish manufacturer Sandberg is fairly new to the speaker market, having just released the Pro 2.1 speaker set. As a budget set costing just £37, we weren’t expecting to be blown away, but our initial impression of the incredibly compact subwoofer and diminutive speakers was still underwhelming.

Neither the subwoofer nor the main speakers look particularly attractive, although the blue LEDs illuminating the volume control make it stand out from other budget sets. The lights can’t be turned off, which could be distracting if the subwoofer is placed in a prominent position. Unfortunately this will be difficult to avoid because it also contains all the controls and inputs. The front mounted volume dial is the easiest to access, but the power and bass controls are at the back. Depending on where the subwoofer is placed, it can be awkward to change tone settings and turn the speakers on.

With only a single 3.5mm input for connecting the speakers to your PC, you’ll have to swap over the cables to connect a second device. The 1.1m cable is also very short, so you may need more than one if it won’t reach between all your devices. Both speakers connect to the subwoofer with a single captive 3.5mm cable that’s only 1.2m long, so they need to be placed fairly close to the subwoofer.

Playing through our test tracks, it was immediately obvious that the subwoofer was disguising the sub-par satellites. Without any heavy bass notes coming from the subwoofer, out acoustic test tracks sounded very tinny. The sharp high-end managed to overpower the mid-range and notes we would expect to come from the main speakers were instead being sent to the subwoofer. This left some tracks sounding empty until we turned the bass dial up to its maximum. Even then, the subwoofer lacked bass in our heavier tracks.

Considering the Pro 2.1 is a budget speaker set we weren’t expecting astounding sound quality, but we were still disappointed with the tinny speakers. Although the subwoofer covers up some of their issues, bass response was very low. The speakers also picked up interference from our mobile even though we were sitting a good distance from them. Although the cheapest option can sometimes be all you need, with the Pro 2.1 that’s more of a false economy. Get the Trust Wave 2.1 set instead.