The sound controls reside on one of the satellites, including dials for Subwoofer, Surround effects and Volume. What, no headphone jack? That's right headbangers. Klipsch left out one of the necessary conveniences for most gamers with spouses and roommates. Being able to plug in headphones without scurrying around in back of your machine is all the more important when you have a set of speakers this powerful. These babies crank up at such an exponential rate, there is but a hand twitch of difference between low level nighttime listening and blowing the walls off. For us, the expensive solution was pairing the Klipsch speakers with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live Platinum, which has an extra set of I/O connectors on a drive bay mount. We are able to plug in our headphones and adjust volume now from the front of the CPU, but we miss out on Klipsch's extraordinary power. The company really should come up with an add-on solution for its customers.

Installation is painless, but proper adjustment is not automatic. As with most 5-speaker setups, you should be prepared for a whole new rats' nest of cords. The very generous lengths of front and rear speaker wire attach to the satellites with a standard RCA plug and to the subwoofer via exposed split wires and clamps. An additional control cord plugs into the subwoofer from the one master satellite unit. That satellite also receives the front and rear sound signal wires from your soundcard.