I truly hate this part as you are reading this expecting us to pick a winner and both systems are excellent, well constructed and well ahead of much of the competition which is why many people don’t like head to heads… a good product has to lose. However, one system is clearly better than the other as an overall package. What you have to decide is how much of that overall package are you looking for and will use when making your own buying decision.

I will start with the easy ones first. For overall connectivity, the Crossfire is the easy winner. If you are looking for the flat out loudest system then the Crossfire is the system of choice, but both are more than loud enough for most applications in a normal sized room. In terms of overall acoustic accuracy its again clearly the Videologic Sirocco Crossfire even though some listeners may prefer the enhanced sense of detail and energy offered by the ProMedia. I definitely preferred listening to most music using the Crossfire at any volume and even more so at louder volumes where the Crossfire offers clearer (distortion free) and sound than the ProMedia, which becomes all the more apparent at the upper power levels of the respective systems. I say most music, as there was one artist (Celine Dion) where I inexplicably preferred the ProMedias for her various materials (based on one album "All the Way: A Decade of Song". I would guess that its her particular vocal qualities combined with the bass beat to the music. I thought this was worth noting to illustrate that there will be people who prefer the sound of the ProMedias and also because the ProMedias are still better for music than most other multimedia systems on the market As noted earlier, while both subs are excellent at their default levels, I find the Crossfire sub better suited for cranking up the levels for music so even rap fans should be happy with the sub unless you want to shake the room.

When it comes to games its very close as the quality of sound effects is not of a level that would expose flaws in either of these systems and the ProMedia’s heightened sense of detail, and sense of energy might even be consider as an positive for gaming by some. Its not that all I said about music is not still true, its that it does not have as big an impact. When it comes to the subwoofer I prefer to game with the bass levels turned up a fair bit and for that reason I prefer the room shaking ProMedia sub but its at the expense of music as your bass riffs will be just as boomy as your rocket launcher blast. Keep that in mind, as the Crossfire sub also does an excellent job of exaggerated bass without the boomyness, but also without the room shaking. The more music you listen to when you game, the more the Crossfires smooth sound, greater volume and greater clarity at high volume will benefit, so consider your habits and your gaming genre (are there lots of bass heavy sound effects?) when deciding in this regard.

For DVD movies I lean back to the Crossfire for the same reasons as for music. While acoustic accuracy may not be quite as important for moves, the higher volume of the Crossfires can be that much more important. However, the gap is narrower because of the ProMedia’s better performing subwoofer when it comes to some sustained bass heavy effects. As with gaming, the more your crank up the subs the more the ProMedia sub, which is tight at the recommended level, will lean towards boomy, but that does not seem to have the same negative impact on movies as on music. If you plan to buy a Dolby Digital decoder like MidiLand’s ADS-2000 that does not offer a large speaker 4.0 mode (i.e. it sends all frequencies to only the front channels) then its a good reason to go with the Crossfire as you need an LFE input to get the bass response from the LFE channel and from any sounds in the rear channels. Its one connection that would have benefited the ProMedia. Its worth noting that while the ADS-2000 does work better with a system with an LFE input it still works quite well with the ProMedia. This is because in many movies it seems that the bass effects are focussed around the front channels (which do have a large speaker mode on the ADS-2000). However you will still completely miss out on any effects sent to the LFE channel and any bass heavy effect that are just in the rear will be lacking.

Ascetically, both systems are pleasing to the eye and you can look at pictures and decide for yourself in that regard, not that you should every buy a speaker on looks.

Overall, both systems are such a big jump above the multimedia norm that you really can’t go wrong with either. If I only had $250 I would be very happy to bring home the ProMedia to use for games, movies and music. Its really incredible what Klipsch managed to pack into the ProMedia system at that $250.00 price point! But the question at the beginning that I set out to help answer was "does Videologic deliver more quality and features than the excellent Klipsch ProMedia in a manner which will be clearly apparent in normal use and warrant the extra $200?".

Abit SP50

Altec Lansing ACS 56

Altec Lansing ACS 54

Altec Lansing ADA880 Dolby Digital

Altec Lansing ATP3

Boston Acoustics BA4800

Boston Acoustics BA7500

Cambridge Soundworks FPS1000

Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000 digital

Cambridge SoundWorks 2.1 Digital

Cambridge SoundWorks DeskTop Theater 5.1 DTT2500

Cambridge SoundWorks DeskTop Theater 5.1 DTT3500

Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 510D

Diamond Audio Technology ProMedia 3205

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1

Klipsch ProMedia 4.1

Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Initial Review

Labtec APX 4620 Review

Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel

Labtec's LCS-2514

Logitech SoundMan Xtrusio DSR-100

Logitech Z-560 Initial Review

MidiLand MLi-490

MidiLand S4-7100

MidiLand S4-7100 Plus

Monsoon MM-1000

Monsoon MM-2000

Philips MMS305 4.1 Initial Review

Polk Audio AMR-150

Polk Audio AMR-130

Videologic Sirocco

Videologic Sirocco Pro

Videologic DigiTheatre 5.1

VideoLogic DigiTheatre DTS

Videologic Sirocco Crossfire