PRODUCT REVIEW: ALTEC LANSING 40WATT 2.1 SPEAKERS WITH SUBWOOFER

I've had the same pair of computer speakers for all of my PC's that I've owned since 1995, a pair of Yamaha's that had great sound and pushed some okay bass, surprisingly. Having decided it was time to upgrade my speakers I checked out what was available. Altec Lansing sure does make a wide selection of computer speakers from plain cruddy and cheap looking to fancy and expensive. I took the one close to the upper end of the selection. I think the electronic store was retailing them for 149.99, but since I work there, I got them for about $79.00.

The design is pretty cool looking. There were three units in all. Two tweeters, and one large double speaker subwoofer. The tweeters are actually two tweeters on each speaker exposed from this standing metal arch. Hookup was easy, basically a no brainer.

Of course sound matters, and I put these through the gauntlet of my music collection between, heavy bass techno, metal, alternative, punk, classical, special video game remixes, etc. They stood up very well, and the bass wasn't explosive, but it was deep, powerful, clear, and had a high enough impact to feel the vibration. The two left and right channel highranges were very bright and clear, however there almost seems to be a slight dip in prominence of the midranges. They peform excellently, but there is a strong contrast between the bass and the highrange, so this set up would do well to have a larger mid range speaker and a high, instead of just two tweeters. Some music I played I couldn't notice much difference in midrange. I may use a Y-connector and connect my Yamaha speakers and these together to get maximum effect. Overall they are a good pick, and the bass on these was stronger than a 5.1 Surround set of Altec Lansings a relative bought with their P4 Dell Dimension Tower. The only drawback to these I could say stand out is the lack of a wireless remote, and the tweeters tend to tip over real easy, those are only minor complaints.