 |
Altec Lansing VS3251
by owltop420
Just inherited these off of my brother and am very impressed with them. As you will probably know, they are 5.1 speakers which is ideal for what I need. The sound quality is great! My brother bought them new for £49.99 from Amazon a while back which is a very good price for 5.1 as these days, the latest Logitech model of similar spec ... is £68.53 reduced from £79.99.
They have the option to go for the separate input with three separate cables at the back (Rear, Sub woofer and Front) or the simple AUX input which is ideal for an iPod/mp3 player or laptop. The only disadvantage of the aux input is you can't get the full potential out of the speakers which was a little disappointing as I can barely hear certain parts on "Stereo" songs such as Black Sabbath's Crazy Train. However if you use the other input they really are great.
Another thing I like about them is the simple cable design which instead of speaker inputs/jacks, they just have open end wires which are clamped into position. This for me makes cable management easier. They cables are also colour coordinated with grey wires for rear speakers, red for front and blue for centre. The sub woofer on these speakers is insane, makes the whole floor shake! I would definitely recommend these speakers especially to someone who doesn't want to spend to much but is looking for superior sound quality.
One final thing, is how easy they were to set up, just plug and play. The remote control is really useful as well as you can raise/lower the volume of the sub woofer, centre and rear speakers separately.
Read the complete review |
 |
Altec Lansing Orbit USB Lite
by bhayanid
The problem I find with laptops is that unless it is a high budget laptop, the sound is quite tiny, and sometimes you need a speaker that will add a bit of oomph, but not a ridiculous large speaker that takes up all the space on your desk.
Just to note that the only difference between this Lite version and the original version ... is that its silver, where as the original is black. Plus its outer cover is plastic and not metal. Apart from that they are identical.
Design
~~~~~~~~~~~~
In terms of design it is pretty cool. To be honest I didn't buy this for the design, but its always nice as an added bonus. It has the Altec lansing logo just as small text which is good as it isn't overpowering. I guess the silver colour is pretty cool, but personally I actually prefer the black colour more, as it seems more in place. My computer is black, the screen is black, the speakers are back, the laptop is black, hence maybe I should have bought the original version of this with it also being black.
They do feel quite sturdy which is always a good thing, and the usb cable isn't too thing. For me the worst thing is where the wires are badly put together and they fall apart in no time at all. This should not be the case here.
Sound
~~~~~~~~~~~~
For such a small speaker, it does pack a punch, but this should be no surprise to any of you that have portable speakers, I recently did a review on a portable MP3 speaker for the 3.5mm ports, and remarked then at how loud these babies could go. One thing to mention is that there is no volume button. This isn't a surprise though for a portable speaker. If you want to adjust the volume, then just do this through the volume tab on your computer or through the media player. This is suitable for small to medium sized rooms. If you have a large room, then definitely think twice before purchasing this. You would need a proper set of speakers, ideally with a sub for that.
In terms of the pure quality of the sound, I think it is decent, maybe not quite as good as I expected, but there is decent bass which is nice, and the trebles are good, although on the mid range it doesn't quite go loud enough, so I guess this is more suitable to music which uses bass. Bare in mind this is a mono speaker and not stereo which takes the edge off a little.
The only issue I found with the sound, is that when you put the volume louder, there is a small distortion but it is noticeable. For me that is the real way to test the quality of speakers. The louder the music goes, if your speaker can handle it, then it is made of the tough stuff and is usually a keeper. Luckily I generally don't go too loud here so am ok, but it is a point that had to be mentioned.
Power
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The great thing with these smaller more compact devices, is that you don't need a power adapter to power them like a bit set of speakers. This is similar to smaller external hard drives, the pocket drives, where they can be powered through the computer. So you just connect this up to your computer through a USB port and away you go. As well as saving on power, this also saves space, with less wire leads needed.
Convenience
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is great here is that they are so portable and you can take them about just like your laptop. Just put them away in your laptop bag, so when you are on the move you have your laptop and your speakers. You can position these anywhere you want, and I would suggest not keeping them too close to you. As the saying goes keep your friends close, but your enemies closer, and these are definitely your friends, so its best to keep at least a meter away.
Price
~~~~~~~~~
This will set you back around £15 online from Amazon, although it isn't currently listed there, however is at Play.com for just under £20. Personally looking back I think this is too expensive, so advise you not to spend this much money, and get the x-mini which is cheaper, and better quality. Also bare in mind prices are always changing so check again if you are considering this.
Overall
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To sum up I think these are pretty sweet and for sure they get the job done. Would I choose a different speaker if I had the chance to choose again, I probably would do. I didn't do enough research and there are better quality laptop portable speakers out there.
One thing that would have been nice, is if it also had a 3.5mm cable so that I could connect it a different way and to my phone or MP3 player, however this wasn't the reason I bought it so I can't really mark it down for that.
The sound quality like I said above, could be a little better, and overall this deserves at least three stars.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Altec Lansing inMotion iM600
by tastydooyoo
I purchased this for my sons birthday as he already had a micro system in his room but wanted a portable device he could run his nano through.
The first thing we noticed was how slim the unit is, of course future incarnations will no doubt get slimmer but speaker development needs to take place in order to sustain the ... richness of the music. So, the unit is 'flat packed' if you like, in other words you need to push a button on the front panel to release the actual dock platform and the rear stand, a nice neat touch very useful for traveling. The front dock platform incorporates three buttons - volume up / down and power.
The dock comes with a neat, small remote allowing you to programme 4 radio stations, change the volume, toggle bass boost, scan radio and switch off the unit.
There are four further buttons on the top of the unit - scan forward / backward, source and SFX (Bass boost).
The dock sports a small led panel placed at the top front of the unit and will display radio station, Source type and volume level. There is also a battery / mains power indicator next to the screen.
In use:
My own dock of choice is a portable Bose sound dock so I guess you could say I am a little spoilt by the quality I am used to. However I had done some homework so was expecting a half decent sound from the IM600. My son uses a particular tone setting for headphones, however when we played the nano for the first time through the IM600 we felt although the sound was clear that it was a little 'bright' even with the bass boost on. After trying a few more presets we settled on 'bass boost' or 'loudness' setting. Now dont get me wrong, we are not just total bass freaks(!), the dock is thin so its going to be a little lightweight in sound, not only that but the nano isnt the deepest of musical reproducers. Therefore it suited us to use these settings with the dock bass boost on. Clarity was unaffected, still produced a nice clear sound, the bass settings may have 'muddied' things only slightly but the overall sound is pleasing and full. Even when the volume is pushed higher there is minimal amount of deterioration. Therefore sound quality gets top marks in my books!
The radio performs very well with the in built aerial seemingly effectively picking up a wide range of stations, the sound is very clear and surprising stereo imagery for such a small unit.
The internal battery will last a good 6 - 8 hours on a full charge which is great for using in the garden or taking away on holiday.
We have docked both nano and ipod touch with this unit and both perform as well as each other.
In summary I think this is a very good piece of kit at a reasonable price, I have heard different docks at this price range and none are quite as good. I like the fact that the musical reproduction is true and rich, albeit you may have to play with the settings a little.
Read the complete review |
