Great sounds for a great price!
Written: Jan 16 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The ultimate bang for the buck speaker system
Cons: Would be nice to have a higher power output.
The Bottom Line: I would recommend these to anyone who wants PC surround speakers but can't afford a set of Klipsch Pro Media speakers and a 5.1 Dolby soundcard.
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| androoos's Full Review: Altec Lansing ACS 54 4 Speakers |
I've owned these speakers for roughly one year. I have not been disappointed at all over the quality of the sound they produce. Before I bought the ACS54 system, I owned the generic Altec-Lansing two-speaker/subwoofer system that came with my Dell 400mhz system. I had two major problems with this old system: 1. The subwoofer enclosure was HUGE. Way too massive in my opinion for a 6" speaker. 2. The volume control was a rotary dial which just spun to control the volume...no min or max limits. This dial had problems often, it would not turn the volume up or down unless it was pushed on a certain way. This was extremely irritating.
Now to the much much improved ACS54. The subwoofer is 25% smaller than what I had, yet it punched out much deeper and richer bass than the previous sub. There are 4 satellite speakers included in this system. Two have a base for placing on either side of your monitor, these act as your Front speakers. The other two have very long (~8') cords and have small footpegs to sit flat, but they also include a bracket so they can be mounted on a wall using screws. The main front speaker has a volume control (with min and max limits, thank god) and a "surround" control. This surround control increases or decreases the volume level of the surround speakers. All speakers have color-coded connectors that match ports on the subwoofer. Hooking this system together is a piece of cake.
Connecting this system to a PC is a snap. It comes with two 1/8" cords with color-coded plugs. One (green) is the main sound from the soundcard. The other cord (light blue) controls the surround signal if you have a soundcard that supports a four speaker system. My soundcard is a SoundBlaster Live! Value, which does support four speakers.
The operation of the speakers is overall wonderful, but there is one noticeable problem. After hooking this system up to my SB Live, having the soundcard volume turned up to max made the speakers distort badly. They make an AWFUL scratching/popping noise. After some research, I found that this is caused by two things: the soundcard is very powerful and the speakers can't handle the input power. I have to operate my sound with the soundcard volume down to about half of its maximum. This really isn't a problem, the sound is still clear and defined. Despite this one glaring problem, this system is still a great value and a great purchase.
Lastly, if you search the internet hard, you can find these speakers for very very little money. Office Max sells this system for close to $80. If you look hard enough (try EBay) you can find it for nearly half of what Office Max wants.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
androoos
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: JC Andrews
Location: Chesapeake, VA
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Great job-check. House-check. Wife-check. Dog-check. Kids? Uh-oh.
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