Your affordable 4.1 Digital Solution to Computer Audio.
Written: Jan 10 '02
Product Rating:
Pros: Compact Subwoofer, powerful, digital audio and overall control.
Cons: Ineffective on budget sound cards, no headphone jack and power switch location.
The Bottom Line: If you think that you have to spend a lot of money on a digital audio solution, you don’t have to with the ACS56. It’s worth the extra money.
lavoisier's Full Review: Altec Lansing ACS56 4 Speakers
When people are considering on buying and/or using their computer for entertainment purposes, such as MP3s for many and DVD movies for some; they want to look for the solutions that’s best for them within their budget. However, if you really want true experience of digital audio from DVD movies and your MP3 audio, you need a digital sound card and a digital speaker system. But such a solution is not practical, partly because it’s just too expensive for many. However with the Altec Lansing ACS56, since it’s affordable at less than $100 for a set of speakers at local computer stores (non Circuit City related).
Features
This 4.1 speaker system (4 satellites and 1 subwoofer), as I said earlier features a digital audio inputs. The satellites also feature magnetically shielded drivers, to place them close to the monitors or displays. However, the wood subwoofer is not magnetically shielded and should not be placed near the display. The active satellite features an LED display to digitally control your bass, treble, your volume for the surround and front speakers separately. This is ideal for those who want to have more control for their surround speakers, particularly for DVD movies. The bass adjustment is also in a nice location, on the active satellite rather than on the subwoofer; where it’s easy to reach anytime when you need to retune the bass. However, the power switch for the speaker system is on the back of the active satellite, an inconvenience because there are times when the speaker system stays inactive. But if you use the speaker system frequently, I don’t recommend turning them on and off repeatedly, because it could damage the fuse within the speakers and the subwoofer. However, for some people having the controls on the active satellite can save space, but there are people that have the active satellite far from their reach, particularly for those whose desks have pull out keyboard trays where they don’t want to make a long reach. For the surround satellites, it features brackets that allow us to hang these speakers on the wall if we prefer to do so or just put them on a stable base like on a shelf. At 70W of power, the 5-piece speaker system delivers vigorous bass and pleasing trebles; even when you’re not too near the computer say when you’re on your bed in a dorm room. However if people wanted some privacy on their entertainment pleasures with their computer, the speakers don’t feature a headphone jack, which would have been ideal if they don’t want to distract the computer user sitting next to you. You think that the 4 speakers will take up a lot of space, but the statement is not true, because we have the flexibility on mounting the surround satellites on a wall or on a different surface other than your desk. The subwoofer doesn’t take up much space on the floor either, just because it’s a digital speaker system. It only takes up a little more space than a 6-pack of beer cans.
Experience
Overall experience for the speaker system is very pleasant. With the digital audio feature on the subwoofer, this speaker system can be plugged into a digital port (if equipped) of the sound card. The audio from the DVD movies came out just like you would go to the movies, in the comfort and privacy of your own home. Even the MP3 audio from these speakers and subwoofer came out in an unprecedented quality, meaning it goes well beyond the CD quality audio. These enhancements wouldn’t be possible without the digital port of the subwoofer and the audio card. The active satellite plugs into a DIN plug and the speakers plug beside the DIN. For the audio input the speaker system can be used by the 2-channel or 4-channel audio cards from a computer or any source of audio like a portable CD player. To enhance bass production of the subwoofer, it’s best to place it in the corner of the room or near a wall, as long as it’s away from the monitor or display. However to obtain the best results from these speakers, a digital 4-channel sound card is recommended like the Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ 5.1 or the Sound Blaster Audigy series. Good results are obtainable if a 2-channel sound card is used (such as from your motherboard sound) and it’s even better if it’s from a 4-channel sound card. But when it’s connected to just a 2-channel sound card, the separate volume controls would use the left and right satellites, rather than the front and surround from the 4-channel sound card.
Recommendation
For those who truly want a great audio experience in their computer and yet have a digital sound card that you don’t fully use, the ACS56 will do great for those people. It’s great for those who like to watch DVD movies on their computer or tune into their MP3 collection frequently. Because of most audiophiles request for control in a speaker system, and the ACS56 has it. Combine that with a CD Rewriter drive, you’ve got yourself a digital audio station. With the addition of a DVD ROM and DVD video decoding, your computer is transformed into a movie theatre with these speakers.
Power over Ethernet (PoE) Zoom MPEG-4 Network Camera with 42x Zoom, High-speed Pan/tilt with Presets, Progressive Scan, Analog Video Output and SD Car...More at onSale
Power over Ethernet (PoE) Zoom MPEG-4 Network Camera with 42x Zoom, High-speed Pan/tilt with Presets, Progressive Scan, Analog Video Output and SD Car...More at MacMall
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.