I read the "first" review of this speaker setup and I must say that I had the exact opposite experience with these speakers. He hated them and I love them.

My Sound Card: Soundblaster Live Value
My Original Speakers: Cambridge 4-Point Surround

I was looking at upgrading my PC speakers to get 5.1 functionality as I will be buying a new PC with 5.1 capability, so I started my search and looked at the Altec Lansings. In CANADA, these normally go for 150.00, but recently at Future Shop they are on Sale for 80.00. In the US, its probably around 50.00 or whatever the current exchange rate is these days.

In any case, I saw these speakers and thought they "looked" good, so I demo'ed them and liked the sound. I did not buy them that day as I thought that the 150.00 CAD price tag was too high. (Good thing I waited, because 4 days later they went on sale for 80.00 CAD).

So, I bought them right away, as at that price, they are definitely worth it.

INSTALLATION:
These speakers are packed well.
Every plug and every jack are color coded, plus each plug/jack combo are actually "keyed" so that they will fit in ONLY the jack that they are supposed to.
The instructions were fine, could be better, but really a no-brainer anyway.

IN USE:
The knob on the subwoofer that adjusts the Bass volume works well. Actually, this box generated SO much Bass that I actually turned it to its MINIMUM position and it STILL produces enough bass.
The sound was crisp and clear - NO HUM and NO Buzzing at all. The only thing I noticed was that the midrange frequencies were a bit weak. That does not bother me though, since I really don't like midrange sounds anyway.

The wires could definitely be longer, though. I found that for my installation, they were fine, but if you had a big desk, or if you wanted your speakers placed farther away, you'd have a problem. The Front-Right speaker has all the controls on it, and therefore has a special cable that goes to the subwoofer. THIS cable should be at least twice the length it is now so that you could place the speakers farther away from the subwoofer (if you wanted to). The other speakers could be distance-extended with extension cables, so those would be easy, but the FR speaker cable is special.

In any case, it all boils down to Sound Quality, Controls, Esthetics, and price.....all of which this package has.

Sound Quality: 8/10
Crisp Treble, Powerful Bass, (weak midrange, but who cares).
As my review said above, I had to turn my Bass volume wayyy down because the unit delivers such good strong Bass that I did not need that much more. I placed the sub in a corner (improved Bass-response) and under the corner-unit desk. At times I could actually feel large rushes of air being pushed out of the sub at my feet when playing music, etc.

Controls: 8/10
Nice controls for the Center Channel volume, the Surround (front-to-rear balance), and the Master Volume. The power button is OK on the FR speaker, however it would be nice if the unit would just have an "auto-On" feature when it senses an audio signal rather than a manual on/off button.
The Subwoofer Volume control is also good, but its on the back of the sub which can be a tad inconvenient, (but then again, where else would they put it !)

Esthetics: 9/10
It all looks good. The sub unit looks very professional, high tech and expensive. The speakers felt heavy and looked to be of high quality. The little stands for the speakers were also nice. The rubber feet on these stands were already there, (as opposed to some other manufacturer's units where they give the feet to you in a bag and you must do it yourself)

Price: 7/10
OK, I was lucky...Future Shop (here in Canada), just put these on sale. At 150.00 CAD, they would be considered expensive, but at the Sale price of 80.00 CAD, they are a steal. Now that I own these, I definitely feel they are worth it.

NOW, why did the other reviewer have such a bad experience with these speakers ? I have no idea. Perhaps, just like in cars, you can buy one lemon out of a bunch of hundreds of exact models that work fine. In any case, the look of these speakers, and the performance are spectacular and are definitely recommended.