Altec Lansing ACS251 5.1 Speakers
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- Max. Power Output: 7 Watt (RMS)
- Number of Speakers: 5 Speakers + Subwoofer
- Connection Type: Cable
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My CD's sound like Cassette tapes!?!?
Pros
Price for 5.1 speaker set
Cons
Noise, muddy mid-range and high range lacks punch.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Skip 'em... try Creative speakers for a $$ deal, Klipsch for quality.
What I expected
I didn't expect mind numbing (blowing?) sound from these speakers, but I did expect something better than my Creative Inspire 4400's (a 4.1 set). I've seen quite a few reviews of these speakers in Hardware sites around the net so I took a chance on 'em... BIG mistake!
Noise
They're noisy as all get out. I wired them up, turned them on and heard something I've never heard from my Inspires without putting my ear right up to them: hiss. Oh my LORD, it was like listening to cassette tapes all over again!
"It's your bad sound card, dude," I hear you say. Fat chance, and a NO to that one: I have a TBSC (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz). For those of you who have Creative SB sound cards of ANY make and have yet to try a TBSC, you won't understand what truly clean sound from your computer can sound like, and (while I'll save most of this for another review) the TBSC is better compatible than ANY SB sound card is at this time. My sound card rocks and makes as close to NO NOISE as ANY soundcard out there. Yeah argue with me about it later, back to speakers. :)
So what was the problem?
Ok, I spent about 5 hours tracking down the source of the hissing. This hissing, accompanied by a low pitched hum, (my creative's have a higher pitched much quieter hum. All speaker's do when power goes to them), anyway it came from the (you guessed it) amp. And since the amp is built into the speaker system you can not bypass it. Live with it if you want these speakers. I couldn't stand it. I was relieved it wasn't anything else in my system. Simple problem to fix: get rid of the speakers.
But how was the sound they made on purpose?
Well... not bad, but not very good either. In fact without doing a spectral analysis on them, my ears said: the bass was pretty darn good, almost clear, which is rare for bass. But... the other frequencies were just not in step with the bass. I checked out a few DVD's (Star Wars Ep I, Fifth Element) and then would rapidly switch back to my Creative Inspires and it became clear as night and day to me.
While the 4.1 speakers (the Creative Inspires) lacked a center channel and would thus open up the sound a little, the clarity was just overall outstanding, while the Altec Lansing's would tighten up the sound nicely (due to a center channel for voices) it was somehow weaker.
Weaker? But the Altec's have more wattage, what gives?
What gives, indeed. As far as I can tell it all boils down to this: frequency response. The difference in wattage to these two brands of speakers (about 1.5 to each speaker, 10 to the bass, according to the spec sheets) is not enough to matter at real world volumes. Yes, at very loud volume (meaning I went over to tell my neighbor what I was about to do), I could hear (feel!) the difference in bass- the Creative Inspires just got plain muddy, but they still held up on the higher frequencies. Why? Because this Altec Lansing set only responds up to about 18,000 kHz. In a word, that's just plain BAD! The Inspires go up to 20,000 kHz and I can tell.
"But you can't hear that high!" I hear you say? Wrong. I can and do. And so do most people really, especially in the overtone series to sounds with lower fundamental frequencies. I won't get into it, but I've had a year of audiology training (with more coming), just trust me here, you can hear that high, or at least you should be able to! :)
Anyway, the above is why the sound was weaker, IMO, on the Altec Lansing set, despite better base response, and 5.1 channels not 4.1, the frequencies were just cut off at the ankles.
Petty details
The speakers come pretty much bare- you get the set, a set-up reference card, and the spec sheet booklet. There's volume control on the front right speaker, along with controls for surround sound and center sound volume- which were pretty inneffective. Also, there's a handy headphone jack on that speaker.
The speakers come with nice metal stands you can mount them on and are a breeze to mount to walls. The cables are ample for the surround speakers, but in a larger room you may need extension cables. The cord from the bass unit to it's input plugs for the soundcard is longer than usual which is good, and frees up your bass placement a bit.
All speakers and cabling seemed well shielded, as no noise came in through interference in my experience, though, as I wrote above, the amp *introduced* a serious amount of noise.
Well?
In a word, I ditched 'em. I'm selling them through Amazon for a serious hit in how much I paid: I just couldn't suffer through the noise. If you want 5.1 channel sound, do yourself a favor and save up the $$ to buy yourself a better brand than this one... I'd try the Creative line of speakers. Though "audiophiles" seem to love bashing the Creative Inspire line, in my *experience* they are very good speakers; much better than these.
I didn't expect mind numbing (blowing?) sound from these speakers, but I did expect something better than my Creative Inspire 4400's (a 4.1 set). I've seen quite a few reviews of these speakers in Hardware sites around the net so I took a chance on 'em... BIG mistake!
Noise
They're noisy as all get out. I wired them up, turned them on and heard something I've never heard from my Inspires without putting my ear right up to them: hiss. Oh my LORD, it was like listening to cassette tapes all over again!
"It's your bad sound card, dude," I hear you say. Fat chance, and a NO to that one: I have a TBSC (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz). For those of you who have Creative SB sound cards of ANY make and have yet to try a TBSC, you won't understand what truly clean sound from your computer can sound like, and (while I'll save most of this for another review) the TBSC is better compatible than ANY SB sound card is at this time. My sound card rocks and makes as close to NO NOISE as ANY soundcard out there. Yeah argue with me about it later, back to speakers. :)
So what was the problem?
Ok, I spent about 5 hours tracking down the source of the hissing. This hissing, accompanied by a low pitched hum, (my creative's have a higher pitched much quieter hum. All speaker's do when power goes to them), anyway it came from the (you guessed it) amp. And since the amp is built into the speaker system you can not bypass it. Live with it if you want these speakers. I couldn't stand it. I was relieved it wasn't anything else in my system. Simple problem to fix: get rid of the speakers.
But how was the sound they made on purpose?
Well... not bad, but not very good either. In fact without doing a spectral analysis on them, my ears said: the bass was pretty darn good, almost clear, which is rare for bass. But... the other frequencies were just not in step with the bass. I checked out a few DVD's (Star Wars Ep I, Fifth Element) and then would rapidly switch back to my Creative Inspires and it became clear as night and day to me.
While the 4.1 speakers (the Creative Inspires) lacked a center channel and would thus open up the sound a little, the clarity was just overall outstanding, while the Altec Lansing's would tighten up the sound nicely (due to a center channel for voices) it was somehow weaker.
Weaker? But the Altec's have more wattage, what gives?
What gives, indeed. As far as I can tell it all boils down to this: frequency response. The difference in wattage to these two brands of speakers (about 1.5 to each speaker, 10 to the bass, according to the spec sheets) is not enough to matter at real world volumes. Yes, at very loud volume (meaning I went over to tell my neighbor what I was about to do), I could hear (feel!) the difference in bass- the Creative Inspires just got plain muddy, but they still held up on the higher frequencies. Why? Because this Altec Lansing set only responds up to about 18,000 kHz. In a word, that's just plain BAD! The Inspires go up to 20,000 kHz and I can tell.
"But you can't hear that high!" I hear you say? Wrong. I can and do. And so do most people really, especially in the overtone series to sounds with lower fundamental frequencies. I won't get into it, but I've had a year of audiology training (with more coming), just trust me here, you can hear that high, or at least you should be able to! :)
Anyway, the above is why the sound was weaker, IMO, on the Altec Lansing set, despite better base response, and 5.1 channels not 4.1, the frequencies were just cut off at the ankles.
Petty details
The speakers come pretty much bare- you get the set, a set-up reference card, and the spec sheet booklet. There's volume control on the front right speaker, along with controls for surround sound and center sound volume- which were pretty inneffective. Also, there's a handy headphone jack on that speaker.
The speakers come with nice metal stands you can mount them on and are a breeze to mount to walls. The cables are ample for the surround speakers, but in a larger room you may need extension cables. The cord from the bass unit to it's input plugs for the soundcard is longer than usual which is good, and frees up your bass placement a bit.
All speakers and cabling seemed well shielded, as no noise came in through interference in my experience, though, as I wrote above, the amp *introduced* a serious amount of noise.
Well?
In a word, I ditched 'em. I'm selling them through Amazon for a serious hit in how much I paid: I just couldn't suffer through the noise. If you want 5.1 channel sound, do yourself a favor and save up the $$ to buy yourself a better brand than this one... I'd try the Creative line of speakers. Though "audiophiles" seem to love bashing the Creative Inspire line, in my *experience* they are very good speakers; much better than these.
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