Altec Lansing ADA 880 4.1 Speakers

Every thing about these speakers showed promise. I chose to replace my Altec 495s which I thought were a very nice sounding set of speakers with these due to the power and the ability to separate the surround speakers.
They come with more power and a bigger sub, they should be great I thought. So... I sprung for the extra $140 bucks more than the 495s when I bought my new PC. BIG MISTAKE ! ! I hooked these speakers to my sound Blaster Live with digital outputs first, but however I configured the settings the surround was poor. Next I set them up with the analog inputs, but guess what, although there are 4 speakers, you cant hook them to the 4 speaker outputs of a good sound card. Oh well, the power output should make for nice sounds. Well loud sounds ok, but when I tried to use them at low sound levels, there was a very low pitched oscillation that I could not get rid of even by replacing the speakers with a second set. It was so annoying at low volume, that I often found myself turning them off all together. Why have $300 speakers if you are going to turn them off any time your family is asleep. I finally returned them for good and bought a set of Cambridge Soundworks Digital. These are not nearly as loud, but such an improvement in all other areas that I don't even miss the extra volume. Do yourself a favor, save your money for a better set of speakers!