Altec Lansing 120 2 Speakers

I've dealt with a lot of speakers over my computer career. Some have had pretty good sound, others were fine with the computer but freaked out with a CD, and some have just been…well, weird. November of 2004, my old computer freaked out on me, so I had a new one built, and the speakers that were rolled out with the package deal were these. A pair of Altec Lansing Series 100 speakers (it has the number 120 on the back of them).

Mine look exactly like the picture shows. I don't know if they come in white too, but since my entire computer is now black, I don't much care. They make me think of little towers sitting on each side of my monitor. I gave the box away, so if there's any important information on there you'd want to know, uh, sorry. The speakers don't have any info listed on them – except in my looking I realized they are labeled "Left" and "Right." Heh. Cool. Ok, I'm sure it doesn't matter and you can put them wherever you fancy, but they've always worked out for me in being on their correct respective sides.

Now, from one average Joe to the other, there's basically one thing you're going to want to know about speakers, am I correct? How do they sound? Hold on; let me close my door… (that's right, I play with my toys as I review them – it's more fun that way)

Testing, 1, 2, 3 – Evanescence's "Everybody's Fool" Nice and loud and crystal clear. Every pair of speakers tends to play things their own way, but I don't have a problem with these. Maybe there is some slight muffledness, but just a teeny eensy bitsy bit – or maybe I'm just listening too hard. Let's try a different song. Hem's "Half Acre," much mellower and very little instrumentation. Still no problems. I've never had these speakers at full blast, but when I was living in my own dorm room just last year, I very well may have. 2 am with Korn blaring out of them? Ohyeah. Good times. In fact, sometimes I worried my neighbors might be able to hear them and get irritated.

You can also plug your headphones into the little jack to the right of the volume knob. Though there is a little fuzz (it's not going to be as clear as if you were listening on your CD or MP3 player), the quality is still pretty good. It's an option that comes in handy for when you're working late at night and have others living with you, but you still want some loud music. I use it when reviewing music just to make sure I can hear even the quietest of instruments, in case I don't catch it with all the notes free-floating through the room instead of straight to my ears.

There's only one little knob you ever need worry about that does both volume and then if you turn it all the way down, *click* the speakers are off. Confirmation of power will be shown by a little green light beside the knob. Green means on. No green means off. They're also just like the majority of speakers out there – plug them in and get sound. No big deal. No extra software needed; they're just speakers. Let's move on.

Naturally your volume can also be determined by your computer settings and which song/sound byte you're listening to. For example, my Meet Joe Black soundtrack is exceedingly quiet, so if I turn the speakers toward me before I go to bed, I have to turn them up louder than they normally would be for me during the day. Of course, then you'd have to be aware because in doing this at school while my instant messaging program is on, someone will message me and it will be loud. But that's not the speakers' fault. I have my computer volumes all set at 50% and even so, my speaker volume knob is usually not even that high and the sound is loud enough.

As I said, they're basic, black, and lightweight. Easy to juggle. I don't like heavy speakers – they don't need to be heavy. A few words of caution with these guys though. First, their bases, while fairly steady, can be easy to knock over. They do have some fabric on the bottom to help prevent sliding, but it's fabric – not rubber – so they can slide a little. I've knocked one over more than once with closing curtains. Just watch yourself. The other thing is near the end of my school year, the speaker with the volume control started going out, or getting picky as to where the volume had to be in order for it to have sound coming out of it. Finally it quit altogether. I don't know what the deal was because when I took them back, the guy said they were fine. And they are. However, just the other day that same speaker started acting up again, but hasn't since, so who knows? Maybe knocking it over gave it a hiccup or two.

In the end, they make a good match for my computer and I hope they last me a nice long while.

NT