Altec Lansing 251

The front and rear speakers each have 4 rubber legs, and have an optional stand which can be easily attached or detached to tilt the speakers slightly upward. Each speaker is clearly marked where it should go in terms of position at the back, and it is also referenced in the “Quick Connect Card” that comes with the package. The wires are attached to the satellite speakers, and all you have to do is to hook them up. On a side note, the wires are long enough so that you don’t have to worry about buying extension cables. The connection is just a snap as the plugs are all color coded and each plug has a different shape. It is a very thoughtful design, and it should make the installation easy for just about anyone.

There are 3 knobs and a button on the front right speaker: center, surround, volume, and power the power button. The center knob controls the volume of the center channel, which is used for voice and dialogue under supported format; the surround knob controls the variation of the left and right speakers; and then there’s a volume knob. There is also a headphone jack which is great for us who need to keep our music or gaming in privacy at night. Aside from all the convenient controls, all the speakers except the sub woofer are magnetically shielded, which means they would not damage your magnetic tapes, or distort your monitor.

It is quite difficult to give you a true feeling of how the speakers sound if you don’t listen to them, and stats don’t always justify sound quality. Anyway, I went on and tested the speakers with CD music, computer games, and DVD movie playback. It took me a little while to finally set my system to recognize the fact that I have a 6 speaker system hooked up to it, but then the end result was just sweet. The speakers have clean, crisp highs; as well as rich, full base. I turned to volume to about 75% and maxed the output from my sound card without any distortion, and it’s already loud enough to worry about getting complaints from my neighbors. It’s quite amazing how rich and loud these acoustic speakers deliver despite their size.