Best 2.1 speakers... ever.

Deth.Addict · 06-28-2009, 10:47 PM

I never knew xoxide sold these. You will see them on the banner of the main site, like I did... I already have them, and nobody paid or asked me to say... THEY ARE AWESOME.

http://www.xoxide.com/altec-lansing-...ocation=rotban

You can hear the mids from ANYWHERE. They reflect off the surface on which they are placed by using feet which both elevate the drivers from the desk and compliment their waveform... it creates a cone of sound that actually fills your room with real-world sound waves instead of pointing them at you like lasers you must arrange.

I always rave about them. I even did in the "MY SYSTEM" link down in my sig. Still can't stop, I guess. If they release a 5.1 variety I will become temporarily incontinent. :-D

Edit: forgot the one problem. The subwoofer isn't shielded. It needs to be about 18"-24" (closer to 12 in my experience) from EMI sensitive devices, except the other speakers which are shielded from it. You can't stick the woofer by your tower, monitor, or external HDD. It might also slow down a really, really fast GbE network with crosstalk. Gotta love EMI.

sui_winbolo · 06-28-2009, 11:51 PM

That thing puts out that much EMI to cause crosstalk?

What were they thinking when they didn't shield it lol.

Looks interesting to say the least.

Deth.Addict · 06-29-2009, 12:06 AM

Oh, that was theoretical on my part. I haven't observed any network performance loss, I just assumed it was doing that. I didn't know it was that negligible. :o

And you're probably right because my wired router is 4" away from it, wall-mounted for slickness. :-)

sui_winbolo · 06-29-2009, 01:41 AM

I'm not sure if a driver that size would put at enough EMI to cause crosstalk. I would check other possible causes first. But it is possible.

Easiest way to pinpoint if that is a cause for a network performance decrease is don't have your router 4" away from a unshielded driver!

Lol

Deth.Addict · 06-29-2009, 09:38 AM

Well my internet is 32kb/s and the LAN is gigabit so even if there was crosstalk going on in my LAN I would never notice. I was being, how you say... paranoid.
Edit: Oh, I just noticed you were a network engineer! ^_^ I will take your word for it (that it would have to be remarkably poor to cause that.)

Zenshi · 06-29-2009, 04:43 PM

They are nice speakers for PC speakers. My wife has them on her system.

Staples had them on sale during Black Friday for $39 and with a $20 MIR (which we actually got...yay), it becaome $19, which was a major steal for such speakers.

However, my feeling about the mids are the opposite. If they are weak in any area, I think it's the mids. Highs are ok, Lows are ok but the mids are its weakest link. Makes the sound a bit unbalanced. JMO though.

Eventually, if I get a receiver and a set of bookshelf speakers for my rig, I will give her the Yamaha PC speakers and get her a decent sub (something like the X-sub). The sound from this setup on my rig blows the Altecs out of the water, but of course this setup is way more expensive than $19.

Edit: Oh yeah, as a comparison, I have listened to Klipsch Promedia 2.1s. I would have to favor the Klipsch over the Altecs due to the better balance of mids and not an overly heavy bass. However, the Promedias are twice the price of the Altecs. The Bose 2.1 actually sound decent relatively speaking (shiver, yes I know its B.O.S.E. (Better Off with Something Else) but at their outrageous price, its not even worth considering IMO. I don't think they sound any better than the Klipsch speakers, if that.

One of the better deals I hear is the Swan M10 speakers. If you are lucky you can get em for like $80 from PartsExpress. They have a separate woofer and not a sub so the woofer needs to sit on your desk but I hear it blows the doors off of most PC speakers. The only thing I hear is that they are also not shielded.

RcRon7 · 06-29-2009, 05:54 PM

Boston Acoustics, I have a set from almost 11 years ago and they still blow away any 2.1 I have heard to date. I still have them, they still rock, and no EMI issues at all.

edit, they also support digital output!

Deth.Addict · 07-01-2009, 08:08 PM

Wow, digital out 11 years ago must have been nice to have.

I do find that the speakers are strongest when they have a lot of desk space, I give each one a couple square feet on either side of the monitor for the downward drivers and I find it more convincing that way.