nad_masters's Full Review: Virgin Electronics Boomtube EX 2 Speakers
I took one look at the Altec Lansing 2100 2.1 speakers, and that was the thought that went thru my mind. Sexy speakers? They look like they would match with today's high-tech color scheme of black and silver ... or even those LCD displays (that can be had with black too). It's an awesome match. Take the fact that the subwoofer is not magnetically shielded, and you'll see why you'd want it by an LCD rather than a CRT monitor.
Every component seems hefty, thanks to it's metalic base and heavy dual-driver woofers. Even the sattalite's dual drivers are metalic! The wired remote thoughtfully comes with a metal stand for it to sit upon. It's a unique look... even more unique than those new-fangled flat speakers. But do they sound as inviting as they look?
Once set up, the big ugly comes out to bite you... in the ears. I was still surprised and shocked at how wrong my initial expectations were. Since the sattilite drivers were small and metalic, I was expecting tiny metallic tweeter-like sound. How wrong I was! Instead of what I expected, I received NO HIGHS AT ALL! The mid frequencies seemed like the only freqency to come out of these drivers, and at the same note, sounded like they were being reverberating from a hollow case (like those cheap $5.00 speakers you buy from MicroCenter - the ones that doesn't need an AC adaptor, but included anyways to be considered "amplified").
I suddenly felt cheated by the heavyness of the entire unit: it's only the base that are metalic. Most of the speaker (the actual case of the speakers) is plastic. Even the remote is, as well. That's understandable, however. But from a $99 speaker, I was hoping for more ... especially for a 2.1 set (since there are 5.1s out there that cost just as much - Creative Labs Inspire 5300 5.1).
The bass was adaquate, if not exessive. It was a poor match for the satts, and would have been a better compliment for better satts. That's too bad, because the subwoofer was very good at reproducing bass at a moderate level volume. High volunes tend to distort the bass (as well as the satts).
In all, if you just want a speaker set to match your LCD display, or you very modern-looking desktop decor, this is the speaker set to get. You must, however, keep the volume at a comfortable level to not get any distortion. But not many people fall into this catagory (I don't, for sure), so I cannot recommend these speakers.
Compact, 3-piece speaker system Includes two thin satellites plus dual subwoofer 50 watts total, 26 watts RMS power Frequency response of 40 Hz to 20 ...More at Amazon Marketplace
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