Altec Lansing VS3151 Speaker Review

[LOC Veteran]

Posted another review for my site, and here it is for you guys to enjoy:

These days when choosing a soundcard you have to look at all sorts of different specs and features and technobabble. 7.1 this, super digital surround that, 700 db output this, etc etc. While these are all important features, a good speaker set is just as critical to get the full experience from any good soundcard or headset.

As I stated in my previous review, many games now have options for all sorts of 5.1 or surround sound output but a decent speaker set is the key to great sound. Altec Lansing has been around since the 1920's. They are well known for their PC audio systems, and this review will be on their VS3151 5.1 Surround Sound speaker set, another fairly affordable but great sounding product.

First the VS3151 specifications:

• Impressive Power ? Thrusts you into the gaming and movie experience!
  
• Powerful Bass... Feel shakes and quakes from the front-firing, long-throw subwoofer housed in a ported,wooden cabinet.
  
• Dual-Mode Selector... Each listening mode is specially engineered to provide outstanding performance.
  
• Use the 6-Channel Surround Mode with a 6-channel sound card to thrill your senses with the vivid, panoramic experience of true surround sound.
  
• Use the 2/4 Channel Mode to enjoy immersive six-speaker sound from any source ? CD players, MP3 players, or your standard 2 or 4-channel sound card.
  
• Pivoting Center Channel and wall-mountable speakers? For a convenient and flexible installation.
  
• Distinctive Styling? Looks great next to your flat panel monitor or anywhere in your home.
  
• Feature-loaded Control Pod...
  
• Power and volume (master, center, surround, and subwoofer)
  
• Headphone jack
  
• Built-in RCA inputs for your TV or video gaming system
  
• Shielded Satellites... For use near video monitors.
  

So there are the features in a nutshell. Let's discuss the speakers now. The subwoofer is a wonderfully small yet powerfully built device. It's not to small, but it's not incredibly large either. It's in an all black finish and looks great and is fairly heavy. Sound wise, it's top notch. Bass is very deep, though not quite as deep as I would have liked. The satellites are fairly well constructed, though they are prone to tipping over. They sound great though, and the center speaker really works well in this set. All of the satellites have great response range and nary a distortion was heard even at high volume levels.

Setting these speakers up was fairly easy, it took me about 10 minutes altogether. While there are more connections to make and more wires to worry about, it isn't all that difficult. I plugged the speakers into the back of my soundcard, and then all the outputs. The control pod (which is a new feature for Altec Lansing speakers from what I've read) is really just a larger version of a remote control, with controls for the volume, center speaker, subwoofer and surround sound. On the back of the control pod are the RCA inputs for a game console or TV, and a sliding switch to enable either 2/4 or 6 channel sound. You must have a 6 channel compliant soundcard to use the 6 channel surround sound experience. I'd also like to mention that the satellite speakers all have wall mountable holes drilled into the backs. Certainly a nice touch in my opinion if you don't have room around your computer desk. The back of the subwoofer has all the plugs color coded, so it's very easy to finish setting the system up. It's about as close to ?plug and play? as you can get.

Now for the testing:

Test system consisted of the following:

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ ?Barton? ~ 3200+

1 GB PC3200 DDR

eVGA Geforce 6800GT

M-Audio Revolution 7.1

Testing consisted of the following:

Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G Minor

U2 ? With or Without You

Matchbox 20 ? Unwell

The Platters ? Smoke gets in your eyes

Unreal Tournament 2004

Call of Duty

Doom 3

After listening to some U2 on these speakers, I can say one thing: music sound awesome! The bass while good, isn't all that strong. Apparently Altec Lansing usually shys away from strong bass possibly to keep cost down. But the bass still performs very well. In the Matchbox 20 and U2 track I could hear practically every single chord being played, and in the ?oldies? track by The Platters it became a brand new experience literally, hearing it on these speakers. Volume response was terrific to say the least. I did start to hear some distortion at higher levels however. It doesn't detract from the whole, but you may want to take that into consideration before purchase. Overall though, considering the price point which is about $99US, the speakers perform very well indeed.

In gaming the speakers performed extremely well. In Unreal Tournament 2004, in the Invasion gamemode, it's very odd hearing monsters from all directions coming at you and makes it really fun especially late at night with the lights off. The same can be said about Doom 3, hearing voices coming at you from the proper source and direction is scary to say the least, and a bit disorienting also. Call of Duty performance was top notch and sounded great. And I must admit, hearing the battlefield on these speakers was very, very intense. If you game, you will enjoy these speakers for gaming.

Once again, I had a terrific time evaluating these speakers. They are hard to fault for much of anything. If you are looking for a fairly cheap 5.1 surround sound speaker setup, look no further than the Altec Lansing VS3151 set. At $99 retail, they are fairly cheap and worth every penny, theyPros:recommended.

Pros:

• Great Price
  
• Fairly easy to put together
  
• They look great
  
• Terrific sound and response for the price
  
• GreatCons:#33;
  

Cons:

• Distortion at higher volume levels
  
• Satellites were prone to tipping overall
  

There you go guys, hope you like it.

Again the review is from Nvmax and no pictures due to the fact I don't have a digital camera.

Edited August 22, 2004 by LOC

[Rahul]

thnx dude , im gonna buy me one of these , just planing to import em to mah place

[LOC Veteran]

Yeah I don't think you'll be disappointed with them Rahul, I've listened to them with onboard sound and with the M-Audio card and they sound great with either of them. You'll like em :)

[QuarterSwede]

Pictures would be nice even if they were hotlinked from Altecs site (I see that you don't have a camera).

[LOC Veteran]

Added smallish picture :)