Altec Lansing VS2421 2.1 Music and Gaming Stereo Speaker System with Microphone (Black) Reviews

• Impressive

  
  By AC74ZHCKBTZJQ on 2007-10-03
  I'm an audiophile, I listen critically to every nuance of music and enjoy faithful reproduction of it. That said, I'm quite surprised that these speakers actually create a decent image in a nearfield setup. Voices are palpable and details are presented nicely.
  
  I've certainly heard worse for 10 times the price, that's for sure. The sub is rich and full and easily overpowers the satellites. It's not overly boomy, maybe a little 'wooly' but nice. Just keep it turned down to a third or fourth on the sub's volume control.
  
  I'm thinking with some break-in the sats may dig a little deeper and the whole system will integrate a little better. My only criticism at this point is there is a bit of a mid-bass dip... or a hole between the midrange and deep bass... And again, I'm hoping this fills in as the speakers move more freely after more use.
  
  I'm very impressed with this little system at any volume. It gets plenty loud for my office and you can really rock out if you want to... And it sounds good at low volume too! I'd suggest a simple placement, with satellites left and right of the monitor and do whatever you have room to do with the sub.
  
  This system comes with a volume control that includes main volume, treble control, and a microphone in one easy-to-use unit. The main volume knob is nice and big with a light so it's easy to find and adjust quickly if the phone rings.
  
  I haven't tried the microphone yet but my system did not come with the microphone cable (nor did it come with any instructions). You'll need a male-to-male headphone-type cable to connect the main controller and mic to the PC.
  
  Great system for the price, highly recommended.
  
  

• good sound, sleek, if a bit flawed.

  
  By A3500UVGFOC9PA on 2008-01-20
  I was at F--'- E---------- today, in the market for a speaker system costing $50 or less. No, I am not a cheapo when it comes to sound, but I bought them for use in the datacenter noc where I work, to replace the dinky little 2.0 speakers someone apparently thought would be an improvement over the in-monitor speakers (they really aren't). So, I didn't want to spend much, in the event that they became damaged or, God forbid, stolen, but I wanted something far better sounding than what we had.
  
  I have them wired up at my computer and am comparing against the Creative T3000 2.1's I bought for my parent's computer, which sits against the wall adjacent to mine. Stiff competition, considering how highly rated the T3000 model is, and in the same price range.
  
  I'm playing the music via VibeStreamer and using the on-board sound unit of each computer (no fancy Soundblaster).
  
  Unless the sub is packed underneath your desk close to a wall, you're going to want to turn it all the way up in order to get a decent amount of bass. Actually, I prefer NOT to situate the sub in this manner, as the sound reflections off the underside of the wood desk add a slight reverb creating the "boomy" effect. Usually, one wants a nice, tight bass. To this effect, I keep the subs out from under desks, with their drivers pointed away from the near walls.
  
  
  First, the Altec Lansing speakers:
  
  The natural dip in the mid-range is actually preferable to me, as I love more emphasis to the punch of the lows. Granted, this doesn't lend itself so well to certain types of music, most probably classical, but as long as you can find an EQ to adjust (Winamp, Itunes, WMP), you can compensate the midrange as needed.
  
  Now, Hardcore Techno sounds very good (those synths will always come through, regardless of the mid-range dip, anyway). The concern with techno music is that the sub can handle those hard and frequent low kicks without distorting or the sound "blowing out". At moderately high volumes, I can happily say that the sub seems just fine, and only punches harder.
  
  Ah screw it. You know what? Let me just cut to the chase. The Creatives are probably twice as good, to be honest. The sound is brighter, fuller, and the sub easily dishes out fuller, punchier bass than the Altec is ever going to. I have the Altec sub all the way up and it's not as impressive as the Creative sub turned only about halfway up. I mean, just search up T3000 here on Amazon and read the bloody reviews. Nearly every one is a rave. Besides, the Altec's DO produce occasional static sounds picked up from other electronics, which is somewhat annoying. You'll never hear that from the Creatives though, which I've had around for a few years now.
  
  Bottom line, these Altec speakers sound "good" for the money, despite a fairly flat tone and somewhat diminished mids. You are very likely to experience occasional static blipping and I'm betting you can find better speakers for about the same or less money, means that there's a decent chance I'll return these and give the X-230's a test drive. No wonder it was an "open box buy". -_-
  
  Cheers
  
  
  
  

• Good sound - but some issues

  
  By A2F4CCQYDU9R1L on 2008-01-17
  Very good sound for the price and size. I went to a store and did a side-by-side sound check of this system vs. the similarly priced Logitech x-230 (both have good sound for under $40). While both were decent, the Altec Lansing VS2421 was slightly more crisp and true, but the sound diff between the two is not huge and the Logitech is slightly louder at 32 Watts vs. 28 Watts RMS. The Altec Lansing has independent subwoofer and treble levels, while the Logitech only has a subwoofer level adjustment. Finally - the Altec Lansing has more input / output options from the remote (mic out, aux in for ipod, and a wired remote that you can put near your keyboard). Due to the slightly better sound and the interface advantages, I bought this system over the Logitech, but need to return it for a few reasons: 1. - this unit experiences lots of wireless interference. I should have realized this because while I was standing in front of the display wall which contained about 15 types of PC speakers all powered on - I began to hear lots of buzzing from this unit only. I had my blackberry with me, which was probably the culprit. Oddly none of the other units seemed to be reacting - just this one. 2. I planned on putting the satellite speakers alongside my monitor and placing the subwoofer next to my desk. There is about 6ft of cord length from the remote to the PC (just fine) and about 6ft of cord length from the remote to the subwoofer (also fine). This means that the subwoofer can effectively be about 12ft from the PC. The issue is that there is only about 3 - 4 feet of cord length from the satellite speakers to the subwoofer, and each must connect independently. This made it impossible for me to locate the subwoofer anywhere but directly under my desk in order to plug in the sats. This is where the big design difference comes into play between the Logitech x-230 and the Altec Lansing VS2421: The Altec Lansing has a slightly bigger subwoofer leaving less room for under the desk installation and also has a completely unprotected speaker skin which you are very likely to damage by kicking if you place it under your desk. The Logitech subwoofer has a nicely protected speaker with a strong metal mesh grate that you can kick all you want without damaging the sensitive speaker skin. Due to the unprotected sub-speaker and the RF interference - I'll be exchanging this for the Logitech. Too bad because I preferred the sound of this unit as well as the remote interface.
  
  

• A Steal At This Price Point

  
  By A2DFZEDNRMGIS9 on 2007-09-10
  I've owned multiple 2.1 pc speaker sets in the past, and none of them were all the great to me. Especially in the bass accuracy department. Most sets at this price point lose somewhere in their frequency response. Either it's the midrange, the highs, or more commonly, boomy, over-exagerrated bass/mid-bass. If that's how you like your bass, avoid these. This is the first set(again, for the price) that I've heard that actually has audible mid-bass, and decent, non-boomy hollow sounding bass. The sats are superb as well. They don't look like they'd be all that great sounding, but they are! Clean highs, near-flawless midrange, and they blend VERY well with the sub. Few 2.1 systems seem to be able to even do that correctly. And yes, they go plenty loud, more than loud enough to annoy neighbors if your're in an apartment. The volume control pod is also very nice. It has a very long, smooth sweep, and the line-in and headphone jacks are a VERY nice touch. It also has a built in mic, which I have yet to test. These handily beat out any of the 2.1 systems from Creative, Klipsch, or Logitech. If you want that sub-par movie theatre sound, look elsewhere. If you want clean, fairly accurate sound, don't hesitate to jump on these.
  
  

• Wireless Interference

  
  By A2N56P5XIKJSNU on 2007-09-29
  Great speakers for the money but plagued by wireless interference. Normally the speakers sound great and a heck of a lot better than my expensive Creative system which had extermely muddy bass. However I started hearing a low level clicking/popping sound which I traced to my Linksys wireless router. Unplug the router and the sound goes away. You do not hear the clicking sound when the music is playing, only when it's off and fairly quite. The volume control does not increase the noise level although turning the volume control can have an effect on starting or stopping the noise. My router is very close (aprox 2 feet) from the sub/amp so I'm going to relocate it farther away and hope the stops the annoyance. But the speakers when playing music are great and well worth it!
  
  
• Best bang for your buck
  By AOV4S84R1NP2F on 2007-10-14
  This speaker system is great. You may be doubting it because of its cheap price, but it really does deliver. PROS: Low distortion on high volumes, the bass is not boomy like other systems (bass is tight instead), cool look and free mic. CONS: the mic could be better and the satellite speakers could be smaller. ALL IN ALL: a great buy. I have no regrets.
  
  
• Unbearable wireless interference
  By A2XJ82O12M4NUT on 2008-01-17
  Although the sound quality is excellent, the speakers go crazy as soon as a cell phone rings within a 20 ft radius. They make a horrible sound that is unbearable to listen to and destroys any pleasure that could be enjoyed by the speakers... I returned this item
  
  
• Sound great, but unusable
  By A3DV07AVM0IM81 on 2008-02-04
  These speakers really do sound very good, but they are so vulnerable to RF interference that they're practically unusable. Expect loud buzzing if you plan to use a 2.4GHz cordless nearby, and the usual GSM interference if you have a GSM cellphone. Relocating the volume control and microphone unit helped a little, but I plan to take these back and buy something else.
  
  
• Bad Customer Service!!
  By A1RZ5YKPLAJAMH on 2008-05-15
  I bought this from Office Depot 3 weeks ago. It has a bad left speaker. So, I took it back to Office Depot and they refused to return it because their return policy is 14 days. They refused to stand behind the products they sell and so I was forced to turn to the manufacturer to return it. Altec Lansing told me that I'd have to pay for the shipping to return it. The shipping would be half the price of the product it's self and would take 2 hours of my time to box it up and drive to UPS etc. So:
  
  DON'T BUY THIS OR ANY ALTEC LANSING PRODUCT.
  
  AND, DON'T SHOP AT OFFICE DEPOT.
  
  
• Good speaker but too much radio interference
  By A33CX1JP3SFNU3 on 2007-11-28
  The speakers sound great with rich bass. However they suffer from radio interference. In my case I can hear a radio station no matter what volume I set them to. I tried them in several places in the house, same issue. Aluminum foil on the cord that connects the control to the subwoofer seems to help a little. Cellphone in vicinity drives these speakers crazy. Needless to say, my other Altec Lansing speaker pair (6 years old) work just fine.
  
  
• Cellphone interference
  By A2F34YV75ZNM4J on 2008-02-05
  Cellphones often interfere with speakers producing a very distinctive sequence of buzzing sounds. These speakers seem to amplify this intereference to ear-piercing levels. If I watch a movie I must turn my cell off completely. I can tell when my roommate two doors down is about to receive a call. Worthless.
  
  If you don't have a cellphone or live in the same neighborhood as someone who does, then these aren't bad at all for the money. Otherwise give them a pass. This isn't a matter of sound quality. The speakers are simply unusable as a result and you might be throwing your money way.
  
  
• Altec Speakers
  By AM04BOR4Y748K on 2008-02-13
  I bought these speakers as a gift for my son who's 21 (for his computer). Well, he ended using them when he's mixing/putting music together for his side job as a DJ. Let me just say we never expected them to sound good AND AT A GREAT PRICE. Love them - Getting some for myself!.
  
  
• Amplify cellular signal
  By A11YCWVYYPMOKU on 2008-02-25
  Looks good, sound great, but amplify cllular signals, it makes a loud scrashy sound when receiving data on blackberry or a call, is not posible use it when you whare a movil phone.
  
  
• Great Speakers
  By A3K7DMPCXLM1PD on 2008-04-25
  These speakers put out clear, rich sound, highs, lows and mids.
  Highly recommended. I bought them to play our MP3 player and
  portable CD player. They replace a bookshelf music system that
  crapped out. I could have spent over $100 for a new system,
  but for our purposes these work fine. I saved money and have
  better sound than we had.
  
  
• Great Sound for the Price
  By A2PZXXPGLXXKZU on 2008-04-27
  Very nice speakers. They provide very nice sound. Very loud and lots of nice bass. I usually just keep the volume half way and the treble and bass full blast and am very happy with the result. They dont take up much space and the added inputs are nice like the mic, mp3 player and headphones. I do wish with it came with wire to connect it to your mp3 player, but, not a really big deal. The price is great. Always happy with the altec lansing's speakers.
  
  
• DO NOT buy it
  By A3054QFDEL5QLT on 2007-08-19
  the sounds quality is not bad.
  
  but it has random noise when there is cell phone signal around the speakers.
  
  it's very bad design since it's pc speakers.
  
  
  
  
• Altec Lansing Good Speakers
  By A20SQ817IDFC2E on 2007-11-12
  My wife wanted new speakers to replace the 10 year old Altec Lansing ACS41 that came with my Gateway G6-233. She stated she wanted speakers that sounded as good as her Aiwa shelf system to go with her new Mac. She was not happy with the old Altec Lansing speakers.
  
  I researched and looked at many different brands. The controls needed to be simple for my wife, and we didn't want to spend a fortune. I was unable to listen to these in a store before purchase. I was very pleased, and more importantly my wife thinks they are great.
  
  Only down side is Bass control in not on the Control Box, but on the Sub-Woofer. Our PC now has the best sound of all our stereo systems. Obviously we don't own any high end component systems.
  
  
• Ok for the money
  By A3IKL31B0RLSCL on 2007-12-01
  Considering how little I spent, I suppose these speakers are ok, but I was hoping for better from Altec Lansing. I have another set of speakers on a different computer that look very similar, and that I paid similar money for, but sound better even though they're not a "name brand".
  
  
• Nice System
  By AHGFIQ1PQ087K on 2008-01-09
  This pair of speakers outputs a very nice sound. They present a rich and full sound. The subwoofer ouputs a powerful bass tone in which you have the ability to control how much bass you hear. The wired remote is very handy to have. You are able to control volume, and treble output. You may also connect a pair of headphones. The only down side is that if you have your cell phone with in about two meters of the speakers and you make a call, receive a call or text message, you will hear beeping sounds at a pretty high volume. You are able to cut the power from the wired remote to stop the beeps. I mean like who talks on the phone while playing music?
  
  
• Great Acoustics for a good price
  By A2932TDPSXNZXC on 2008-01-16
  I enjoy music. I have a nice pair of sony headphones that generate good bass and great high tones. I think the closest thing to that is this Altec Lansing product. the bass is very sharp and punchy- after a few minutes of fooling around with the bass and treble controls, i achieved a perfect sound(at least to me). Highly recommend these speakers- easy to setup, very compact, and sound amazing. Also , the volume knob and mic are something that very few speakers at this price offer.
  
  

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