Customer Reviews

Altec Lansing VS4121 Powered Audio System (Black)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The speakers are quite nice looking. The left and right speakers connect independently to the subwoofer, thus giving you more flexibility to put the speakers far away from each other. People have said that the highs are not crisp and that this set has too much bass. That is true, which is the reason for the 4 stars. However, if you place the bass knob to the 9 o'clock possition and the trebble to the 3 o'clock possition, the system performs quite well. Some adjusting to the computer's equilizer is required, but the result is good sound. Amazon had this set cheaper than anywhere else when I purchased them, so good going there Amazon.

Was a little hesitant after reading the reviews on this product. However, these are great looking speakers so I decided to take a chance anyways. Boy, I was surprised. Point blank, these are good speakers "by computer speaker standards", and this is coming from an audiophile. One should always keep in mind that a computer speaker system has its limits. If you want earth shattering bass, then this is definitely not the right product for you and in fact, in that case, you should not even be considering a computer speaker in the first place. I will not get into a discussion on midrange and stuff because that discussion is totally inappropriate here.........we are discussing a computer speaker system lets not forget that. The default bass setting is quite high as the other reviewers have mentioned. However, you can adjust the bass/treble settings to your liking. I don't listen to anything in max. volume, so I can't say how it performs at that level, but once you adjust the bass/treble and keep it at a reasonable volume, this baby sounds reeeeally nice. I did compare this with the BOSE 2.1 system. The only difference I noticed was the price premium for BOSE......both sounded pretty much the same to me. Maybe the BOSE is a tad better but that difference is not audible .......and definitely not worthy of such a horrendous price premium ($200 +!!!) The main reason for this purchase is to watch Netflix movies online, i.e., until I buy a Netflix ready device. The sound is great. Played some music just to test the sound (I don't normally listen to music on my computer) and was satisfied with that as well. The ON/OFF switch is not located at the back of the sub., which is a plus. Why the 4 rating instead of 5? (i) The plastic material could have been better .......piano black or something close to that would have been great. This is not a cheap speaker system by any means (any comp. speaker system >$50 is expensive) so Altec Lansing could have used better plastic. The sub. however is made of wood and looks ok. (ii) Metallic grille not cloth grille. Bottomline, reasonably good value for the price. I'm happy.

These are not bad so long as you keep in mind that they cost only fifty bucks and Altec-Lansing labels them "gaming speakers," not high fidelity music.

Try this: The two side speakers are designed to direct down onto the table. But I've found they sound distinctly better if you tilt them up a bit with little blocks of wood.

I don't know what i excepted for 85.00.The wire from the remote speaker is built into it and came up a little short for me so i had to buy some extension to make it work where i wanted it.Also the Base is not protected magnectly so put it at least two feet away like the manual directs you to.All in all for what i payed it's not bad.One more thing,i received no quick connect card with the guide.

Overall a good sounding set of speakers. I find I have the volume lower (as to not disturb roommates in the rest of the house), but I can still hear my music better than with my old 2.1 setup.

I agree with the other reviewers, the bass needs to be turned down quite a bit for the speakers to sound balanced. I also find that the bass doesn't sound that crisp when the volume or bass is turned up. It sounds like I'm getting quite a bit of reverberation in the sub.

These don't have an auto off either. When there's no signal, the amp picks up electrical and produces a soft 60Hz hum. I don't know how standard a standby mode is, but I liked that my old speakers would put themselves into standby when there was no signal for a minute or two.

Overall a these sound great at low to moderate levels (what 99% of my listening is). They will go quite loud for their size, but then you start hearing the reverberation in the sub.

I am a big fan of Altec Lansing and have had a few small speaker systems that I've been more than pleased with from them. This particular set seemed very well desinged and layed out on paper. Once I tried them, the sound was decent but not necessarily what I've come to expect from Altec Lansing. The bass was the weakest aspect being that the middle setting for bass was so loud as to muddle the sound substantially. The most natural sound setting was to crank the bass control down to its minimum setting. However, once this is done, the bass reduction filter produced a noticeably constant noise that would only go away if turned back to middle setting. Aside from that, the sound of the desktop speakers were decent but not spectacular. The overall sound was fairly natural but the highs seemed mildly distorted or harmonically resonant, with plenty of high frequency response but ultimately colored. Hopefully this review is helpful to those looking for this type of speaker system for their computer or portable audio components.

Overall, the system is great. I have it hooked up to my laptop and it really makes music and movies come alive. The sub woofer has plenty of power for a set of computer speakers and the mid-range speakers really disperse the sound evenly (just like the product info said).

The only con is a quiet hum from the sub woofer that is only noticeable when no sound is actually being played. Other than that minor complaint, these speakers are a great addition to your office and will help to make the most your computer's multimedia abilities.

I bought these and was very disappointed with everything. There's a low hum from both the speakers and the sub. The sound is very hollow and overly heavy on the bass. I tried different configurations as well as several locations of the sub which only help very slightly. At low to mid volumes this package really is sub par and the bass drowns out most of the sound. Only if you crank it up will it come more to life, but even then the mid to high sound is very hollow. My girlfriend has a pair of cheap logitech speakers that sound much better.

I'm returning this tomorrow, mainly because of the constant hum. At this price, there's better options out there. Don't buy.

First off, you should never buy speakers without hearing them, so go to the store and try these out, then come back here and buy them at a cheaper price.

That said, his set of speakers gives you way more than you're paying for.

In the package you get two midrange down-firing speakers that are isolated from surfaces with rubber feet, two tweeters and a subwoofer that could be considered "massive" by computer speaker standards.

The range, definition and frequency response is incredible. Plus the bass output of the subwoofer beats anything else I've tried in their price range.

The subwoofer was able to stand up to the most demanding ultra low frequency bass tests and kept on giving.

The sound output of these speakers is adequate to fill a living room and their sound is surprisingly immersing for a set of 2.1 speakers. Sound is well balanced throughout.

First a bit about myself, I have a keen ear for good quality audio speakers and love listening to many types of music from classical to hits currently on the radio from hip/hop to reggae to rock ect. I bought these speakers for my work room which is about 15x20 feet.

Second, the quality of highs and mids are superb with accurate reproduction as well as clarity of all the treble (bells and whistles). Vocals are accurate. Bass is superb (this is coming from someone who had two 12 inch 500 watt inch sub woofers back in the day). I never go pass the 50% mark on the bass control. All three spectrum (highs, mids and lows) are maintained even in loud volumes. I sometimes read listening to light music on low volume and it is soothing in low volumes as well.

Now a bit more about the volume, my home is 2 floors, 3000 square feet and the kitchen is on the opposite side (open layout) and the music is still enjoyable in the kitchen playing from my work room. You can even make out the vocals somewhat clearly and feel the bass on second floor. Having said that, this system may be overkill if you live in an apartment and have neighbors above/below/side. It will probably annoy them in which case I would go with something cheaper. However if you have a private house, spend the extra $10-$30 than the other speakers out there to get this one.