XBox Solution

There is nothing that stands out more in an excellent video game than exceptional graphics, unless of course those same graphics are accompanied by dull and dreary audio support, in which case the audio then takes center stage (not in a good way either). Of course, the reverse of this case could very easily be made by anyone in this era of gaming, where more and more developers are pushing the limits on audio fidelity as much as they are pushing the limits visually. Games designed to take full advantage of the Xbox hardware can truly stand out, and if you have the right configuration, your experience can be greatly enhanced.Today’s gamers are increasingly demanding better sound, and the games of the future will no doubt continue the upward trend in sound quality. To really get the experience you deserve a surround sound capable system will be a must have purchase. Altec Lansing Corporation has been delivering high quality sound for many years, since 1941 to be exact, when they produced the very first Altec power amplifier Model 142B.

In the decades to follow Altec Lansing built a reputation of leadership and quality. Their latest 5.1 surround system, Altec Lansing 5100 delivers high and mid range fidelity, pounding bass, and more than enough power for your battles in MechAssault, Halo, or Splinter Cell. The Altec Lansing 5100 aren’t audiophile speakers (high-end), but for the price you’ll be hard set to find a better value too easily.

Setup / Ease of Use

Now this may seem like a ‘no-brainer‘ to many readers, but it’s extremely important that a good audio system not only sets up painlessly, but also has a user friendly control. The Altec Lansing 5100 speakers come with an easy setup card that has a few diagrams to help you through in addition to having all of the cables color coded. If you can press the power button on your Xbox, you should have no problem setting this system up.

The Altec Lansing 5100 has five satellites, a sub woofer, and a wired controller. Each of the five satellite speakers (center, right front/rear, left front/rear) has two 1-inch neodymium micro drivers that are arranged on a silver metallic pedestal. The two left and two right speakers sit upright, while the center is in a horizontal position, making a nice stable platform. The sub woofer is encased in a wooden box and contains two 4″ drivers arranged vertically so the footprint is minimized. The whole setup is quite visually appealing and unobtrusive. The wired controller rests in a sleek metal cradle and can be positioned conveniently given the 9.5′ length of the controller cable (the satellites also have 9.5′ cables).

The controller plays a vital part in the use of the system. The controller features a power button, volume dial, mode selector, and a headphone jack, for those times when the rest of the household just isn’t in the mood to hear you jammin’ to Ace of Spades while skating around in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The volume dial, doubles as an adjustment meter, allowing you to easily change the bass or tremble levels, depending on what function is selected. The modes available on the 5100 system are 2x Stereo (which basically sends the stereo signal to all of the satellites and the sub woofer), 4.1 (here you get front and rear support, while center and sub combine the two), and 5.1 (every satellite has it’s own channel, the whole point in surround sound). For the sake of being technical, a 5.1 surround enabled device is required to enjoy full 5.1 surround sound, however 2 channel and 4 channel can be simulated into surround quality using the center channel mix feature on the rear of the sub woofer.

Sound Quality

Now don’t worry, we’re not going to bore you with speaker output specifications in terms of Amps and Ohms and Wattage (we have included the details below if you’re interested), but we will point out a couple of obvious numbers that are very important. The first thing to consider is the Output Power. The 5100 speakers have a Peak Output of 100 Watts, this is the number that you hear when systems brag about being able to produce 400 or 500 watts of power. Noteworthy only to bring light the the fact that this number is virtually useless since the quality at those levels has so much distortion (on any system at it’s peak output) that it would not be worth listening to. The more important number is Continuous Output of 73 Watts, basically what the speakers can deliver without sacrificing quality.

Altec Lansing has always been very straight-forward in their advertising claims, so seeing a power claim of 73 Watts continuous on the box is a reliable estimation of the systems’ power. Incidentally, in case you have no idea what the difference between 73 Watts and 500 Watts is, it doesn’t really matter, 73 Watts is more than enough for your gaming needs and chances are that your neighbors won’t be inviting you over for lunch if you play too late in the evening! This little system delivers a real bang, with a deep bass and soaring highs. Mid range sounds are also clear and you never get that ‘fuzzy‘ noise you may come to expect if you’re accustomed to gaming with sound from the television. We did notice that some of the bass ranges seemed to blend together on certain audio files (during our PC tests), this however was not an issue while testing the Xbox.

You can finally hear every detail, every crackle from the leaves you step on as Sam Fisher, every scream in Hunter the Reckoning, and every blazing weapon effect in Panzer Dragoon Orta. The system is also geared perfectly for watching DVD movies on the Xbox and you won’t miss a beat regardless of how fast the tempo and pacing changes.

Value

The Altec Lansing 5100 Speaker System has a suggested retail of $179.00, a sound investment (no pun intended) that’s well worth every penny. We found the 5100 for around $125.00. For the performance and stability you get out of the 5100’s you won’t regret the purchase. The fact that you can have inputs from various sources increases the value. You can connect devices such as DVD players, consoles, MP3 players, etc. The included warranty covers general problems, parts, and labor for one year. If you are an audio nut, and will settle for nothing but the best, then you may want to look elsewhere, possibly higher up in Altec Lansing’s arsenal of equipment, but it’ll cost you.

Additional Comments

All in all, we were extremely impressed by the performance of the system, and it operated really well when hooked up to an Xbox console. More impressive was the performance via PC when routed through our 5.1 enabled sound card, allowing the the speakers to truly shine, and only showing weaknesses in rare circumstances. On a side note, I would like to state my disappointment in the quick setup card. The console diagram has a Playstation 2 image shown instead of an Xbox, we’ve alerted Altec Lansing of this oversight and recommended they replace it with an Xbox image.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 8.9/10 [Not an Average]