Altec Lansing MX5021 2.1 Speaker System

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Mike McCormick
Kurtis
AltecLansing
Sep. 13, 2005

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First Impressions

The moment I picked up this package from the front door, I thought someone delivered me a concrete Gnome by mistake. Yes, this package has some weight to it, but typically with quality materials (wood vs. plastic) and magnets (AlNiCo vs. rare earth), the better materials are usually the heavier ones. So just by picking up the box, I noticed some density to this system. It was hard to say if it was concrete Gnome or a good speaker set, so I tore open the box. The box has a black finish just like the speakers and the artwork is sleek and technical. You get a real feeling of quality with this product long before you even see the speakers. Inside the box, the satellites and the subwoofer are incased with a protective chunk of styrofoam, with the cables and instruction manual on top.

Once I got the satellites free from their packaging, I grabbed a hold of the woofer. All I can say is wow. It was much heavier that I had expected. The satellites have a nice glossy finish with a pretty standard mesh screen. The sub has a flat black finish with the same type of mesh screen.

A Closer Look

Taking a closer look at the satellites, they are made out of plastic. Each one weighs about 1-2 lbs (too heavy to weigh on my little scale) and has two 3" full-range drivers and a 1" tweeter. The satellites measure at 10x5x2.5" (HxWxD). With the satellites' bases being as small as they are, it is easy to knock them over. The glossy black finish looks nice, however, the FBI would love them since they pick up fingerprints very easily. It's a good thing that Altec Lansing includes a small back dust cloth to remedy this problem.

Looking more closely at the subwoofer; its body is made from wood. It's no lightweight either, coming in at 20 pounds on my bathroom scale. Normally we'd like things to be small and lightweight, but when it comes to subwoofers large and heavy is a good thing. Housed inside the wooden box is a 6.5" long-throw subwoofer. The overall dimensions for the sub are 15.5x9x11.75" - not much smaller than my standard ATX PC case.

The controller for the treble, bass and volume is stylin'. It's a triangular shaped piece about 4"x2"x3". Conveniently located here is your headphone jack (in case you don't want to wake your mother, significant other and/or neighbor, during late night gaming) and your auxiliary input jack. Also on this controller is the infrared sensor for the remote control. The buttons have a positive click feeling to let you know that you have depressed the button in question. If you had any doubt as to whether you pressed a button, a blue LED will confirm your depression. The control dial turns just as nicely as a car stereo knob. It has a slight clicking sensation about every 5 degrees as well, again similar to the feel of a car stereo. Associated with the controller knob are five blue LEDs to give you an indication of the level of the current setting.

The remote control is a tiny little guy about .5x3x.25". The remote has 5 buttons: Volume Up and Down, Treble, Bass, and Standby. As if large remotes weren't good enough at hide-n-seek, this one is a real pro, we're talking Major League HnS. The buttons also have a decent positive click to them, similar to a TI-85 calculator. (Kurtis' Note: Well that was a random reference. Leave it to Mike to mention a calculator in a speaker review.)

The cables are the ordinary, color-coded type, which helps dummies like myself with setup.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions / A Closer Look
Page 3: Setup / Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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4 User Comments

1 - Posted by Frosty on September 13, 2005 - 4:46 pm

ooo sweet my bro is looking for new speakers i will tell him about these, all he buys is altec lansing....

2 - Posted by mike on September 13, 2005 - 4:56 pm

we will be rocking our house party with these bad boys this weekend. You may want to base the value of these by with the number neighbors that we piss off.

3 - Posted by Frosty on September 13, 2005 - 5:54 pm

ahhahaha, sadly these speakers are out of my bros price range, even though they are kinda cheap for there quality....i might buy them for him as a gift...

4 - Posted by Bowler27 on November 25, 2007 - 3:48 pm

Does anyone know the cable length to the two satelite speakers please.

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