Altec Lansing FX4021 2.1 Speakers

Reviews: Multimedia

Author:
Editor:
Sponsor:
Published:

Max Slowik
Brian
Altec Lansing
Feb. 22, 2007

<< Previous

Next >>

Setup

The setup instructions are pictorial, so the setup is too simple for words. Not having to deal with a power supply is very nice. All said and done it may take more time to move any furniture in front of the outlets than it does to wire the actual speakers.

The included 3.5mm cable might be a little short for some configurations at only 5'; the wired remote actually has a longer reach, oddly enough.

Features

The FX4021 includes a couple of questionable mixing features built into the amp that are controllable from the remotes: sfx and loudness. Loudness ups the power to the low end, which ends up bleeding into the mid-range, and makes things loud, if a little mushy. sfx seemingly does more, and succeeds at making the stereo sound a little more surround-y, but by warping the sound and adding echo. It's best to leave these both off; they just add too much noise.

Sound Quality

The FX4021s were tested using a PC with Creative's Soundblaster X-Fi Music card and with the PC's volume at low to minimize over-amplification.

The speakers were first tested with a recording of digitally-produced tones starting at twenty hertz and moving linearly up the scale to 20,000 hertz.

20-30hz	inaudible
40hz	audible, weak
50-100hz	strong
125-400hz	middling
800-13,000hz	strong
14,000-17,000hz	tinny
18,000hz	audible, just barely, still tinny
20,000hz	inaudible

There is an immediate drop after 125hz where the speakers just don't make as much sound as the low and high ranges. As suspected, they're weak in the mid-range.

Following with a music test, the weak middle became particularly apparent, along with a few other concessions. For fidelity, I ran a course of tunes:

First, I listened to selections from Tool's Lateralus and Anne-Sophie Mutter's performances of Mozart's violin concertos. These feature a lot of precise, rapid notes which, together, span the whole audio spectrum. They both illuminated the weak mid-range, as at good volumes the many sounds come out muddy and mashed together.

Rage Against the Machine's Evil Empire can't be played softly. And unfortunately, loud can't be played on these speakers; the deliberate distortion in "Down Rodeo" just would not reproduce without a lot of vibration that Rage never intended.

Finally, the pure vocals of the Real Group's a cappella was heartbreaking at the high end, as the soprano harmony was minced by the satellite's small drivers which are just not capable of making a lot of sound. In stark contrast, the bass vocals were played expertly, very cleanly.

For gaming sound, several Titans were destroyed while testing the speakers during a session of Battlefield: 2142, and again the boys of the Seventh Armored division forced the Desert Fox into retreat after a quick re-tread of Call of Duty 2, and the whole process was riveting. Games don't seem to use much of the mid-range, and these speakers do fine without it. If anything, the sheer mass of the bass made up for the missing middle with pure explosive enthusiasm.

In all cases it's obvious that the small drivers and the subwoofer cannot deliver good mid-range sound put together.

<< Previous

Page 3 of 4

Next >>

Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: Taking a Closer Look
Page 3: Setup, Features & Sound Quality
Page 4: Conclusion

Subscribe to Speakers [more info]

Add Comment

0 User Comments

Add Comment

To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields.