5.1 Speaker Systems

Bring the movie theatre to your home as we test eight 5.1 speaker sets and separate the sound choices from the audio bullies

Altec Lansing 251

Manufacturer:	Price:
Altec Lansing	£90 inc VAT
Reviewer:	Review Date:
	Dec 2003

	OVERALL RATING

SCORE

4/6

Verdict: Limited features, but respectable quality at this price

The Altec Lansing 251s fit comfortably into the middle of this test in several ways. At £90 they won't break the bank and they're far from the worst we heard. The five satellites each boast 3in drivers and 7W RMS power. This doesn't sound like much but it proved loud enough in the constraints of our test room.

It's obvious where costs have been cut - the plastic casing and metal grilles look much cheaper than on the 5100s. A cast alloy base slots into each speaker but they can also be wall mounted. The captive cables were long enough to reach the corners of the room and the differently shaped connectors mean it's impossible to plug speakers into the wrong output.

There's no remote control - the right front satellite houses a power button and a master volume control plus centre and surround volume adjustments. There's also a useful 3.5mm jack socket on the front, so you can connect a pair of headphones without having to unplug the speakers from your sound card first.

The 25W RMS 5.25in subwoofer shares the satellites' design but has a wooden enclosure. Unfortunately, because the only level control for the sub is on the rear of the box, adjusting it is a pain. Unlike the 5100s, there's no auxiliary input, so you can't easily connect another source. To make matters worse, the six-channel input is a captive cable that spawns three 3.5mm jack plugs.

Thankfully, the 251s didn't let us down when it came to sound quality. The frequency response of the satellites was much flatter than the 5100s and allowed voices and instruments to shine through. We particularly noticed this with piano and saxophone as well as classical tracks. Bass response wasn't as crisp as the 5100s but outshone the Creative P580s. The sub impressed us in the Podrace sequence from Star Wars, with tight crashes and explosions. In music, we had to turn the level down as the sub tended to dominate the satellites.

Ultimately, if you only want to use your speakers with your PC, and have a limited budget, the 251s are a sensible choice. But for flexibility, they're not the best.

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