I’ve been looking for some new Speakers to hook up to my Mac mini for a while now. Trouble is, finding some at the right price, that fit in with the Alu look, but also sound great, is no mean feat. In the end I was looking too hard, what I needed was right in front of my nose. My good friend Sam over at Fruit Bytes was already using these Altec Lansing Speakers, and promptly recommended them to me.

I looked at a few places online and couldn’t seem to find many retailers selling them. Then it dawned on me these models were over a year old! But after a bit more digging, I found that Play.com were selling them for £29.99, just the sort of price I was looking to fork out. Delivery was very speedy to be fair, usually Play take 3-5 days to deliver DVD’s etc, but I think because of the size and weight, the Speakers were sent by Parcelforce 24! I was happy.

Not too many pics to show but head over to my Flickr page to check out the unboxing process.

Waxing Lyrical

Once I got them unpacked I tried them out with my MacBook first. My brother was round at the time and he instantly said “They sound quality, how much did you pay for them?!” When I told him the price he asked me to order him a set to use with his portable DVD player. I then took them to their new resting place, in my bedroom. Once setup I immediately felt the difference over the old Apple Pro USB Speakers I had been using. Finally there was bass, and plenty of it! I found myself turning the Subwoofer down because I know I’d end up with complaints from the neighbours. I have a couple of Movies in my iTunes collection that are very low volume. With my old Apple Speakers, this left the film unwatchable as I just couldn’t hear the speech properly. Now with my shiny new Altec Lansings’ I can just crank them up and enjoy.

Downsides

The fact they don’t come with a remote control might be a problem for some, but not for me. I set them up so I have a good range of volume adjustment using the Apple remote, works great. Another thing that annoyed me a bit when I was first testing them out, these things don’t like standing up! They were constantly falling over as I was adjusting the wire placement. Thankfully though, once left alone, they manage to keep their composure.

Conclusion

Overall I’m very pleased with these Speakers. I bought them on a reccomendation, when historically I prefer to hear my Speakers in the flesh. Gladly though, they covered all my initial requirements. If anyone fancies a pair of Apple Pro USB Speakers then gimme an email before they go on eBay!