Altec Lansing Expressionist Ultra PC Speakers

There will be a day, we assume, when the desktop PC will be the center of all entertainment. It will act as the source of files, and also the medium of display and performance. Thus for the audio output part of it, we have brands like the popular Altec Lansing strutting their stuff and releasing bigger and badder music systems, that look and feel far from a puny 2.1 PC system, and more like a full fledged Home system that you might spot in a swanky futuristically designed living room. The current model we have for review is testimony to such a trend, it’s called the Expressionist Ultra and it looks slick.

Design and features
The system conforms to the 2.1 status, thus including 2 satellites, and a subwoofer of leviathan proportions. It's one of the biggest subs we have come across in the PC audio category. The sub is trapezoidal in front view, and rather tall. The finish is black matte all over. The wood is quite resonant on knocking though, something I do not like in a speaker cabinet. The front panel has a reflex port and the woofer driver too, thus making it a front firing piece of work. This driver is 6.5 inches, and is covered by a heavy black brace that is screwed on tightly.

The satellites too have a similar arrangement for its driver, also they contain a tweeter on the top, thus making them a 2 way configuration. The design of the sat is a piece of art. The 3” woofers and 1” tweeter are joined together simply by a translucent flat front panel. There is no cabinet, the driver enclosures are all bare for the world to see, and it looks really good. The finish for these enclosures is gloss black.

The sats connect to the sub via DIN connectors, and so does the pod. The control pod is something we have not touched upon, but now its time has come. The pod’s base is round and conical in its rise, with buttons on the top, and EP (3.5 mm) connectors on the side for headphone and aux in. The body of the pod itself acts as a click wheel, and turn both clockwise and vice versa, for increasing or decreasing levels respectively. The max power output is 200 watts, and the max SPL is 106 dB. The rated frequency response is 40Hz- 20KHz.