Altec Lansing Expressionist Bass Speakers

My beat is Audio and Video, though recently I have been covering only the second part, that is video, in the form of Monitors, projectors and what have you. I think it’s time to get back to the other enjoyable human sense, and that is Audio. We have none other than Altec Lansing to make the comeback, and a very cool product by them. It’s a 2.2 speaker system known as the Expressionist Bass FX3022.

Design and features
These babies have a design unlike many other competitors; they are actually conically shaped, with the larger circular base being the base. It’s not wild like some JBLs, though it looks very futuristic and cool. This surface is not flat face down, rather it rests on small permanently fixed stands running around the perimeter of the base, these help in the bass radiating outwards and not getting absorbed by the table. The finish of the piece is glossy black al around the smooth curved surface, and also the top panel.

The left speaker is the powered unit, it has a fixed wire running out o the right speaker. This is about 6 feet long, thus length wise it is enough for most desk sizes. The power and volume buttons are placed top side of the left unit, flush mounted and made of matte rubber material, thus providing a nice aesthetic  contrast to the glossy environment around. Also on the back of the right speaker, there's the 3.5mm jack port; the package comes with included 3.5mm minijack cable. Beside there is an auxiliary input for connecting external sources like PMP's or an MP3 player.

The left speaker is the powered unit, it has a fixed wire running out o the right speaker. This is about 6 feet long, thus length wise it is enough for most desk sizes. The power and volume buttons are placed top side of the left unit, flush mounted and made of matte rubber material, thus providing a nice aesthetic  contrast to the glossy environment around. Also on the back of the right speaker, there's the 3.5mm jack port; the package comes with included 3.5mm minijack cable. Beside there is an auxiliary input for connecting external sources like PMP's or an MP3 player.

The reason why this speakers bulge that way on the bottom part is because their bass woofer drivers are attached there, firing downwards. Thus these can be termed 2.2 system. The other  are mid and high frequency drivers, fixed on the curved sides, facing front. The latter are covered by a cloth grille, which might tear if poked around with too much. Besides this, the build quality if the drivers and their metallic accented enclosures are very sturdy and also neat to look at.

The woofers are 4 inch (100 mm) subwoofer drivers made of polypropylene; the material is not mentioned, though on inspection we can assume it’s a hard plastic like we mentioned, whiel the mid drivers on front are 1.5 inches. The max power rated is 25 Watts RMS, and frequency response is 40 Hz - 16 kHz. Signal to noise ratio is above 85 dB.