Altec Lansing VS2521 2.1 Speaker System

The 2.1 speaker market is actually bigger than the market for home theaters, as multimedia and gaming requires a decent set of current transducers to thump out explosions, beats, shrieks, and whatnot. Altec Lansing is a popular player in this segment, and we had reviewed their famous FX 4021 a while ago. Now we have their newer VS2521 PC speaker system at hand, so let's see how it fares.

Aesthetics and Features
This brand has never failed to impress in the looks and design department. It doesn't have the wacky, unexplainable form factor that JBL is famous for; it's more of a futuristic, digital-age inspired geometry. The finish for the satellites is a leaden metallic color, with permanently fixed metallic mesh grilles of similar finish. The subwoofer is similarly clad, though the shape is a straight rectangular cube placed on four small posts, leaving about an inch form the ground/desktop.

The left speaker has the controls for volume , bass and treble lined up horizontally on its lower side, along with a headphone out and a line-in, in that order. The main power switch is at the back of the sub. Wires are mostly attached to the respective units, like the interconnect between the satellites and a mini DIN wire that's pre-attached to the left speaker. All this makes setup pretty easy.

The set is a 2.1 speaker system, so that means one subwoofer and two speakers that ideally sit on your desktop. A neat design attribute deserves mention: the two speakers can be laid down sideways and attached by interlocking their bottom plates, and you'll get a flat, horizontal speaker that sits under the monitor.

The unit is magnetically shielded and the shape of the sats is pretty interesting, with the face curving upwards, and a slight convex bulge. The back of the sats has an asymmetric, distorted rib whose shape resembles a Euclidean cone. It acts like a buttress that nicely fits in with the flat face, from the back.

The drivers for the sats are 2.5 inch full-range ones, while the sub has a 5.25 inch downward firing woofer. The sub has its round vent on the bottom face, near the driver. The material of construction of the drivers are not mentioned, though they seem to be reinforced plastic. Check the pic above for the complete specs.