Date: December 9th, 2002.
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Altec Lansing
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COMPANY PROFILE AND GOALS

Altec Lansing's early technological developments in acoustical and electronic components have earned a place of prominence in sound reproduction few companies can match. The predominance of Altec's name over the years in sports stadiums, arenas, theaters, airports, auditoriums, churches, amusement parks and more recently on desktops within homes and at the workplace attest to this fact. Altec Lansing speaker systems have formed the backbone of the sound systems in such world renowned places as The United Nations Building, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Disneyland and Disneyworld, New York's Lincoln Philharmonic Center and the Schubert Theatre, MGM's Grand Hotel, The Singapore National Stadium, and The Sydney Opera House, to name a few. Today Altec Lansing speakers appear in myriad environments, addressing the wide array of needs for quality audio among diverse professional business people, musicians, families, students, music connoisseurs and gaming aficionados within their respective milieus.

Altec Lansing Technologies, Inc. is the industry leader in the design, manufacture, marketing and support of advanced audio solutions for PCs and related technologies. The company strives to provide outstanding performance and value to leading computer manufacturers, resellers and end users. Altec Lansing is the marketshare leader in the PC speaker system category providing high performance multimedia products for the computer OEM, reseller, distributor and retail marketplace. Altec Lansing employs over 1500 people in facilities throughout the United States, Asia/Pacific and Europe. Altec Lansing's ISO9002 and SA8000 certified manufacturing facility in Dongguan, China, supplies speaker components, micro speaker assemblies and complete audio solutions to partners worldwide.

Altec Lansing is a leading manufacturer and marketer of high quality computer and home entertainment sound systems, and a line of headsets, headphones, and microphones for personal digital media. Our mission is to create and sell industry leading products and services that enable our customers to experience a unique, memorable and high quality audio solution. In the end sound has little to do with watts or decibels or digital technology. It's about the listening experience, those precious moments when the heart is touched or the spirit transformed. The promise of the Altec Lansing brand is that our sound artisans will continue the legacy of blending art with science to stir the soul.

PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

Bullets flying by your head, a bird singing to front of you, or a blood-thirsty demon reaching out for you from behind. All these PC gaming examples are what you will be missing when you game through a normal 2 speaker setup. Today's gaming market is bringing more and more advanced games with more submersive environments and with the improvements, games are being shipped with surround sound gaming support. In my view, what is the point of buying an expensive game and not taking full advantage of the key factor in your daily environment, sound. If you are in the market for a 5.1 speaker system upgrade and or are upgrading your soundcard to the latest surround soundcard, I will be reviewing today which in my books is the BEST value in surround sound gaming speaker setups, the Altec Lansing 251 system.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

- 60 Watts Total Continuous Power RMS (2x6.5 W/Front; 2x7.2 W/Rear; 7.6 W/Center; 25 W/Sub)
- 90 Watts Total Peak Power
- Deep-Bass, Compact Subwoofer
- 6-Speaker Surround
- Performance Drivers
- Built-In Controls
- Headphone Jack
- Distinctive, All-Decor Styling
- Total Connectivity
- Dual Mode Selector
- Color-Coded Cables
- Shielded Satellites

Altec Lansing has a great demonstration on this set of speakers located HERE.


Let's get on with the review shall we....