Otaku Gadgets

A lot of people these days are making a permanent shift to laptops. There are various points as to why everyone is leaving their desktops but the main reason is the compactness and the portability. Laptops are fast becoming as powerful as desktops and hence it is easy to understand why people who wouldn’t make the switch earlier are doing it now. While laptops can match desktops spec to spec now, there’s usually one thing missing when people make the switch and that is audio.

Laptop speakers, no matter how good they are, will never match up to the speakers that are used with desktops. These speakers sound better simply because they are larger and have enough space to house multiple and/or bigger drivers.

All that is changing for the good, thanks to innovative new speakers from multiple companies. One of the more prominent companies is Altec Lansing. They often make teeny tiny speakers for laptops and they sound great but their real speakers sound much better.

Today we take a look at their Expressionist Series. These speakers are meant to deliver great sound complete with thumping bass even within cramped spaces. The first one is called Expressionist Bass and the second one is called Expressionist Plus. Both will fit in nicely on a small and crowded desk where there is hardly enough space after placing a laptop. Perfect for college goers who stay in dorms and for crowded desks. Want to know if they are perfect for you? Read on.

First we look at the $130 Expressionist Bass, named so for a good reason. It has two pieces and each piece has its own subwoofer and mid-hi range driver. So essentially, it is a 2.2 system instead of the 2.1 that we are used to.

Meant to provide smooth bass in a place where there is no space to keep a separate subwoofer, this set delivers extremely powerful sound through its two pairs of drivers.

`The pieces are conically shaped and each piece houses the subwoofer at the bottom and the mid-hi range driver at the top. The mid-hi range driver measures 1.5-inch and is horizontally aligned on each piece so that you can direct them towards yourself. The subwoofer on each piece measures 4-inch and points downwards to deliver a powerful bass response that hits the floor under your desk. Reviewers have pointed out that the bass is indeed very powerful and is enough to create major vibrations on your desk. While these vibrations should not bother a laptop hard drive, they may damage an external hard drive after long-term exposure.

That is of course a minor set back for something that sounds really good. All the reviewers report being fully satisfied with the sound quality for the price. The speakers are connected via thick cables that look like they can take some rugged use. So they are not likely to rip apart if you accidentally yank them somehow. I would personally be more worried about them toppling over and hitting the laptop screen or something at that point but that’s just me babying my MacBook.

One of the cones, the main cone so to say has a power button and volume control on top of it. So you can control the volume directly from it or cut it off immediately with just one press of a button. The main cone also features an auxiliary input for plugging in something like your mp3 player without having to disconnect it from your laptop.

Next we come to the Expressionist Plus. This one costs less that the Expressionist Bass at $100. This has a more traditional 2.1 set up where you have two single-driver satellite speakers with one subwoofer complimenting it. The set up is still small enough to deliver great sound within a small amount of space.

The set up has two small cone shaped satellite speakers and one larger subwoofer, also cone shaped. The satellite speakers have an interesting wireframe mount and can be adjusted vertically for an angle that suits you. That means you can turn the speaker heads up and down to point them towards a sweet spot.

The Subwoofer has a 5.25-inch driver that point downwards and a send a lot of bass down your desk. It won’t be as powerful as the other set but this is for those who do not want that much bass. This is a long throw subwoofer unit that offers you the option to distance your bass from your mid and hi. This is something that the Expressionist Bass set lacks. There’s no way you can separate the two sounds on that one.

The subwoofer cone on the Expressionist Plus has a power button located conveniently on the top, which also has a volume control on it. All the pieces are hardwired to each other. This is essentially not a bad thing but some would like to change out the wires when necessary without having to cut them. However, in my experience the wires are usually good enough for lifetime use and you do not need to change them ever. Just like the other set, the Expressionist Plus has an auxiliary input for playing your music player or DVD player through it without having to yank out the primary input from your laptop.

The reviewers of this set have been really impressed with the sound quality although the bass is going to be notably lesser than the Expressionist Bass set. Here you have only one 5.25-inch driver delivering the bass frequencies and on the Expressionist Bass you have two 4-inch drivers pumping it out. However, the clarity and smoothness seems to undeniable in both the models.

Both of these sets are designed with specific housings to deliver high quality sound, which is called ‘audio alignment’ in the marketing briefs. What that really means is that drivers are properly mounted and the casings are accurately designed to provide precision delivery of the sound.

Thus depending on what kind of sound and set up you want, both of these models are worth getting.