It seems that Altec Lansing continue the tradition and do their best to improve products. We reviewed in the past several of their products and overall we were satisfied about their performance, quality and design. Until now the most advanced speaker system reviewed was ATP5, a 4.1 solution but which lacks to offer Dolby Digital or another advanced audio decoding. Although most users are not prepared to spend over 100$ on a good speaker system, we really believe that there are several exceptions.

Today we will take a look to the most advanced speaker system ever reviewed at PC Hardware. It's the ultimate Altec Lansing solution for gaming, DVD and music listening. In fact Altec claims that ADA890 is a speaker system ready for Home Theater, but we can not agree with this sentence. Regular Home Theater systems are more advanced and audio receivers provide more features than any computer system, but it's true that ADA890 features are comparable to the ones provided by home audio systems.

Satellites

ADA890 is a 5.1 speaker system solution and it can be configured in a 3 piece or in 5 piece arrangement. About the setup we will discuss in the next section. Now let's see what's in the large and heavy box. From the first look the box looks impressive and the size plays an important role in this impression. :)

There are left and right satellite speakers (the bigger speakers) with removable rubber plugs, left and right surround speakers (the smaller speakers) with detachable stands, a subwoofer, a remote control, a spare fuse, a RCA cable, two stereo cables, a dongle cable, a game system adapter cable and of course the user guide. The users guide is decent, it covers all the installation process, but do not expect to much information, in two pages you will learn a little bit about ADA890 capabilities and cables installation. In Altec tradition, cables are long, a nice to know piece of information if you want to use the system in a medium room. This speaker system is THX-Certified and it features Dolby Digital and ProLogic surround sound and stereo reproduction. I'm pretty sure that this isn't the first time when you hear about Dolby Digital and ProLogic, but what does THX-Certified mean? THX-Certified products must meet a set of rigorous performance requirements and quality standards. These standards were originally developed when George Lucas, the Star Wars producer, decided that the original Star Wars soundtracks heard in the cinemas should match those created on the sound stage. Now these standards are adapted to the needs of multi-channel sound. The satellites are magnetically shielded and they can be placed near your monitor or near the TV-set. The subwoofer is not magnetically shielded and it mustn't be placed near magnetic sensible equipment (like the monitor). The best places for the subwoofer are under the desk on the floor or in a corner.

The satellites are impressive, small, but powerful enough to handle 15W. The left and right front speakers connect to subwoofer using thicker cables, due to the extra functions each one handles. The left speaker has a phone jack, while the LCD display placed on the foot of the right satellite speaker offers information regarding volume level and mode indicators. Next to this display there is a power on button, the mode, bass and treble buttons that control these settings and another button, bigger than the others for volume level control. All these commands are digitally controlled.
Quite important, the four satellites are not large and can be placed on any desk.

The first question that popped up into my mind when I saw the speakers for the first time was why the bigger satellites have rubber plugs. The answer is quite easy: from the 4 satellites you can configure a two speakers system for near field stereo / surround sound. You only have to:
a) separate the surround speakers from their detachable stands,
b) remove the top rubber plugs from the satellites speakers
c) mount the the surround speakers on the top of the satellite speakers

But satellites are able to deliver only a mid and high range tones, the subwoofer is responsible for the most expressive tones.