Swerv Posted February 24, 2001 Share Posted February 24, 2001 ...for about 5 minutes. haha. Today at work i walk in and i see that we have a set of these massive new(to us) Altec Lansing ADA 880's these are the ones from my store (http://www.computerconcepts.ca ) when i first saw this monster my first impression was it would be no match for the klipsch, no matter what., had heard altec's before and i used to think they were good. upon closer inspection i noticed how big the sub was! (8 inch driver) huge. for a computer sub that is, then i looked at the specs and it was only rated at 40watts RMS! bleh! anywhoo! i downloaded song from napster called "Blue man Group - Mandelgroove" and fired it up, BAM! first thing i didnt like was the controls on the speakers (digital volume knob that seemed to turn the volume up in increments of 10%!!! very retarded for low listening levels, ie 0 or 10% of course u can always just turn the windows volume down, i dont wanna do that while im in the middle of a game... anyways, the song started to play and i was impressed on how they sounded (192kbps) the beginning u cant really tell but when the bass starts to kick in u really start to feel it. when my boss left to go home for a bit and there were no customers in the store i cranked them to about 70 volume to see what would happen.. oh no! bad idea!!!! AHHHH first of all let me start with the specs: Altecs --------- Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20kHz Total Audio Output: 80 Watts RMS Input Impedance: >10K Ohms Analog Input Sensitivity: 300mV for full output Digital Input: S/PDIF Drivers (satellites): Four 3" full range Two 1" tweeters Drivers (subwoofer): One 8" voice coil Satellite Power: 40 Watts RMS (10 watts per driver) at 0.1% THD Subwoofer Power: 40 Watts at 0.1% THD Signal-To-Ratio: >70dB Power Requirements: USA/Canada model (120V/60Hz). UL/CUL (CSA)/CE Approved ok you all know the klipsch's specs but i'll post them anyways: Total system frequency response: 29-20,000 Hz Maximum acoustic output: 110dB SPL at listening position 2x6.5" Drivers for Sub 4x3.5" mids for sat's 4xhorntweeters (donno dimensions) Amplifier headroom: 4 x 60 watts, Satellites 1 x 160 watts, Subwoofer Satellite impedance: 4 ohms minimum ok now this is what i thought of the ADA880's in comparison to the promedias. Altec ADA880's Good ------ -ok sound from sats at low levels with bass and treble at 50% -Mp3s sound "ok" at 128kbps -good sound from subwoofer at anything under 60% volume -sub was tight, and punchy, not as boomy as i expected, probably due to its 8inch driver. The BAD ------------- -ok.... lets see.. where to start... -pathetic excuse of rear sats, much less tthe front sats, no where near in comparison as detailed to the klipsch sats. -the sats sounded Extremely "Tinny" with ALL types of music, rap, rock, classical, blues/jazz.. -SUB claims to be able to produce 20Hz...HAHAHAHAH no. try 35.(after about 60% volume the sub starts to sound distorted. probably because it is only getting 40 watts RMS of power or because the driver is cheap. -when cranked loud the port has lots of turbulance. the turbulance from the port can be heard much louder than from the promedias. I only notice turbulance from the promedias at around 29-37Hz at around 70-80% full volume. where as when i heard the altec sub alone with the same frequency the fluttering sound from the turbulance was about twice as loud, and becoming anoying enough to over power the sats! LOL. (50-60%volume) also note that the total loudness of the ADA 880's cant even come close to the loudness of the klipsch without getting distorted. <80wattsRMS vs 400wattsRMS of klipschPOWER!> all i know is that we are selling them at a discounted "$399.99" canadian dollars. i payed $369.99 for my promedias and they sound about twice as good. Too sum it up for the ADA880's -ok bass from sub at lower volume levels -pretty lousy controls -horribly sounding sat's "harsh and tinny" -turbulance from sub at higher volumes is annyoing. -not as loud as they look! Overall i would recommend the speakers to people who have a lot of money to blow on their computers.. "if the promedias never existed..." but since they do exist, and in a new flavour(4.1's). I would not recommend the Altec Lansing ADA880's to anyone who has access to purchasing the promedias. on the swerv scale of 1 to 10 the ADA880s get: Value: 5/10 Performance:6.5/10 not tring to be baised here but my overall scores for the klipsch IMO are... value: 9/10 performance 10.5/10 is that possible??? oh well... who cares.! thanks for takeing the time of reading this sloppy review! peace! I probably should have done a spell check...oh well.. too lazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike... the real one Posted February 24, 2001 Share Posted February 24, 2001 If you ask me I would say that Altec is made for average people, that aint got a lot of money and wanna good set of speakers..Altec is made for that. Ok well... No secret what is the best if you have some 400$ extra in your pay... And I suppose that...Koss and Labtec would win the price for the "nice quality" (and here we must define "nice" as...OK) under 50$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike... the real one Posted February 24, 2001 Share Posted February 24, 2001 And by the way... If you meet someone that says that the ATP system (either 3 or 5) sounds really great and it's best of best... You can say there is a guy you knew on the Klipsch board that would like to tell him how much he's pathetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz Posted February 24, 2001 Share Posted February 24, 2001 BTW, nice review Swerv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swerv Posted February 24, 2001 Author Share Posted February 24, 2001 Hey thanks! of course i have to agree with the sub $50 range about labtec having some nice subs at that level, i saw one at the store that had "what looked like a 3" driver for the subwoofer" !! and the funny part was that it was blowing away subs twice as powerful, the design was good, of course, i would not play it above the equivalent of 40% klipsch volume still a nice system for the office or, a place where u cant actually blast it. here is a link (just copy and paste)about the one im talking about. http://www.labtec.com/product/productlist.cfm?CategoryID=1&FamilyID=67&special=0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paragon Posted February 24, 2001 Share Posted February 24, 2001 Nice review. My brother had a set of those ADA880 and I have to agree that the rear sats are sort of small. I do like how the sub sounds and according to your review, I shall be in for a surprise when I get my Pros. I am also tired of companies sayign that the Subs will reach all the way down to 20Hz when most HTS subs won't. Again.. nice review. I will have one up after I get mine ------------------ 1GHz TBird Abit KT7A-RAID FOP38 & CuShim Kingmax 256MB PC150 Annihilator2 32MB GTS Intel Pro100+Management NIC Promise Ultra100 IBM 75GXP 45GB ATA100 & Maxtor DMP6800 27.2GB ATA66 Plextor 16X10X40A Sony 12X DVD SBLive! 5.1 AOpen HX08 Full Tower 300W Sony CPD-G400 19" Triny Pro 4.1 are comin!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swerv Posted February 24, 2001 Author Share Posted February 24, 2001 i hope i wasnt too harsh with the review but since the price of the "discounted" ADA880's is more than the price of the pro's then im just comparing what i heard... here are some pics of the ADA880 note: the pic of the back of the sub is one i found from ebay... when the klipsch sub is placed properly it blows away anything in its path. "literally" hehe hmmmm it apears people were having problems with gettin enough bass from their promedia sub: http://www.klipsch.com/ubb/Forum10/HTML/001986.html this has already been said a thousand times im sure, but for people who havent read this already... if u want "LOUD" BASS, take your promedia sub, place in the corner of your room closest to your computer desk, have the front flared port face the wall about 3" away from the wall itself. also when playing a heavy bass track, try walking around the room, u should notice areas where u hear the bass twice as strong and twice as weak... these are what i think are called "compressions" and "rarefactions" mess around with the placement until u get good results... as for the bass tracks and volumes... download the song mr.oizo - Flat beat and play it on the pros with bass at THX setting (10-11 oclock) Main volume 75% windows volume at 80% winamp EQ = flat (none of that horrible full bass and full treble) that makes the sound distort on most sound cards unless u turn the preamp in winamps EQ way down! wait until the bass kicks in...then come back and tell us if u can still not hear..rather "feel" it... happy testing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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