Altec Lansing iM510 Portable Sansa Speakers

Imagine a breezy evening in Goa with a couple a friends and some wine. A perfect set up right? Well, not quite, you can’t leave out music, can you?! Step in portable speakers from Altec Lansing. They are the perfect way to listen to your portable music, aloud. This one’s specifically made for the Sansa C200 and E200 series of players from Sandisk. Let’s have a closer look.

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Design and Features
I find it really lame when reviewers talk about the physical description of a product followed by a picture of the same (I used to do that too, once upon a time!). So I am not going ahead and telling you that the speaker set is rectangular in shape, rather you need to know how big they are in the real world and how much they weigh, to gauge its portability. It’s a little thicker than a brick of ice cream, the party pack and not the family pack and weighs close to 600 grams without the batteries. For portable usage it requires four AA sized batteries and is rated to last for 24 hours. I really like portable speakers which use AA sized batteries for one simple reason—the cells are easily available. The problem with the portable speakers with in-built custom rechargeable batteries is that once they run out of juice you need an AC-plug outlet to recharge the player. Say, you are on a mountaineering trek for a couple of days; the speakers will be rendered unusable after it runs out of juice. On the contrary with devices that use AA sized batteries, you can carry spares and just replace them once they run out of juice. For regular usage you can use rechargeable AA sized batteries if you want to save costs. This is a point which I also insist upon camera users. Canon understands this well and uses AA-sized batteries for almost all its camera’s except the ultra-compact ones but obviously for its size constraints.

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The dock is flushed into the body of the speakers and pops out when the button on the center is pressed. If the player feels too loose in the docking bay, you can use a docking adapter (two of them are provided) to reduce the depth of the docking bay. This was something hard to understand as the manual provided no pictorial descriptions of the same and just plain text.

There is a transparent button on the top left to power the device and ‘+’ and ‘-’ keys on the left to control the volume. There is no sort of visual indicator to tell you the level of the volume. Not a big deal and easily manageable. The one thing that I didn’t like about the volume keys is the way it feels or its tactile property. It’s a little firm for my taste. On the contrary the power button is much easier on your fingers and doesn’t need a very firm push. We would have liked the volume keys to be of similar nature.

Once the player is plugged into the dock, you can only control the volume from the speakers. You can also use the speakers with other mp3 players that use a 3.5mm jack. A provision to plug the same is provided at the back. You can also sync your Sansa player with the computer while the player is sitting in the dock. But for that you need to power down the speakers and use a mini-USB to USB cable (not provided in the package). The player also starts charging once plugged into the dock, even if the speakers are not turned on.
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As the drivers (or speakers) are very small (four 1-inch drivers), the speaker set is unable to reproduce bass very well. For that Altec Lansing provides a sub-out at the back of the speaker set. Though, you can only use a sub-woofer provided by Altec Lansing. The model number is BB2001. Unfortunately, this sub-woofer is not currently sold in India. Besides, the woofer needs to be connected to a power-outlet and would be suitable to be used at home.

Lastly a very well designed carry case is provided. There are compartments to put in the player, batteries and the power adapter. In fact the player compartment has an additional flap to make sure the player is secure. Additionally, three country specific plug attachments are provided for the power adapter.
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Performance and Conclusion
The audio quality is good but nothing that would appease an audiophile and is loud enough to fill up a medium-sized room. With the size of the drivers it’s but obvious that the bass would suffer but surprisingly there is indeed a little bass coming from the speakers. The sound distorts a bit at the maximum volume but is absolutely fine if you take it just a notch lower.

The player is priced at Rs. 7,200 and comes with a one year warranty. The player is a very good portable set if you own a Sansa or as a matter of fact any other mp3 player. The details are well thought out right from the 3.5mm auxiliary-out to AA sized batteries and the well designed carry case. In fact it’s quite a decent option to be used in your personal room at home too. But then this speaker set should only be purchased and I repeat should only be purchased if you need something when you are out and traveling. Use at home should be considered as an additional utility as you can get much better non-portable options at a similar price tag.
Product Source: Rashi Peripherals
Phone Number: 022-67090814