Altec Lansing VS2521 2.1 Speaker System

The 2.1 speaker market is actually bigger than the market for home theaters, as multimedia and gaming requires a decent set of current transducers to thump out explosions, beats, shrieks, and whatnot. Altec Lansing is a popular player in this segment, and we had reviewed their famous FX 4021 a while ago. Now we have their newer VS2521 PC speaker system at hand, so let’s see how it fares.

Aesthetics and Features
This brand has never failed to impress in the looks and design department. It doesn’t have the wacky, unexplainable form factor that JBL is famous for; it’s more of a futuristic, digital-age inspired geometry. The finish for the satellites is a leaden metallic color, with permanently fixed metallic mesh grilles of similar finish. The subwoofer is similarly clad, though the shape is a straight rectangular cube placed on four small posts, leaving about an inch form the ground/desktop.

The left speaker has the controls for volume , bass and treble lined up horizontally on its lower side, along with a headphone out and a line-in, in that order. The main power switch is at the back of the sub. Wires are mostly attached to the respective units, like the interconnect between the satellites and a mini DIN wire that’s pre-attached to the left speaker. All this makes setup pretty easy.

More from Reviews

Best phones under Rs 75,000 (March 2025): Apple iPhone 16, OnePlus 13 to Google Pixel 9 Apple iPhone 16e First Impressions: The budget gateway into Apple Intelligence

The set is a 2.1 speaker system, so that means one subwoofer and two speakers that ideally sit on your desktop. A neat design attribute deserves mention: the two speakers can be laid down sideways and attached by interlocking their bottom plates, and you’ll get a flat, horizontal speaker that sits under the monitor.

The unit is magnetically shielded and the shape of the sats is pretty interesting, with the face curving upwards, and a slight convex bulge. The back of the sats has an asymmetric, distorted rib whose shape resembles a Euclidean cone. It acts like a buttress that nicely fits in with the flat face, from the back.

The drivers for the sats are 2.5 inch full-range ones, while the sub has a 5.25 inch downward firing woofer. The sub has its round vent on the bottom face, near the driver. The material of construction of the drivers are not mentioned, though they seem to be reinforced plastic. Check the pic above for the complete specs.

__PAGEBREAK__

Performance
The system looks interesting and cool, but performance is not the most refined. I tested it with recorded music and also MP3s, as these speakers need to play all kinds of music. I first started off with The Police flacs, which exposed the whole frequency response of the system quite well. The bass is low enough; one can hear a healthy response until 40Hz. Below that it quickly tapers off.

The nice thing is that the bass does not overpower the rest of the sound’s frequencies, as in other 2.1 systems. The satellites also perform well. The sound has this essence of clarity due to the mids and highs being quite accentuated. Its not a flat response in any way though; the highs do tend to get crystalline and edgy.

Now the main issue comes up; and that’s distortion at louder levels. About 15% below the maximum volume level the sound gets dirty. Another issue is that the port at the bottom of the sub is physically noisy; you get this fluttering sound due to vibration from low bass notes. This is due to the finish of the vent, or rather the lack of any real finishing work on it.

This problem is easily solvable though. Just block the vent with a handkerchief or piece of foam. This not only solves the issue but also makes the low-end sound better. But the internal distortion is a minus point; the best option is to not hear the system at max. In fact, you should not hear any system at max, especially those costing under 5K. Sucking the juice out of these amps can kill the sound soon, and this is not really a fault with the brand. Even at 80% of the max volume, this unit is loud enough, so rest assured.

Conclusion
The estimated street price of Altec Lansing VS2521 is Rs 2940, with a one-year warranty. This is pretty decent for this unit; anything more and I would baulk, as there are some flaws that stick out. Overall it works fine, and offers a decent amount of bass and clear highs. Just remember to keep the volume below max and you’ll have a nice-looking, nice-performing 2.1 system.