Anyone got these old 2.1 speakers: Altec Lansing ACS33 ?

Scougar

Scougar

Scougar

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So, I'm just waiting for my Creative Gigaworks T40's (originals), to turn up from the members market, and I started doing some digging on my existing speakers that a friend donated to me many years ago.

They are Altec Lansing ACS33 and they are 'ok' in my perception as PC speakers. They definately have WAYY too much bass as standard and it tends to drown out the sound.. so the first thing to do is turn the bass down in windows. At this point they become acceptable :)

But.. as I'm not an audiophile... does anybody possibly have these 2.1 speakers and is able to give there opinion vs the T40's or something similar?

And yes... I'm considering a little play (Solder/replacement caps etc) with the ACS33's to see if I can improve the sound.
 
LOL yeah, I got a set of those.

They were given to me about 600 years ago, they came off a TINY PC. The makers Tiny went bust many years ago.

They still sound fantastic... The only issue with the ones I got is the volume thing on the speaker crackles and can be a cow to get right.

I might simply replace it with a simply power button and not have a Volume control at all.

They are hardly used TBH and they are currently connected to my youngest sons PC and he only really uses headphones, so it wont be an issue, plus my main speakers are Altecs 955s and they have no volume either... Controled purely through the keyboard.

Ok, comparison with the T40?

Unfair really... They age difference has to be measuerd with radiometric dating its the big, but the Altecs will give out a very respectable kick, however the T40s are much better over all... In both volume and quality.

It would be nice to compare them if they were both well used and properly settled in, but the chances are slim at best.

As for replacing a few caps etc, then hell yes, go for it.

I think however, that the best way that you could improve the sound, would be to have that volume/power switch seperate and get yourself a better pair of satellite speakers, maybe even replace the bass speaker in the box.

I myself have no issues with the bass being too much as the box is on the floor.
 
My set are from a Tiny PC as well! To be honest they still work really well, no crackling, only getting that scroll wheel to turn them on initially is a little fiddly but other than that they work just fine. My subwoofer is on the floor under the desk.

I mainly wondering if I'll miss the subwoofer, but I'll see about that soon hopefully.

Mainly was wanted to assure myself I wasn't blowing my cash unnecessarily. Think I'll have a tinker today and take them apart lol. ("If it ain't broke, mod it") lol.
 
Scougar said:
("If it ain't broke, mod it") lol.
Click to expand...

Oh abso-lutely ... I have to be honest but Im tickled to buggery with that.

I got to remember that if nothing else

Anyway seriously now, but If those Altecs are still sounding ok, then buying the T40s' will in my opinion be a waste of money.

I have no doubt that they are better, but not that much better.
 
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I'll wait till the T40's turn up, then do a side by side comparison :-)

I will then see if I can crack the ACS33's open and see if I can change speakers/capacitors etc.
 
Cool. of course you will be giving a review / comparison etc?

Please try to use different soundcards also?

I remember a fair few yeasr ago, when I bought my Altec Lansing 251 Speakers ( Still got those too and they are still being used almost every day ) I had the Abit NF7S and they sounded lovely with that, a nice warm sound, while the SBLive1024 sounded somewhat clinical, and lifeless. Similarly, the Cambridge SoundWorks seemed to be made for the Creative cards while the 251's didnt.... Possibly placebo / fanboy bias of course.

I know that the 251 speakers do often seem to lack a "crystalness" to them that I often seem to have to up the treble on the output a little to get a happy sound, but to be fair... They have had a good 6 or 7 years of being utterly hammered by me, so fair is fair.

Anyway, Im off.
 
lol, don't hold me to it! I'll do my best.

I have at hand a Xonar D1 in my HTPC thingy-ma-bob, and will have the X-Fi Elite Pro in my main PC to test on. I doubt it will be till at least midweek until the stuff arrives to try it all though.
 
I'm waiting for the Elite pro to turn up now.. but having tried them on the Xonar D1 htpc, the first thing that was apparent was a 'warmth' to the sound. Hard to describe really.. but that's how it semed. The second was the fantastic stereo effect, I've never exprerienced it where it actually seemed like the voice was coming from right in front of me. Really good.

Will do some proper testing when I get everything setup :-)
 
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