Altec Lansing rolls out new look, speakers aplenty
By Donald Melanson 
posted Sep 10th 2008 5:36PM
posted Sep 10th 2008 5:36PM
Altec Lansing sure came out fighting today, with it not only debuting a brand new logo, but a bundle of new speakers and iPod docks that sport the new branding. The most stand-out, by far, are the Expressionist Bass speakers pictured above, which are a full ten inches high and include built-in 4-inch subwoofers and two 1.5-inch drivers apiece. Look for them to set you back $130 when they're released next month in both black and white versions. On the slightly less intimidating front, Altec Lansing has the $40 Orbit MP3 iM237 single-speaker unit, which runs on three AAA batteries, and a pair of new inMotion iPod speaker systems: the inMotion Moondance GLOW and the inMotion MAX, the former of which even includes a special "snooze remote." Look for those to run you $200 and $180, respectively -- pics after the break.
inMotion Moondance GLOW iM402
inMotion Moondance MAX iMT702
inMotion Moondance MAX iMT702
those trafic cone speakers lwill ook very dangerous in orange.
What. The hell. Are those? I'm vaguely reminded of those old tower thingies they used to use to breach castles. They are therefore awesome by default.
Man the ramparts! Archers on the ready! Don't fire 'til you see the .. bass.. in their.. hands?
hahahaha i was just thinking the same thing. Boy I hope they work well cuz' they sure are ugly...wow.
EXTERMINATE!
My thoughts exactly! Those things look like a couple of Daleks.
At 3 or 4 feet tall these would pass for a strange retro-Dalek. Exterminate indeed!
AAA batteries in an audio product that doesn't have to be super small is VERY annoying. It's a speaker. AAAs cost the same as AAs but have less than 1/2 the power. Why do companies do this? Do they secretly own stock in Duracell?
These fancy shape speakers never sound as good as conventional speakers eg. Dynaudio, PSB etc.
Dynaudio and PSB suck!
Infinity and JBL FTW!!!!!!!!
"...runs on three AAA batters..."
Wait, do they say what these batters' home run stats are?
They fixed that little typo, apparently.
They look like fire hydrants. Full refund for urine damage?
Please don't urinate on them. That's just...
I wouldn't... but someone's dog might.
Are... are you threatening me?
Crap! its NOMAD
run!!!
Exterminate!
Exterminate!
Awww, cute Dalek babies!
I like the designs of all three, especially like the expressionist bass.
i like it..
these you could actualy leave out when yoy had company over.
I'm sorry but this is no "brand new" logo. This is the same logo they used back in the 1970's
I have a pair of Altec A7's sitting in the other room. Same logo on the horns, drivers and woofers. I'm glad they brought it back though =)
I agree with the people above. Get some Dalek skins for those things and I would buy a pair. What? You didn't mean the 'Exterminate' comments as support for the idea?
Wait a sec... you say it has a 4" subwoofer?
Are the inMotion docks compatible with the iPhone 3G? There seems to be very few iPhone 3G compatible portable sound system docks out there. I've been predicting that lots of these will show up in time for Christmas, and I'm wondering if these aren't among the first.
Those definitely look like sump pumps. Or garbage disposals.
No awesome Zune dock? These are garbage.
WTF is a Zune??
ugh. these are, how do you say? .... "fugly" ?
I'm not at all excited by having my two (tiny) drivers pointing directly away from each other. How am I supposed to get a stereo image when it's impossible to keep the speakers from facing each other? Oh, I see. I can turn them so that two of the four drivers are facing DIRECTLY AWAY from me. How practical.
Ooooh, Dalek Speakers. Neat :)
Their new logo is nearly as ugly as the speakers.
@ LarryLarryLarry,
Sarcastic, yet ignorant. Rear-facing tweeters is an old idea. The idea is they use wall reflections to improve stereo imaging. The benefit isn't clear, and it adds to the price, since you need double the tweeters. But many very well received, high quality loudspeakers have used the concept (and Bose uses it too!) There are nuances (bipole vs. dipole, delay, eq, etc.), and the subject is quite complex.
@WhyFi,
I agree. It cracks me up when people (not just Engadget writers) talk about 4" or even 6" "subwoofers." A subwoofer produces output below 80 Hz (and really, below 60 Hz.) That requires at least 8" drivers, plus hundreds of watts of amp power. The 4" drivers in the Expressionist units are just "woofers," or even "midranges." Even those boxes that sit on the floor in 2.1 multimedia systems aren't "subwoofers".
THIS