As for the Altec Lansing M602's sound quality, it grew on us as we put the speaker system through our series of listening tests. Like a lot of these all-in-one speaker systems, this model has very little in the way of stereo separation. The speakers, which are equipped with two 3-inch drivers and two tweeters, are essentially next to each other; as a result, the system probably sounds best if you're sitting only about four feet away from it. The treble and midrange are the system's strongest suit, with voices, guitars, and acoustic music sounding quite pleasant. This was quite evident when we popped on Burt Bacharach and the Posies' rendition of the songsmith's "What the World Needs Now is Love" and Aaron Neville and the Neville Brothers' "Tell It Like It Is." Where the M602 surprised us is with its bass--it's punchier than we initially thought it would be. While the low-end isn't supertight, it held together at higher volumes better than we thought it would on bass-heavy tunes such as Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot." Still, we had to roll back the bass a bit to avoid distortion on an Art of Noise tune. It played loud enough to fill a small room.
The only warning we have is that, while Altec Lansing is encouraging people to use this system with other MP3 players, we found that the sound quality is noticeably less impressive when you connect other audio sources via the speaker system's audio input. To be clear, it doesn't sound bad, but this system--no great shock--is really optimized for use with dockable iPods.
That minor gripe aside, Altec Lansing has put together in the M602 a good, solid package that competes well against other iPod speaker systems in this price class. It's a better value than the Bose SoundDock, which retails for $100 more but lacks the auxiliary input and video output. Whether it's a better value than the Eton Sound 50--which can be had for $100 less--is a more iffy proposition, but the Altec Lansing does deliver richer bass.
What You'll Pay
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