Out of the box the first thing that you'll notice
are the space-age looks. Both satellites are mounted on high
quality cast alloy stands that look good and actually help with
stability and vibration. If you've ever used lightweight satellite
speakers at high volume you've probably also noticed them moving
on the desktop due to vibration transferring into the satellite
enclosures. This is more than just a pain, it also means that
your audio will be "coloured" by the effects of these
unwanted vibration, introducing frequencies that simply aren't
meant to be there. By using reasonably weighty cast alloy stands
Altec have essentially nulled this problem meaning the sound
coming from your satellites are the sounds you're supposed to
be hearing. The design is good but it doesn't take too much
force to rock them over backwards.
.....
Each of the two satellites features two one inch
aluminium cone Neodymium micro drivers (tweeters to you and
me). Sounds good eh but what does it mean. Well, the Neodymium
magnet (or Neodymium Iron Boron (NIB) magnet) is simply a much
more powerful type of magnet than the conventional iron or ferrite
magnets. This allows smaller drivers to offer better power handling
and performance. The aluminium cones simply help to stiffen
the drivers allowing purer sound and better dampening characteristics.
Sticking to the cast alloy theme the 2100s also
come with a convenient wired remote that sits in a cast alloy
cradle. Again the weight of the cradle means the remote stays
put rather than wandering all over your desk. The remote can
be removed from the cradle and features a power on/off switch
and push button volume adjustment. This is a nice touch for
a speaker system retailing at such a low price but it has its
failings as we'll see later.
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