The ACS45 series of speakers by Altec Lansing came with my recent ABS computer purchase. I have been especially pleased with them, as well as the rest of the product shipped by ABS (read my earlier review...).

The ACS45 speaker system is as pictured: one large, directionless subwoofer and two satellite tweeter speakers. The speakers themselves are free of any sort of controls other than a volume control and a small knob on the subwoofer to control bass output. This allows you to utilize software to control treble/bass/etc. I like this feature, because I enjoy a SoundBlaster Live card which does very well in making these speakers perform to the best of their ability.

And perform they do. Simply put, the sound quality of these speakers is excellent. Crisp, clear audio, solid bass, the works. I can play just about any type of audio file or CD better than my Sony home stereo. As a matter of fact, I have taken to use my computer stereo as the home system. They're that good.

A couple of minor flaws. My speaker set does not have a port for a headset built into the speakers, so I can't use a headset unless I run them down to the SoundBlaster card itself. This is inconvenient if I want to use the sound capabilities without waking up my family. The speakers can be "poppy" if turned up too high and the system is shut down, but that's less of a problem than it is just to remember that they'll pop and turn down the sound control before shutting down.

An excellent, inexpensive speaker system. I highly recommend this to people who like their sound.