If You Just Want to Hear Your Computer

We had some Epinions earnings that had built up over the last year and the check finally arrived in the mail. Our computer system was showing its age. A quick trip to Best Buy handled both the burning effect of money in our pocket and the aging Computer problem. We had decided to replace our monitor with a wide-screen version. The old monitor had speakers built in. The replacement did not. Desktop space was at a premium and with impaired hearing a high end sound system was not needed anyway. Enter the Altec Lansing SoundBar FX3020 Computer Speakers.

This minimalist speaker system sizes at a svelt 14.7” wide x 3.4” deep and 4.4” high. There is no bloat in this machine. Assuming you can adjust the height of your monitor stand, it slides right under it, making for a neat, unobtrusive installation. The two feet straddle the base of the monitor and space is saved. The wiring is also minimalist. The included audio wire connects the audio output of the computer to the jack at the rear right of the SoundBar. Next to that is the jack for the included power cord which is the ubiquitous brick. The color is a flat black which further blends it into its surroundings. At the front right is a volume control knob. Full left is off and full right is enough volume for even me with my hearing aid out. A dim light bar above the knob lets us know it is on.. The large knob is easy to grasp and turn. A quick push of the knob kicks the speakers system into mute mode. The light blinks slowly when the speaker system is in mute

On the right side are a couple of additional jacks. One is for an auxiliary input like an iPod or other audio device like an MP3 player. The other is for headphones for silent listening. Both work quite well. The volume control and mute work with both the auxiliary input and the headphone jacks, both the typical subminiature type.

The business part of the system consists of two angled speakers behind a grill and a passive speaker for improved base. My honey tells me the separation is adequate. The sound is surprisingly good for such a small system. A couple of proprietary technologies are used to move this compact package toward the Bose type sound. One is called sfx and it helps widen the sound. Coupled with the angled speakers it does a nice job of filling a space wider than would seem normal giving decent stereo separation. The other is called XdB and uses the electronics and the passive speaker to improve the base well beyond the size expectations would suggest.

We are pretty happy with our choice. We can get good sound reproduction of games or movies or even CDs in a space that is normally wasted.