Altec Lansing FX3022 expressionist BASS Review

For years the common computer setup has always featured two speakers that sit on the desk and occasionally a subwoofer for the bass-lover that don’t mind the clutter of having the extra speaker sitting on the floor. When I first heard about the expressionist BASS at the beginning of the year I was immediately interested in trying it out.

The expressionist BASS arrived in a sleek designed package featuring Altec’s new logo. The speakers were quite a bit bigger then I would have estimated looking at the pictures beforehand. Looking at the speakers for the first time, most people wouldn’t even guess they were speakers. The expressionist BASS should definitely score points in the most interesting design category. The awkward design probably stemmed from the need to fit the 4” down-firing subwoofer in the speaker.

Before getting the new speakers hooked up, my concern was the speakers shaking and rattling everything on my desk, because, let’s face it, there’s a reason we normally keep subwoofers on the floor. Fortunately when I cranked some bass-heavy music I was surprised to find my theory wrong; the expressionist BASS provided fairly hard-hitting bass without rattling or shaking my desk and everything on it.

Coming from a much more high-end Logitech system, I wasn’t expecting the speakers to blow me away, but I wrong again. While it obviously won’t take the place of your 10” subwoofer setup, it’s very comparable to smaller setups. The highs sound super clear and accented the sharp bass well. As expected when I turned the unit up to a ridiculously high volume level the speakers did distort quite heavily, this was acceptable considering more people sit within 4 feet of these anyway. The speakers have more then enough ooomffp to fill up a medium sized room with crystal-clear sound.

The system weighs in at 25 watts RMS, with 9 watts going to the sub and 3.5 watts to the full-range driver in each channel. The setup is available in both black and white. The left feature features an input for power, 1/8” computer in and a 1/8” AUX port for iPods etc. The power button and volume -/+ controls are conveniently located on the top of the speaker. My only gripe about the design would be that the subwoofer is not protected by a grill or anything, so extra precautions need to be taken when shuffling around speakers so the cone doesn’t get dented….like I did.

Overall

Overall, I had my doubts initially, but the expressionist BASS really shows off Altec Lansing’s long history of quality speakers and is a great step of innovation. The price seems right. Bass addicts might still need a full system to feed their addiction but these are staying on my desk for sure. Recommended!

Overall Rating: 8.75 out of 10 Loops

Pros

• Space saving.


• Unique design.


• Great sound.

Cons

• -Analog only.


• -No grill/cover over sub

Tech Specs

Power:

25 Watts (RMS)