Thin USB powered speakers gorgeous to the eye and ear

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Product: XT1 USB powered speakers
Company: Altec Lansing
Price: $69.95, £47.99
Web Site: www.alteclansing.com

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ALTEC LANSING lets you forget batteries forever and kiss power supplies goodbye with the nice XT1 set of USB powered speakers that are also good for desktops and portable mp3 players.

The laptop speakers are often too small for a decent sound quality. While I can't complain too much about the ones in my Gateway 7422GX, when playing MP3 songs at high volume the sound level is quite limited, and a slight distortion starts to appear before the music can fill a small room.

The XT1 speaker set comes inside a nice travel case
Below: the included cables with velcro strips. Two USB cables,
one normal, the other retractable

I looked for options but there were two problems: first the notebook sound card does not have enough power to drive large passive speakers, and second, there was always the issue of how to power the active -amplified- speakers. I have a pair of ancient but reliable and good sounding Sony SRS-37 speakers, but these can be either powered by 4 "D" batteries that last no more than a few hours at full volume, or by using a bulky power brick. After some exploration into the amazing world of USB powered speakers I was instantly attracted to the Altec Lansing XT1 set, which which not only have a famous brand name behind them, and a gorgeous look and design -perfect to be placed at each side of the Gateway 7422- more importantly for a speaker set: I found these sound really good.

Externally, the XT1 are two thin and tall "satellite" speakers measuring about 7.8 inches tall and less than two inches wide. Internally, there are two micro-drivers per "satellite", and the right side speaker contains all circuitry for the Digital-to-Analogue converter, because yes, there is a "virtual sound card" inside the speaker set.

Control buttons on the side of the Right side speaker

As for cables, all are of great quality, and two USB cables are included, a normal USB cable and a retractable one - more appropriate for use when travelling around. Both USB cables -only one of which needs to be used- have a normal USB plug on one side, a one "mini-USB" male plug on the other end. This gives power and the USB digital signal to the device. As I said above, the right side speaker or "satellite" in Altecspeak, contains all the circuitry, rubber buttons on the right side for power on/off, volume -up and down-, and a 3.5mm stereo socket labelled "Aux" on which you can plug -using the included 3.5mm male-to-male cable, the output of any analogue device capable of producing a sound signal.

Testing begins

When you plug the XT1 into a Windows computer -I used WinXP SP2- the system immediately detects it as a "USB Audio Device" and after some fiddling and file copying back and forth, the unit is recognised and sound starts immediately coming out of the new plugged speakers. One nice feature under windows is that when you press the side buttons for volume up/down, the windows volume control applet pops up and you can see the slider move up and down vertically "in sync" with the button presses.

BLAG Linux, based on Fedora Core 3, recognised the digital audio converter inside the speakers

I tested the XT1 with every type of music in my collection, that is from 80s Pop to Tango passing through The Beatles and to electronic like Fatboy Slim. The only type of music I don't have and which was not part of this test is any type of "Metal" and that kind of noise that some people call music. Sound quality is very good, certainly better than the Gateway 7422GX's internal speakers.

Don't expect these tiny speakers to fill a stadium or lecture room, however, you can't defy the laws of physics. But for a home, living room or bedroom, you'll find that the maximum volume can be actually loud enough to dance around if you fancy so. In my opinion this is perfect for the home office or bedside listening while on the road.

To my surprise, I plugged the speakers in Linux and lo and behold, the system reconised the set and I was able to play back mp3s both with Real Player 10 for Linux and the Winamp-like "XMMS". A further look on the WinXP side showed that the Microsoft drivers used in WinXP -the unit comes with no drivers CD, it's supposed to use the ones included in Windows and Mac OS-X- showed that the Microsoft USB Audio drivers in WinXP are dated... 2001. Driving a Digital/Analogue converter chip is not rocket science, it seems.

No drivers included. The unit uses the drivers built into WinXP
As you can see Microsoft's generic USB audio drivers are quite old.

This reminded me of Microsoft's failed push to completely replace sound cards... as back then from hearing to the sales people one would have concluded that USB digital speakers were going to completely eliminate the sound card marketplace. It wouldn't surprise me if these speakers worked with IBM's generic "USB 'Microsoft Audio' compatible drivers" for OS/2 released back in 1999 or thereabouts. But that will a job for the next time I get melancholic.

Back to Altec Lansing, since these speakers seem to be supported by the ALSA linux sound drivers bundled with almost every linux distro, and are identified without a problem, it's a shame that the company doesn't even mentioning Linux compatibility. How much would it cost for them to include a "linux compatible" logo in the product box?. I guess some execs are still too afraid of reprisals from the Redmond Juggernaut.

So, to summarise, these speakers sound great, take power from the USB port, worked flawlessly on Windows and Linux -without having to manually type anything or load any driver-. So what could be wrong?. Well... I'd change a few things to achieve perfection: the tiny "legs" on which the speakers stand are too small. It's too easy to simply touch one accidentally and it will fall down like the Tower of Pisa could fall one day.

Good looking and with great sound.
There is a blue led on the right side speaker, which features
the internal circuitry and volume/power control buttons on the side.
Did they ever heard of the term symmetry?. A second blue led on the left speaker would just rock.

Second minor annoyance: there is a blue LED inside the right side speaker, that indicates when the speakers are powered on. However, there is no such nice blue LED inside the left side one. Had they ever heard of symmetry?. Ok, I admit this is a minor annoyance and that I'm being picky but hey, they pay me to find the ugliness even where there is none. Finally, and this is almost unforgivable for a hardware hacker: when you want to use the XT1 speaker set with an analogue sound source connected through the AUX socket, you must still plug it into a USB port to draw power. What happens then is that the PC detects the "digital audio device". Just for testing I took a look at the USB pin-out diagram and placed a tiny piece of vinyl insulating tape -the kind used for 110v-240v electric installation work- covering pins 2 and 3 of the male USB plug, then re-inserted it into the USB socket on the notebook. The result? The speakers draw power from the USB bus, but the "data" side is not identified! - pins 1 and 4 are power in the USB socket.

"Aux" input on the right side speaker allows using the XT1 with portable MP3 players
or any other analogue sound output device. However, you still need to plug the speakers into
a USB port to get power. Here, my tiny yet powerful MyMusix mp3 player.

With my little tiny hack, you can use the XT1 always in "analogue" mode, and just use the included male/male cable to switch between a portable mp3 player or the computer, without the computer ever realising that there was a usb device plugged in, you'll just use the notebook -or desktop's- internal sound card and the analogue output, connected to the XT1 set. The engineers at Altec could have simple added a switch next to the right speaker, next to the power button for instance, allowing the user to switch between "digital" and "analogue only" modes. What such switch would do would be simple: cut -or not cut- the signal coming from USB pins two and three. Maybe for the XT1 version two?.

The Verdict

These speakers sound good, and they blend with any PC, from desktops to laptops. The attention to detail in the cables with velcro strips, the soft touch on the rubber volume buttons on the side, and the gorgeous look are what set these speakers apart. You can't defy the laws of physics and fill an auditorium with such small speakers set but they give plenty of power to fill a bedroom or other medium sized room with loud music, and even with the volume near the maximum, the speakers don't sound like they're going to break apart like it happens on so many notebooks.

I give the Altec Lansing XT1 speakers four over five Fernandos in my personal one-to-five rating scale - or eight over ten if you prefer. There are a few annoyances I'd fix and which Altec Lansing could fix inexpensively -see my comments above about how a switch would have made it possible to get power from the USB port without configuring the digital audio part on the PC- but overall, the good points offset the minor annoyances, in my opinion. Plus, since the XT1 set was introduced last year, the price has gone down considerably from the original $125+ to about half that price. In short: Good kit!.?

See also:
Logitech portable speakers need a bit of work
Desir? Athow mentions the XT1 when introduced
Creative's wireless speakers will have power cords
Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference