I had a set of ACS500 speakers years ago. They were disappointing. The sub isn't very effective and the satellites aren't exactly rich and full either. I believe the sub is the same as the model shown above. The Dolby Pro Logic decode function might be cool in a room that works well with the side firing drivers.

I still have my ACS48 set from 1999. This set was pretty good at the time. The 6" sub is in a ported wooden enclosure and has a nice presence and the satellites have tweeter + full-range design that puts out satisfying sound for what they are. I bought them because reviews back then liked them. They seem to work as well today as ever, though the white plastic has yellowed. Not on par with the 2005 Klipsch Promedia 2.1 set that I also have though.

I literally never heard a single set of computer speakers in the 90s that impressed me.

I also haven't heard any since, including Klipsch Promedia THX which other people loved (for some reason) say 10-15 years ago, and some still do.

I don't say these things to troll the thread or anything but I guess my point is that it really depends on your expectations. It's a difficult question to ask if a pair of inexpensive speakers sound good. In any measurable way (frequency response, harmonic distortion, cumulative spectral decay, etc.) they will be awful and I can guarantee that 100%. But I cannot guarantee even 1% that YOU will think they're awful, especially if you're feeling nostalgia for the sound that speakers like that make.

If you want vintage speakers, Altec Lansing is a good way to go. If you want good speakers, use real passive non-PC-specific speakers and either a small Tripath-based amp or an actual stereo or multichannel receiver. If you want good, vintage speakers, use vintage real, passive, non-PC-specific speakers with an old Pioneer or Technics or Yamaha stereo receiver (aka integrated amp)... in my opinion.

I pretty much always had my computers hooked up to a real receiver with tower speakers (through the 90s this setup for me was all Technics). It might not be the retro audio gear that retro gamers think of but you can get genuine retro audio gear and still appreciate it. Again, depends on your expectations.

Heck, I'd sooner design my own custom speakers in those cases with different drivers (in this context a "driver" is like saying "an individual speaker that is part of a speaker system"), but I'm pretty crazy (not necessarily in a good way, either) about audio quality. I don't expect you to be similarly crazy or you probably wouldn't ask about these speakers at all, but I like talking about multiple options.

I have edited this like 5 times to ramble more. Geez.

Altec Lansing computer speakers (powered) from the mid- to late 1990s are good compared to many other computer speakers (both vintage and more modern - maybe I should say "especially modern ones" since mobile phone quality is considered "good" 😠 by a lot of people these days). At least I can't complain about my ACS41 set... 😎

kenrouholo wrote:

I literally never heard a single set of computer speakers in the 90s that impressed me. […]
Show full quote

I literally never heard a single set of computer speakers in the 90s that impressed me.

I also haven't heard any since, including Klipsch Promedia THX which other people loved (for some reason) say 10-15 years ago, and some still do.

I don't say these things to troll the thread or anything but I guess my point is that it really depends on your expectations. It's a difficult question to ask if a pair of inexpensive speakers sound good. In any measurable way (frequency response, harmonic distortion, cumulative spectral decay, etc.) they will be awful and I can guarantee that 100%. But I cannot guarantee even 1% that YOU will think they're awful, especially if you're feeling nostalgia for the sound that speakers like that make.

If you want vintage speakers, Altec Lansing is a good way to go. If you want good speakers, use real passive non-PC-specific speakers and either a small Tripath-based amp or an actual stereo or multichannel receiver. If you want good, vintage speakers, use vintage real, passive, non-PC-specific speakers with an old Pioneer or Technics or Yamaha stereo receiver (aka integrated amp)... in my opinion.

I pretty much always had my computers hooked up to a real receiver with tower speakers (through the 90s this setup for me was all Technics). It might not be the retro audio gear that retro gamers think of but you can get genuine retro audio gear and still appreciate it. Again, depends on your expectations.

Heck, I'd sooner design my own custom speakers in those cases with different drivers (in this context a "driver" is like saying "an individual speaker that is part of a speaker system"), but I'm pretty crazy (not necessarily in a good way, either) about audio quality. I don't expect you to be similarly crazy or you probably wouldn't ask about these speakers at all, but I like talking about multiple options.

I have edited this like 5 times to ramble more. Geez.

Yeah, I'm probably going the way of a receiver and some bookshelf speakers. Have my eye on the Marantz NR1506 and some Polks.

The ACS40 pair is my main retro set. Those and some other popular speakers of the time had two pairs of stereo inputs at the back, which is nice for MIDI.

Very ugly / retro cool looking, and they sound like, well, good 90's multimedia speakers. 😀

buckeye wrote:

Yeah, I'm probably going the way of a receiver and some bookshelf speakers. Have my eye on the Marantz NR1506 and some Polks.

I've only owned one set of Polk speakers, a very entry level set, R30, which if I remember correctly was their absolute cheapest tower speaker around 10 or so years ago. I did and do own many better speakers (probably own around 4-5 pairs of speakers total and one of the pairs was built by me) but I got them on sale for, I dunno, maybe like $100 for a set, and they were absolutely great for the price. I've recommended Polk bookshelves to people (also "for the money") and they're generally quite well-liked. Have heard some of their mid-priced stuff in showrooms but haven't heard anything other than their entry-level stuff in home for far too long a time for me to remember how they sounded. You can also look out for some used Paradigm Atoms.

As for Marantz, I've never used that model or any newer Marantz but I swear by Denon and they are owned by the same company and many aspects of their designs are quite similar, so Marantz pretty much automatically gets the thumbs up from me. Not that you asked, but I approve anyway.

Personally speaking I tend to prefer higher-end speakers because I can usually easily hear when a crossover is a low-cost unit rather than a high-quality one. The harsh sibilance of the tweeters of so many inexpensive speakers hurts my ears (especially with those Klipsch Promedia THX that I slammed in my first post - and I actually owned them for a year or so myself as I had no money to upgrade). Or the lack of treble from wide-range drivers or oversized tweeters bothers me as I do like a nice detailed "bright" sound but without the harshness of a poor crossover (or a poor crossover frequency forced by low-quality drivers). I know a lot of people who don't hear these problems (or maybe only hear them in the absolute worst cases) and those tend to be people that buy cheaper speakers. The Polk R30s actually didn't bother me though. I could tell the difference from higher-end speakers but the R30s were surprisingly non-irritating.

With my desktop I've been using Audio Technica headphones for years. The Klipsch 2.1 set has been in the closet for ages. But I do think they are the best "2.1 computer speaker" set I've heard. Not that that is saying much compared to some nice bookshelf or home theater speakers.

I'd like to see the thread go into what old computer speakers people have owned though. The various gimmicks over the years have been curiosities.

I've been using these Yamaha YST-M100 speakers forever now. I think they could do with a recap but they're still rocking.
As for gimmicks, they have a "3D Surround" function which does nothing but increase background noise. I think a lot of speakers of the time had something similar.

Cambridge Soundworks was one of the first decent system available. If you can find the 2.1 setup for cheap check it out.

The only late 90's computer speakers I liked were the Boston Acoustics Multimedia speakers (2 speakers and a sub). I purchased 2 sets for my Aureal sound card at the time (1 set still works after re doing the foam surround).

It is very hard to get a decent 2.1 speaker setup even today. If you have the space an old 5.1 receiver and speakers would sound better then anything meant for a computer.

There's definitely a big separation between computer sets, especially retro ones, and what most people will consider a great sound. They had really distinct colorations, though.

Good ~$150+ headphones and a decent source can't easily be beat for general use.

I've been happy with my Altec Lansing ADA-305 set. At the very least they still sound good after 16-17 years of ownership.

I have a set of ACS495 2.1 speakers and I still use them on my main PC. They're excellent

The Gateway 2000 P5-166XL system that my father purchased in June of 1996 came bundled with the same Altec Lansing ACS-400/250 combo pictured in the original post. I still have and use this set with my Tandy 1000 TL/2 setup today.

While not exactly amazing by some standards, from 1996~1999, this particular speaker setup was practically light-years ahead of anything that my friends and acquaintances were using for computer audio.

Still have the circa 1994 ACS3 set from the 486 in the living room hooked up to a computer. Oddly no pictures of them online, they had flip-up tweeters.

Always lusted over the contemporary higher end ACS300.1 model though (which used the same subwoofer).

kenrouholo wrote:

I literally never heard a single set of computer speakers in the 90s that impressed me.

I also haven't heard any since, including Klipsch Promedia THX which other people loved (for some reason) say 10-15 years ago, and some still do.

I don't say these things to troll the thread or anything but I guess my point is that it really depends on your expectations

Something dawned on me a while back, that many of these sets of speakers may not have gotten a fair chance. Things were new, manufacturers were new, and creating new things, but not necessarily things which worked together. Case in point, unlike traditional stereo equipment, nobody was making pre-amplifiers to reside between soundcards and external, powered speaker sets, and yet the same principle applies as there is an amplifier inside those powered speakers, and without adequately powered input signal, they will sound thin, have trouble reproducing low frequency passages, experience higher tendency towards clipping because people are turning them up so high to compensate, etc. Quite honestly, I think these old speaker sets should get a second chance. My Yamaha C-65 fried one of its output channels a while back, but I now have a Schiit stack containing a Magni 3 headphone amplifier, which doubles as a pre-amplifier for output to additional amplifiers. I would really like to set this thing between a common Soundblaster 16 and a popular set of 2.0's and 2.1's from the 90's to see how they chalk up against their reviews of yester-year. Remember, too that we were dealing with 22kHz output, not 44kHz, and even 8-bit if we go back far enough, and it would be nice to see how these old sets reproduce sound from our modern 24-bit capable cards and the like.

Matthew

kenrouholo wrote:

If you want vintage speakers, Altec Lansing is a good way to go.

Altec made some real speakers too 😀

NJRoadfan wrote on 2017-03-01, 04:16:

Still have the circa 1994 ACS3 set from the 486 in the living room hooked up to a computer. Oddly no pictures of them online, th […]
Show full quote

Still have the circa 1994 ACS3 set from the 486 in the living room hooked up to a computer. Oddly no pictures of them online, they had flip-up tweeters.

Always lusted over the contemporary higher end ACS300.1 model though (which used the same subwoofer).

Would you post a picture of the ACS3 speakers ? I have been trying to find a set of speakers that I bought a long time ago, and the flip-up feature is definitely part of what they looked like.

Here.

The higher end ACS300.1 also used a clamshell design and is far more common.