Altec Lansing Octane 7 (VS4621)

After releasing several contemporary and ultra-stylised speaker kits, Altec Lansing has toned things down for the Octane 7, which although more subtly designed, still manage to break the mould of bog-standard PC speaker design. Stylish but understated—that's the name of the game with the Octane 7.

Hardware & Design: controls at your fingertips

A common problem with super-sleek speaker sets is their poor handling, as in the interest of style, the controls are often hidden away in difficult-to-reach nooks and crannies. This can actually make the speakers less-than-practical to use on a day-to-day basis, even if they do look great on your desk.

Altec Lansing, however, hasn't fallen into this trap with the Octane 7 (VS4621). By the brand's recent standards, the basic design is relatively modest, yet this speaker kit still manages to look slightly more original than most regular PC speakers. The standard block-like satellite speaker design has been ditched for a kind of rounded pyramid, housing a vertically positioned boomer to project sound onto the surface the speakers are standing on, just like the Expressionist BASS. As a result, the satellites hardly take up any room at all and they're sure to fit onto the messiest of desks.

The connections and controls are all good. They're located on the base of the right-hand speaker and can be easily accessed. A remote control would have been nice, but you can't expect too much from this kind of speaker kit.

Sound Quality: a subwoofer we've already seen

There's not much to say about the sound quality to be honest as the subwoofer, for example, has been used in Altec products for years already. The sound is completely typical of this type of speaker system, with few bass and infrabass frequencies but more imposing lower-medium frequencies. The subwoofer does a pretty good job though, and keeps things sounding pretty tight.

Higher up the spectrum, the down-firing boomers work well, even if we would have liked to see slightly fuller mediums. The tweeters also work very well.

The way in which the satellites direct sound means you'll have to carefully place them on either side of your computer screen. They're also not worth using for anything other than multimedia.

The new and more sober design seems to have led Altec Lansing to pay closer attention to sound quality. The overall result is pleasing, and even though the Octane 7 aren't the PC speakers of the year, they're currently one of the best-value kits out there for quality and price.