But in a way, these speakers are TOO good. They don't require an audio card because they connect via USB, and therefore come with their own audio management software. This, Altec claims, is a positive boon. There's no need, they say, to buy a separate audio card if you own their speakers. Unfortunately, this selling point, while truthful, belies market realities. Almost every computer sold today already comes with an audio card of some kind. So, if, as would seem natural, you install these speakers by plugging into the USB ports you'll create an odd and frustrating anomoly in Windows. Windows will believe you have two audio controllers: the Altec Lansing speakers and your audio card. This can be frustrating if playing games, because, despite the quality of these speakers, you probably do want the sound to go through the advanced drivers on your audio card. But Windows will typically give preference to whatever device was added most recently. So if you were used to having the sound pumped through your audio card before you got the speakers, the act of plugging in the USB cables alone will automatically cut your audio card out of the loop. The upshot: goodbye Aureal--or whatever your preferred audio accelerator was.
So how can you get these speakers to work with your Soundblaster Live or other audio card? Easy. Unplug the USB connection. Better still, never connect them that way in the first place. It's a simple fix, but it makes no intuitive sense and is only barely mentioned in the manual. Altec Lansing went to such trouble to market the USB connectivity of the product; it's more than a little ironic that most users don't really WANT to connect it that way.
Also, do take heed of the very OS-specific nature of the product. It will ONLY run on a Windows 98 machine. Not 3.1, not 95, probably not 2000 (though you should contact Altec Lansing for confirmation on that), ONLY 98. Don't even bother thinking that you can somehow create a workaround. If you don't have Windows 98, don't complain when you have to send them back.
All this aside, though, this is a serious audio system for your computer. At the price, you won't find anything better.
