Twin Towers Of Sound

The all new Altec Lansing FX3022 set of speakers are one of the unique designs we’ve come to see from speaker manufacturers. These speakers are also unique for another reason — they have down-firing woofer units at the bottom of both speakers. Altec Lansing claims that this can create double the bass in half the space. We tested these speakers to see how real these claims were.

The FX3022’s look like two towers and sit on your desk. The units are glossy and have a protruding cylinder-like shape where the other driver sits behind. There are no separate woofer unit that sits on the ground. No remote controls come with this speaker set. The On / Off switch along with the volume buttons are placed are placed on the top of one of the speakers.

We turned on the speakers to see if they were any good. The first impression is that they aren’t very loud but as speakers that you keep on your desk, it’s more than enough. The bass is rather disappointing as well. The down-firing bass units require a solid surface to sit on. They are best kept on the ground but then you need to be sitting at the same level to listen to them. The frequency range of these speakers starts from 40 Hz which is a little higher than most speakers. Even the higher-end range is capped to around 16,000 Hz. The extreme low bass is non-existent in these speakers. The only bass you get is from the harder drums and that too is absorbed by the table.

The other frequencies sound alright. They don’t distort at all with the volume set to maximum. The only shrill distortion can be heard with songs with high pitched vocals. The sound otherwise is very bright and detailed.