My 3rd set of Altec Lansings...Disappointing

Do not purchase these. There are better systems out there that are of equal or lesser value. I returned mine after a week.

I originally had a set of Altec Lansing VS4121's, but when my dog broke them I decided to upgrade. I figured the 4221's were an easy choice to make, but despite an increase in wattage, the system was of lesser quality.

The sub woofer is simply overpowering. After spending hours tweaking an equalizer, my efforts were entirely worthless. I could not get these speakers to sound balanced. Bottom line: the bass is out of balance and uncorrectable.

Second, the remote that comes with the system is the only way to access key features. If one were to lose it, balancing, equalizing, and volume control have to be done another way. It is a nice addition, but it replaced the better manual methods of the previous generation. The previous manual method was better, because there was visual feedback of settings. With the 4221's, there is no way to tell if the bass, for example, is at max. or min. Guessing by ear was annoying, and led to multiple occasions of trying to increase already maxed settings.

I suggest getting a set of the 4121's. They are less expensive, nearly as loud and sound infinitely more dynamic. Plus, there are bass and treble controls on the speaker, which was removed in the 4221's, and the volume is knob controlled, allowing for quick adjustment, as opposed to the 4221's push button volume control.