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Altec Lansing Octane 7
Prasad Naik, Sep 09, 2010 1245 hrs ISTValue for money speakers
Interesting design, powerful bass, bright highs, well-priced
Bass is boomy and overpowering, muffled mids, no headphone jack, speakers cannot be wall mounted, no wired or wireless remote controller, subwoofer is not protected
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The Altec Lansing VS4621 or Octane 7 is a pair of 2.1 speaker system. The satellites have a very interesting design and look as though two flashlights are kept upside down. Look below the speakers and you will see a downfiring 3-inch mid-range driver. The speakers are raised above the surface so that the sound from the mid-range drivers disperses after reflecting off the surface. Above it you will see two one-inch tweeters on every satellite speaker behind a metal grille. On the right speaker you can also find the volume, treble and bass controls, as well as an aux input. However, there is no headphone-out on the Octane 7. 
Due to the downfiring nature of the mid-range drivers, the satellite speakers must be kept on a flat surface, such as a table, and they cannot be wall mounted. This may be a problem for those who are a bit short on desk space.
The subwoofer has a rectangular design and although it isn't exactly very big, it isn't very compact either. It has a side firing 6.5-inch driver and a bass reflex port on the same side. One complaint I had with the subwoofer design is that the driver was exposed and just waiting to be kicked, especially if you keep the unit under your desk. Some kind of protection for the driver would have been nice. 
Setting up the speakers was very easy. You just have to connect three cables at the back of the subwoofer; one for the satellites, one for the audio in and one for the power. Unfortunately, the Octane 7 does not come with a remote controller, wireless or wired. This means every time you have to control the volume you will have to stretch to reach the volume control on the satellite speakers.
For testing the speakers I connected them to our Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 audio card. I used foobar2000 to play the audio files, which were a mix of compressed and uncompressed music, and VLC Player for the video files.
I began by setting the bass and treble on the respective dials on the speakers at the middle position. Right off the bat I was greeted to a sound that was terribly boomy with the subwoofer drowning out everything else and with a muted top-end. After playing around with the two dials, I realized that the bass has to be set around the 30% mark and the treble around 70% for the system to sound decent.
After adjusting the level, the bass was more under control. The subwoofer on the Octane 7 is quite powerful and if not kept under control can overpower the rest of the audio. In fact if you are in a small room it is highly advisable that you drop the bass level all the way to zero. Even then the bass level is pretty good on the Octane 7. If you increase the bass level beyond the 50% mark on the dial though, you will be stressing the subwoofer, which will not only be boomy but also start distorting very early. 
The mid-range on the Octane 7 is the weakest part about the sound. Due to the downfiring design of the mid-range driver the audio gets considerably muffled. Mid-range drivers, like tweeters should ideally be directed towards the listener. In case of the Octane 7 though, the downfiring design robs the mid-range some of its force. Voices don't sound very prominent and the entire mid-range in general seems kind of lost in the bass and the treble, particularly the lower mid-range.
The treble on the Octane 7 is pretty good, but you would need to crank up the dial almost all the way up to get sufficient clarity. Once there the treble is nice and crisp and combined with the punchy bass gives result to a very "exciting" sound signature that fans of Trans, Hip-Hop and Dance music will love. Others, not so much.
The soundstaging of the speakers is pretty decent, although once again due to the downfiring nature of the mid-range drivers it suffers a bit. Performance during movies and gaming was fine, the powerful subwoofer definitely provides ample punch to explosions and gunfire. The muffled mid-range did not help much with the dialogues though.
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